File Explorer: Snippet Selection and Annotation

The /explorer command opens a VS Code-style file browser with a syntax-highlighted preview pane. In addition to browsing files, you can select a line range within a previewed file, annotate it with a natural-language instruction, and inject the annotated snippet plus surrounding file context into the chat - so the LLM knows exactly which code to change and how.

Workflow

1. Open the explorer with /explorer.
2. Navigate the tree (j/k or arrow keys) to a file and let the preview render.
3. Press s to enter select mode on the previewed file.
4. Move the line cursor with j/k. Press space (or v) to anchor the other end of the range. The selected lines are highlighted with a ▌ gutter; the cursor line shows a ▶ gutter.
5. Press a to open the annotation input. Type your instruction (e.g. "refactor this function to use early returns") and press enter to confirm.
6. Repeat steps 4–5 for additional disjoint ranges (in the same file or navigate to another file after exiting select mode with esc).
7. Press enter (submit) to inject all annotated snippets into the chat input. Review the formatted context and press enter again to send.

Keybindings

All keys are configurable via keybindings.yaml under the explorer namespace.

Action	Default	Description
select	s	Enter line-selection mode on the previewed file
toggle_select	space, v	Start or clear a line-range selection
annotate	a	Annotate the selected range with an instruction
submit	enter	Submit annotations and inject into chat
cancel	esc, q	Exit select mode (esc) or close explorer (q)

Injected Context Format

On submit, the explorer builds a structured prompt grouped by file:

• For files under 1 MiB, the full file is included in a fenced code block with line numbers, followed by per-selection instruction lines.
• For larger files, each snippet is included individually with a ±5-line context window and a ▶ marker on the annotated lines.

The prompt is placed in the chat input for review before sending, so you can edit or add context before the LLM sees it.

Multi-Snippet and Cross-File Support

You can annotate multiple disjoint ranges in a single file, and ranges across different files. Each annotation is stored independently as a (file, start_line, end_line, annotation) tuple. Navigate to another file by pressing esc to exit select mode, then use tree navigation and re-enter select mode with s.