Repowise for VS Code

The Repowise extension puts your repository's structure, history, and health inside the editor, and registers the Repowise MCP server with VS Code so the same index serves both you and your AI coding agent. It is a thin client over the local repowise CLI and server: everything is computed on your machine and nothing about your code leaves it through the extension.

Install

1. Install the CLI: pip install repowise (or uv tool install repowise).
2. Install the extension from the Marketplace (search Repowise, publisher repowise-dev) or from Open VSX for VS Code forks.
3. Open a repository and run Repowise: Set Up This Repository to build the index, or follow the Get Started with Repowise walkthrough.

The extension activates only in trusted workspaces and does no work at startup beyond registering its commands. It discovers a running server automatically, or offers to start one when you first need data.

Know before you push

Analyze Change Risk (Source Control title bar or command palette) scores your uncommitted work against its base branch and opens a panel with the whole story of the change:

• A summary strip up top: how many files are affected downstream, how many usual companion files you have not touched, and how many changed files have no associated test. Each chip jumps to its section.
• Riskiest files in this change: your changed files ranked by how risky history and structure say they are, so you review in the right order. Files that change unusually often are marked as hotspots.
• Downstream of your changes: the files that depend on what you edited.
• Usually changes together: companion files your history says belong to this change but are untouched. Advisory, not a rule.
• Changed without a test, and suggested reviewers with one-click copy for the PR description.

While you edit, a quiet co-change hint can appear in the status bar when the files you are touching have a strong history of changing together with a file you have not opened. It is dismissible per change set, never a popup, and tunable or off in settings (repowise.changeIntel.*). Plenty of edits legitimately touch only part of a cluster, so it informs without nagging.

Editor-native signals

• Gutter heat: a severity-tiered strip next to lines with findings in the visible editor.
• File health in the status bar: defect, maintainability, and performance scores for the active file; click to open the health dashboard focused on it.
• File explorer badges on the worst-health files (threshold configurable).
• Refactoring CodeLens above symbols with a detected plan, including Copy plan for agent (the same payload the web Refactoring tab produces).
• Hovers: line 1 of a file shows its health scores, primary owner, and governing decisions. Hovering a symbol shows what kind of symbol it is, how many callers and callees it has, who owns the file, and the decisions that govern it. Fetched only when you hover, then cached (repowise.hover.symbolDetail).
• Diagnostics (off by default): opt in to publish high-severity findings to the Problems panel (repowise.diagnostics.enabled). The quieter surfaces above carry the full detail either way.

Gutter heat + status-bar score

Refactoring plan as a CodeLens, copy-for-agent

Tree views

A single Repowise activity-bar container with a Home overview, a Findings tree (health, hotspots, ownership, dead code), and a Refactoring tree. All lazy: data is fetched on first expand and refreshed only when the index moves.

Dashboards

Editor-tab webviews rendered from the same shared visualization library the web app uses (no duplicated components): health overview, architecture map, knowledge graph (with node search, path finder, and community detail), refactoring plans, decision timeline, and a docs browser. A theme switcher in the Home view keeps them matched to your editor or pinned light or dark.

Health overview

Knowledge graph

Docs browser

MCP for your AI agent

One install registers the Repowise MCP server with VS Code, so agent-mode assistants query the index through purpose-built tools instead of guessing from open files. For editors that read a config file, run Repowise: Configure MCP for this Workspace to write .vscode/mcp.json.

Settings

The fastest way to tune everything is Repowise: Open Settings, a panel covering every surface with plain-language descriptions. The full list:

Setting	Default	Purpose
repowise.server.autoStart	ask	Start the local server automatically, ask first, or never
repowise.server.port	discover	Override the server port instead of automatic discovery
repowise.cliPath	PATH	Absolute path to the repowise executable
repowise.diagnostics.enabled	false	Publish health findings to the Problems panel
repowise.diagnostics.minSeverity	high	Lowest severity surfaced in the Problems panel
repowise.diagnostics.dimensions	all	Health dimensions included in the Problems panel
repowise.gutterHeat.enabled	true	Shade the gutter next to findings
repowise.fileDecorations.enabled	true	Badge the worst-health files in the explorer
repowise.fileDecorations.maxScore	4	Health score at or below which a file is badged
repowise.codeLens.enabled	true	Show refactoring plan lenses
repowise.hover.enabled	true	Show health context on hover
repowise.hover.symbolDetail	true	Callers, ownership, and decisions on symbol hover
repowise.risk.baseBranch	default branch	Base branch change risk is scored against
repowise.changeIntel.cochangeNudge	true	Show the quiet "usually change together" status-bar hint
repowise.changeIntel.cochangeMinScore	4	Minimum historical co-change count before a related file is surfaced

Privacy

The extension talks only to the local Repowise CLI and server on your machine and reads the index under .repowise/. It sends no telemetry of its own. The CLI's own telemetry opt-out is respected because the extension itself sends nothing.

The extension source lives in packages/vscode.