We are thrilled to announce the latest updates to our Pieces plugins and extensions for JetBrains, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and Sublime Text.

These enhancements are designed to give you more control over when PiecesOS launches, improve CodeLens support, and introduce new ways to interact with Pieces Copilot. 

In addition to new features and enhancements to the Pieces Copilot experience, we’ve also introduced several optimizations, adjustments and bug fixes throughout these four IDEs, with the goal to make your coding experience smoother, more efficient, and better tailored to your workflow. 

JetBrains Plugin (v9.1.2)

Feature Updates

• On-Demand Launch of PiecesOS: The extension will no longer automatically launch PiecesOS when you start your IDE, so you’ll have more control over your system resources. Instead, if you use a feature that requires PiecesOS and it’s not running, you’ll be prompted to launch it.

• Improved CodeLens Functionality: We’ve added features to the existing CodeLens functionality that allows you to add comments to functions and methods quickly, enhancing code readability and documentation.

• Ask Copilot Shortcut: We’ve added a keyboard shortcut to the “Ask Copilot” action, allowing you to access Pieces Copilot faster without interrupting your workflow. You can activate this shortcut using ⌘+⌥+A (macOS) or Ctrl+Alt+A (Windows/Linux). 

Bug Fixes

• Stable Copilot Invocation: Fixed an issue where the IDE needed to wait for Copilot to load before invoking “Ask Copilot” features.

• Snippet Management Fixes: Reclassifying and deleting snippets now works correctly, improving your ability to organize your saved code.

• Improved Onboarding Experience: Resolved a container height issue in the last step of the onboarding process for a smoother setup experience.

Visual Studio Extension (v2.1.1)

Feature Updates

• User Preference Options: We’ve added settings that allow you to customize when PiecesOS launches:

• On Startup: Choose whether PiecesOS should launch automatically when you start Visual Studio.

• On Interaction with Extension: Decide if PiecesOS should launch automatically, prompt you, or never launch when you interact with the extension.

• User WebSocket Integration: With this update, the Visual Studio plugin will now react to changes on the user from other Pieces products & plugins. If you sign in via another plugin, this will now automatically be reflected in Visual Studio.

Bug Fixes 

• Git Enrichment Stability: Fixed a potential issue during Git enrichment of snippets when not logged in. This feature allows saved snippets to be enriched with related authors and repositories in the event that an appropriate .git file is located. 

Visual Studio Code Extension (v1.18.2)

Feature Updates

• On-Demand Launch of PiecesOS: The extension will no longer launch PiecesOS automatically on startup. Instead, if you interact with a feature that requires PiecesOS and it’s not running, you’ll be prompted to launch it.

• Simplified Error Notifications: You’ll no longer see error notifications if PiecesOS isn’t running when you start Visual Studio Code.

• Ask Copilot About Your Workspace: Added a command to the command palette that allows you to ask Pieces Copilot about your entire codebase, providing insights and assistance at the project level.

• CodeLens Support for Classes: We’ve expanded CodeLens support to include classes, enabling quick access to Pieces features directly from class definitions.

• First-Time User Notifications: When you insert a snippet for the first time, a notification will explain search actions and snippet drag-and-drop features, helping you get the most out of the extension.

• Seamless Snippet Display Settings: Changing the snippet display setting will now update snippet list titles without needing to reload Visual Studio Code.

• Snippet Preview Updates: If the title of a snippet changes while its preview is open, the preview will automatically update to reflect the new title.

• User WebSocket Integration: We’ve integrated a user WebSocket across all extensions to keep your login information in sync while using multiple Pieces products, so you only need to log in once.

Bug Fixes

• Copilot Input Focus: Fixed an issue where focusing on the Copilot input prevented proper focus of the editor so transitions from interacting with the editor and the Copilot are smoother.

• Folder Context in Copilot: When asking Copilot about a folder from the explorer, the folder itself is now correctly used as context instead of just the files within it.

• Annotation Creation: Prevents the creation of empty annotations if you leave the field blank during annotation creation.

• CodeLens Behavior in Java: Adjusted CodeLenses in Java to be less intrusive.

• Custom URL Validation: Added validation to the custom URL setting to prevent entering a pieces.cloud domain.

• Settings Persistence: Fixed an issue where the “Same Conversation for CodeLens in Same File” setting wasn’t working properly.

Pieces for Sublime Text Plugin (v1.4.0)

Feature Updates

• Fuzzy Search for Easier Snippet Discovery: Quickly locate saved snippets with the new fuzzy search functionality, making it easier than ever to retrieve code snippets based on partial matches or keywords.

• Multi-Selection Support in Copilot: You can now run different Copilot commands within the pop-up window in Sublime Text without needing to close the side view where the generative AI conversations appear. Additionally, closing the side view now closes the entire window instead of leaving an unpopulated window.

• “Snippets All” Command: Provides an organized way to import multiple snippets directly into Pieces, accessible via the Pieces: Import Sublime Snippet command.

• Progress Bar for Copilot Actions: We’ve added a progress bar to Copilot, giving you real-time feedback on the status of Copilot actions while they’re processing.

• Enhanced Shareable Links with Error Handling: Share code snippets more reliably with improved shareable links functionality, now with built-in error handling to manage potential issues during sharing.

Bug Fixes 

• Optimized Startup Logic: The startup logic has been refined to create a 2.4x performance boost so that the plugin loads quickly and operates efficiently from the moment you open Sublime Text.

• Copilot Relevance & Selection Fixes: We’ve resolved issues affecting Copilot’s ability to provide relevant suggestions and fixed bugs related to selecting appropriate code snippets.

User Support

If you need help, check out our Github repo where you can create issues to get assistance from us and other users, as well as join in on discussions to request features, show off something you’ve done lately with Pieces, and generally engage with us and the rest of the Pieces community.

As always, you can reach out to us for individual assistance by filling out this quick form. Don’t forget to check out our extensive documentation as well!

Join our Discord Server 🎉

Do you love Pieces? Stop sending us carrier pigeons 🐦 and join our Discord Server to chat with our team, other power users, get support, and more.

Pieces ❤️ Open Source

Our team has been hard at work improving the developer experience around building with Pieces SDKs. 

We’ve created copilot wrappers around the Python and TypeScript Pieces SDKs as well as the C# .NET framework to simplify the interaction with your applications by providing a more user-friendly interface to the underlying PiecesOS Client SDKs. Now it’s a whole lot easier to implement a conversational copilot into your app.

Check out our GitHub to learn more about our Open Source initiatives and how you can start contributing today!