CXAS Agent Studio for VS Code¶

The CXAS Agent Studio extension wraps the cxas CLI in a native VS Code experience. Everything you'd otherwise do from a terminal (pull, push, lint, run evals, chat with a deployed app) is a Command Palette entry or a tree-view click. Authoring is faster too: instruction files get syntax highlighting, hover hints, Cmd+click navigation between {@TOOL: ...} references, and inline lint as you type.

This section walks through installing the extension, building a complete demo agent end to end, and the day-to-day editor features you'll use after that.

What you get¶

Project tree: A dedicated CXAS sidebar in the activity bar that lists every app, agent, tool, callback, variable, and eval in your workspace. Right-click context menus scaffold new resources without leaving the tree.
Command Palette integration: Every cxas command is mirrored under the CXAS: prefix in the palette: Push App, Pull App, Lint App, Run Evaluation, Open Live Chat, Branch App, and more.
Inline lint: The same rules as cxas lint run as you type, surfaced as squiggles in the editor and entries in the Problems panel. A keybinding (Cmd+Shift+L / Ctrl+Shift+L) reruns the full project lint on demand.
Cmd+click navigation: Click a {@TOOL: name} reference in instruction.txt to jump to the tool's python_code.py. The same works for {variable} references and sub-agent links inside agent JSON.
Live chat: A built-in webview that talks to your deployed CES app. Useful for sanity-checking a push without switching to the GCP console.
Eval runner: Run a single tool test, callback test, or golden inline; or run the full suite and view an aggregated report panel.
Wizards: Two onboarding flows: scaffold a project from scratch, or import an existing app from CES into a fresh local workspace.

Empty project welcome¶

Open a workspace that doesn't have a CXAS project yet and the CXAS sidebar greets you with three buttons:

Empty project welcome screen with three buttons: Create New Agent, Import Existing Agent, Initialize Project

The rest of this section is organized around those three entry points:

Initialize Project is covered by Quickstart, which walks you through building a complete demo agent (bluebird-greeter) from an empty folder.
Import Existing Agent is covered by Importing from CES, the canonical way to start working on an app that already lives on the platform.
Create New Agent opens an AI-assisted wizard that delegates scaffolding to a separate skill. It isn't covered here; the manual flow in Quickstart maps cleanly to the same outcome.

Where to go next¶

Installation: Install the .vsix, get the cxas CLI on your PATH, and skim the prerequisites.
Quickstart: Build the bluebird-greeter demo end to end: app, agent, tool, callback, lint, push, live chat, evals.
Authoring features: The editor and tree features you'll use every day after the demo: syntax highlighting, hover, Cmd+click navigation, scaffolding context menus, and snippets.
Evaluations: Tool tests, callback tests, goldens, and simulations: where they live, how the plugin runs them, and how to read the report panel.
Importing from CES: The four-step Import Existing Agent flow for pulling a deployed app into a fresh workspace.
Settings & troubleshooting: Reference for every cxas.* setting plus fixes for the issues you're most likely to hit.