Getting PiCode

Getting PiCode

Two ways in, for two different people.

1. To use it: download a release

Go to Releases and take the file for your platform:

File	What it is
PiCode-<ver>-win-x64.zip	Windows portable — unzip anywhere, run PiCode.exe
PiCode-<ver>-win-x64-setup.exe	Windows installer (Inno Setup)
PiCode-<ver>-linux-x64.tar.gz	Linux portable
PiCode-<ver>-linux-x64.deb / .rpm	Linux installers
SHA256SUMS.txt	checksums of all of the above

Verify the checksum before first run. Windows binaries are currently unsigned, so SmartScreen will warn once (More info → Run anyway). That is expected — see CI and Releases.

Portable mode: on first run PiCode creates a data/ folder next to the executable — user data, extensions, sessions, cache, the Pi profile. Nothing is written to your %APPDATA% or ~/.pi. Deleting data/ gives you a clean PiCode; copying it moves your whole PiCode to another machine.

No profile travels inside the archive itself: fresh ZIP, fresh start. Continue with First Run and the Wizard.

2. To work on it: a fresh clone is not runnable yet

The repository root doubles as the distribution root, but the ~1 GB editor payload is not in git and cannot be (GitHub rejects files over 100 MB; the executable alone is 212 MB). What is versioned is the layer that turns a stock tree into PiCode: patches, pins, product delta, build scripts, CI.

You then pick one of the two build paths:

• The source build — clone VS Code at the pinned commit, apply the patch sets, compile. This is the way to change editor behaviour and the way releases are produced. → Building PiCode
• The ZIP path — extract a stock VSCodium archive at the repo root and run distribution/apply-picode.ps1 to stamp the PiCode layer onto it. Fast, no toolchain, but it cannot touch compiled core. → Distribution and Licensing

If you plan to contribute, read CONTRIBUTING.md first — it names the rules that have burned the project before.

Troubleshooting the first run

Symptom	Meaning
SmartScreen warning (Windows)	the binary is unsigned; verify checksum, run anyway
No update check ever happens	by design — the in-product updater is disabled so a patched tree cannot be silently replaced
Language model unavailable in chat	no provider connected yet — connect one in the wizard or Pi Inside
A theme cannot install	it exists only on the Microsoft Marketplace; this editor installs from Open VSX

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Next: First Run and the Wizard