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# DevChat

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👉 For an enhanced experience and UI, we welcome you to install [Visual Studio Code extension](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode) from [Visual Studio Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=merico.devchat)! Enjoy DevChat VSCode! 👏

<div align="center">

[![PRs Welcome](https://img.shields.io/badge/PRs-welcome-brightgreen.svg?style=flat-square)](http://makeapullrequest.com)
[![CircleCI](https://circleci.com/gh/devchat-ai/devchat/tree/main.svg?style=shield)](https://circleci.com/gh/devchat-ai/devchat/tree/main)
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[![PyPI version](https://badge.fury.io/py/devchat.svg)](https://badge.fury.io/py/devchat)
[![Discord Chat](https://img.shields.io/discord/1106908489114206309?logo=discord)](https://discord.gg/9t3yrbBUXD)

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<div align="left">
**The AI Coding Assistant Made Effective by Manual Control**

🛠️ No excessive automation, just right AI where it works.

The DevChat core library and CLI.
☕ Simple to use, without complicated prompt engineering.

👉 **For an enhanced experience and UI, we welcome you to install [Visual Studio Code extension](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode) from [Visual Studio Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=merico.devchat)! Enjoy DevChat VSCode!** 👏
🍻 Designed for extensibility.

***
</div>

## What is DevChat?

DevChat is the open-source solution to help you write prompts to generate code and documentation, going beyond simple code auto-completion.
It isn't limited to performing predefined operations on short code snippets.
DevChat is an open-source platform that empowers developers to more effectively integrate AI into code generation and documentation. DevChat aims to go beyond simple code auto-completion and limited operations on code snippets. DevChat offers a highly *practical* and *effective* way for developers to interact and collaborate with large language models (LLMs).

DevChat is the way developers interact and collaborate with AI.
## Why DevChat?

💬 Build the future with prompts, _not_ code.
While there are many AI coding tools available, we developed DevChat based on our practical insights from generating tens of thousands of lines of code. DevChat makes the following distinctive design choices:

## Why DevChat?
- **Precise manual control over the context embedded in a prompt**. Precise control over context is the key to effective AI use. We find that most other "intelligent" or "automatic" tools tend to over-guess what a user needs to put into a prompt. That typically introduces more noise than LLMs can effectively manage.
- **A simple, extensible prompt directory**. Bring your own prompts, and build a library of what works for you and your team. Easily integrate your own prompt templates into DevChat, avoiding significant engineering effort or a steep learning curve. You don't need a complex framework to make AI work for you. All it takes is a standard editor operating on your filesystem.

- Great output requires great input, to maximize the power of AI, DevChat assists you seamlessly to **provide the right context** to the AI.

Chat history, code, files, directory trees, `git diff --cached`, or the output of any command.

![20230523-220717-cut-merged-1684855581224](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode/assets/592493/16bc09e4-4185-4bcb-8d5a-2173b0bfc3ed)
## Feature Overview

![20230523-220717-00 00 28 206-00 00 44 950](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode/assets/592493/d5556310-bc7f-4abb-86a3-8e76e4aa720e)
### Context Building

- Once you have generated code with AI, DevChat **streamlines the actions** to properly integrate and ship.

View diffs, copy or insert, commit & sync, or export to documentation, wikis, and more.

![20230523-220717-00 00 46 728-00 01 00 120](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode/assets/592493/a2bab011-8e31-47a9-838f-36e43cd2e98c)
Great output requires great input. To maximize the power of AI, DevChat assists you seamlessly to **provide the right context** to the AI.

![20230523-220717-00 01 00 120-00 01 14 452](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode/assets/592493/31e90fd5-e797-4726-b5b2-5c4dce1c7551)
- For instance, to generate test cases for a function, you can add to the prompt the function along with an existing test case. The test case serves as a useful reference for DevChat, enabling it to understand how to write a valid test case specific to your environment, thus eliminating the need for you to specify every requirement in your prompt.

- To guide AI in your work, define **your own workflows** with DevChat.

![20230523-220717-00 01 14 614-00 01 41 680](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode/assets/592493/94502efd-781b-448d-b945-dffcc41d7af3)
![Add to context](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode/assets/592493/9b19c798-d06f-4373-8f8a-6a950c3a8ba5)

Explore more prompt templates, iterative calls to AI, and program operations.

- To ensure the experience fits your preferences, customize **your own experiences** with DevChat.

Open-source, no waiting for opaque feature schedules. Access GPT-4 today and more models in the future.

## What is Prompt-Centric Software Development (PCSD)?
- You can incorporate the output of any command, such as `tree ./src`, into a prompt with DevChat. For example, you can add the output of `git diff --cached` to DevChat, which can then generate a commit message for you.

- The traditional code-centric paradigm is evolving.
![Generate a commit message](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode/assets/592493/7bd34547-762c-4f97-b792-8d05a9eb1dcf)

- Write prompts to create code. Transform prompts into all the artifacts in software engineering.
- Program analysis can assist in building the necessary context. Suppose you want DevChat to explain some code to you. DevChat can perform better if it's aware of the dependent functions that the code is calling. In this scenario, you can select the target code with DevChat to explain and add "symbol definitions" to the context (by clicking the plus button). DevChat will then generate a prompt that explains the target code, taking into account the dependent functions.

<img width="600" alt="image" src="https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat/assets/592493/dd32e900-92fd-4fa4-8489-96ed17ab5e0e">
### Prompt Extension

<sub>(This image is licensed by devchat.ai under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.)</sub>

- We like to call it DevPromptOps

<img width="500" alt="image" src="https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat/assets/592493/e8e1215b-53b0-4473-ab00-0665d33f204a">

<sub>(This image is licensed by devchat.ai under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.)</sub>
DevChat utilizes a directory to manage predefined prompt templates. You can easily add your own or modify existing ones using a text editor.
By default, the directory is named `workflows` and located in the `.chat` folder at your home directory. You can run `ls ~/.chat/workflows` in a terminal to see what's inside.

The `workflows` directory typically contains three subdirectories, `sys`, `org`, and `usr`. The `sys` (system) directory is a clone of https://github.com/devchat-ai/workflows, which contains the default prompt templates. You can overwrite those system prompts. For instance, if you create `commit_message` in the `usr` directory and define your own `prompt.txt`, DevChat will use your version instead of the default in `sys` or `org`.

```
workflows
├── sys
│ └── commit_message
│ └── prompt.txt
├── org
│ └── commit_message
│ └── prompt.txt
└── usr
└── commit_message
└── prompt.txt
```

The `org` directory is useful for cleanly maintaining team-wise conventions or requirements. Your team can share a Git repository to store prompts in `org`, and every team member can locally sync `~/.chat/workflows/org` with the repository. The `org` prompts will overwrite those in `sys`, while an individual developer can then further customize them in `usr`.

***
You can incorporate a template in your prompt by typing a "command" with the corresponding name in the DevChat input. Type `/` followed by the command name, as shown below. The `/`-separated path to the prompt directory corresponds to a `.`-separated command name. For instance, if you want to embed the 'prompt.txt' file located in `path/to/dir` into your current prompt, you should type `/path.to.dir` into the DevChat input field, along with the other content of the prompt. Note that `sys`, `org`, or `usr` do not need to be included in a command name. DevChat will first look up the corresponding path under `usr`, then `org`, and finally `sys`.

<img width="386" alt="image" src="https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode/assets/592493/145d94eb-a3e8-42ca-bb88-a462b6070b2f">

## Quick Start

**For UI, install our [Visual Studio Code extension](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode) from [Visual Studio Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=merico.devchat).**
**For UI, install our [Visual Studio Code extension](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode) from [Visual Studio Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=merico.devchat). Read [Quick Start](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat-vscode#quick-start) for the VS Code extension.**

For CLI:
- Install Python 3.8+ and [pip](https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installation/).
- Install DevChat by running: `pip install devchat`.
- Make sure you are working in a Git or SVN repository, as DevChat only works within one.
- Set your [OpenAI API Key](https://platform.openai.com/account/api-keys) by running `export OPENAI_API_KEY="[sk-...]"` (or DevChat access key).
- To access help, use the commands: `devchat --help` and `devchat prompt --help`.
- To access help, use the command: `devchat --help` or `devchat prompt --help`.

## Community

- Join our [Discord](https://discord.gg/9t3yrbBUXD)!
- Participate in [discussions](https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat/discussions)!

## What is Prompt-Centric Software Development (PCSD)?

- The traditional code-centric paradigm is evolving. Stay ahead of the curve with DevChat.

- Write prompts to create code. Transform prompts into all the artifacts in software engineering.

<img width="600" alt="image" src="https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat/assets/592493/dd32e900-92fd-4fa4-8489-96ed17ab5e0e">

<sub>(This image is licensed by devchat.ai under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.)</sub>

- We like to call it DevPromptOps

<img width="500" alt="image" src="https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat/assets/592493/e8e1215b-53b0-4473-ab00-0665d33f204a">

<sub>(This image is licensed by devchat.ai under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.)</sub>

## Contributing

Issues and pull request are welcome: https://github.com/devchat-ai/devchat/issues

## Roadmap

- [x] Implement code diff application.
- [ ] Improve code diff application using code change instructions.
- [ ] Develop a framework for defining workflows.
- [x] Implement topic management.
- [ ] Enable interaction with external development tools.
- [ ] Introduce more selective workflows.

## Contact

hello@merico.dev
Email: hello@merico.dev

We are creators of [Apache DevLake](https://devlake.apache.org/).

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