PRD: [VSC] Chats are easy to read

[taylorsperry]

Related Docs:

• PRD: Cody Chat and Commands

Description:

As a user, I want my conversations with Cody to be easy to read so that I can stay in flow.

ChatGPT does this well: responses are readable and skimmable, with clear visual distinctions between prompt and response. Code blocks are also clearly distinguishable from the response's surrounding text. Responses are loaded in a "stream," which makes them feel lightning fast, but not jumpy; as a user, it feels less like you're "waiting" for ChatGPT to respond.

As a user, I want it to be clear when Cody is "thinking" (ie, clear loading state) and be able to pause Cody from generating a response if I can tell Cody's off on the wrong track, or I realize I want to submit a different prompt.

Objectives:

Make Cody's responses to chat prompts easy to read so that users can quickly identify the parts of the response that are most relevant to their goal and stay in flow. When Cody's responses are difficult to read or a user has to wait for a response that they no longer want, it slows them down.

Acceptance Criteria:

Acceptance Criteria:

Beta Give feedback

1. Chat responses are readable and skimmable (like ChatGPT)
2. Chat responses feel fast, but not jumpy
3. Loading states are clear
4. Users can stop Cody from generating a response

Design Tasks:

Design Tasks

Beta Give feedback

No tasks being tracked yet.

Engineering Tasks:

Engineering Tasks

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1. refactor: update submit and stop buttons #1782
   +0
2. fix: handle keyboard shortcuts with Ctrl key #1690
   chat/commands +1

After GA Tasks:

After GA

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No tasks being tracked yet.

[kalanchan]

I think this is done, will groom this with Beyang after

[taylorsperry]

When testing in the latest release, chat felt very slick to me. @toolmantim I'd love your input on whether or not you think there's anything else we need to call this requirement ("Chats are easy to read") complete.

[taylorsperry]

A few clean-up items that I'd like to ship before GA:

1. I don't need to see the "Hello! I'm Cody" preamble every time I open a new chat. I think it should only show for the first chat in a session, or maybe even just the first chat after a fresh install.

2. I also don't need the preamble when I run a command and Cody answers in a chat window.

3. It looks like my chats have different labels if I run them from a Code Action vs the side panel or the right-click drop down. This feels messy.

4. There are lingering traces of slash commands in the chat panel, command palette, and chat list.

[abeatrix]

There are lingering traces of slash commands in the chat panel, command palette, and chat list.

@taylorsperry as discussed with Tim on slack, we will be keeping the slash commands at GA. Can revisit after that if needed

I don't need to see the "Hello! I'm Cody" preamble every time I open a new chat.

IMO this type of "Introduction" is quite standard for a chat bot / assistant , but I saw that the starting window is also shown as empty in @toolmantim 's design, does it mean all chat should start with an empty window with no preamble, for both new and existing users?

[taylorsperry]

@abeatrix thank you! I agree with Tim's suspicion in Slack that removing slash commands altogether feels extreme. @toolmantim do you think we should have the ghost text in the chat input say "Message (type @ to attach files or \ to run a command" since users will still be able to run slash commands?

@toolmantim what do you think about my feedback that, in the chat list, it feels a little messy that some chats generated by commands have a title like "/explain [code block]" and others say "Explain the following errors"? Should those be standardized?

Also, @toolmantim, what do you think about having the "Hello! I'm Cody" preamble at the top of every new chat, even when it's triggered by a command? At most, I think users should only see the preamble at the start of a new VS Code session.

[taylorsperry]

Created a separate issue regarding the welcome message #2461