How to Automate Code Completion in Visual Studio Code with GPT

As a developer, efficiently writing code is crucial for productivity. Visual Studio Code (VS Code), combined with the Cloving CLI and GPT models, offers a powerful way to automate code completion and enhance the overall development experience. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to use the Cloving CLI to integrate GPT models into your VS Code workflow, allowing you to generate code snippets, complete intricate functions, and get code suggestions effortlessly.

Setting Up Cloving CLI

Step 1: Installation

Ensure Cloving CLI is installed globally in your development environment:

npm install -g cloving@latest

Step 2: Configuration

Configure Cloving with your API key and preferred GPT model to utilize its AI capabilities:

cloving config

Follow the interactive prompts to enter your API key and select your AI model, ensuring a tailored experience to suit your coding needs.

Integrating Cloving CLI with VS Code

Step 3: Initialize Your Project

To allow Cloving to understand the context of your project integrated with your VS Code setup, initialize it in your project directory:

cloving init

This command creates a .cloving.json file containing project-specific metadata.

Step 4: Code Completion Automation

With Cloving CLI, you can set up tasks to generate code completion within VS Code:

Example 1: Completing a React Component Function

Suppose you’re working on a file, Todo.js, and need to autocomplete a function to add a todo item in your list:

// Todo.js
function addTodo(item) {
  // Need to complete the function
}

To generate code:

cloving generate code --prompt "Complete 'addTodo' function to append an item to a list" --files Todo.js

As a result, Cloving outputs a potential implementation:

function addTodo(item) {
  const todoList = document.getElementById('todo-list')
  const newTodo = document.createElement('li')
  newTodo.textContent = item
  todoList.appendChild(newTodo)
}

You can review and adjust the implementation as needed before applying it to your codebase.

Example 2: Autocompleting Functionality in Express.js

Assume you have a partial code for setting up an Express.js server and need to finalize the GET route:

// server.js
const express = require('express')
const app = express()

app.get('/todos', (req, res) => {
  // Complete this route
})

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server running on port 3000')
})

Invoke Cloving for auto-completion:

cloving generate code --prompt "Complete the '/todos' route to return a list of todos" --files server.js

This yields:

app.get('/todos', (req, res) => {
  const todos = [
    { id: 1, task: 'Learn Cloving CLI' },
    { id: 2, task: 'Integrate GPT in workflow' }
  ]
  res.json(todos)
})

Integrating Generated Code

Saving Changes

If the generated code meets your expectations, save it directly to maintain your workflow efficiency:

cloving generate code --prompt "Complete the function" --files server.js --save

This command saves the generated code automatically without further confirmation prompts.

Using Interactive Chat for Ongoing Assistance

For more intricate operations, you can start a Cloving chat session to interactively query and refine your code:

cloving chat -f server.js

In the chat, you can ask for explanations, request code revisions, or commit code snippets directly from VS Code.

Enhancing Productivity with Unit Tests

Automate generating unit tests to ensure code quality with Cloving:

cloving generate unit-tests -f server.js

This will generate tests for the routes and functions defined in server.js, promoting robust software practices.

Conclusion

Automating code completion in Visual Studio Code using Cloving CLI and GPT models can significantly boost your productivity by providing relevant code suggestions and completing complex coding tasks. By effectively integrating these tools into your VS Code workflow, you can save time, reduce errors, and focus on writing efficient and high-quality code. Embrace this synergy of AI and developer tools to enhance your programming capabilities and keep up with the evolving software development landscape.