JetBrains AI Assistant Usage

GitHub Copilot Chat currently only supports VSC development version, but my main development tool is JB WebStorm, so this is quite frustrating. However, recently JB’s official AI Assistant released an EAP version, tried it out and it solved the pain point. Documenting the usage experience here.

Description

1. Currently AI Assistant is subscription-based paid usage, $10/month, same price as GitHub Copilot.

2. AI Assistant backend service is OpenAI, specifically models GPT3.5/4

   Detailed introduction click here

Requirements

1. Just install and enable the AI Assistant plugin. Recommended to use JetBrains Toolbox for IDE management and installation.

   Recommended to install 2024.1 version and above, because AI prompt customization has this version restriction.

2. AI Assistant requires proxy, proxy rules as follows:

   Using Surge proxy rules as example:

   DOMAIN,api.app.prod.grazie.aws.intellij.net,OpenAI🤖
   

   • Plugin uses IDE proxy settings

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Usage

AI Assistant currently has simple functionality, but to some extent it has solved my pain points:

1. Commit messages can be AI-generated, AI prompts can be customized, making it convenient to generate semver-style commit messages. Here’s my prompt:

   Avoid overly verbose descriptions or unnecessary details.
   Start with a short sentence, use imperative mood, length not exceeding 50 characters. Format follows semver specification, such as feat, fix, docs, etc.
   Then leave a blank line, continue with more detailed explanation. If it's really simple, just the first line is fine.
   First part only write one sentence, detailed explanation write at most two or three sentences.
   
   For example
   """
   feat: Add 2FA support
   
   Support multiple domestic SMS providers
   
   """
   
   answer in chinese.
   

2. Quickly invoke AI for chat via actions/menus

3. Currently using both GitHub Copilot and AI Assistant simultaneously, AI Assistant mostly serves as GitHub Copilot Chat. It doesn’t have direct code inference capabilities, so they complement each other without conflict.

Disadvantages

1. AI commit custom prompts don’t sync across projects, requiring setup for each project.
2. AI Chat cannot add files.
3. AI doesn’t have code completion, currently cannot fully replace Copilot Chat.

Final Thoughts

Looking forward to AI Assistant continuing to iterate and evolve. JB IDE having AI service is a powerful combination - excellent!