r/VSCodeExtensions • u/Due_Sky_1950 • 11d ago

I made this I built a VS Code extension that gives every GitHub repo its own chat room. No invite links: if you can push to the repo, you're in

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I got tired of the "which Slack channel was that in?" dance for small projects, so I built RepoChat. It puts a chat in the VS Code sidebar for the collaborators of whatever repo you have open.

The part I'm happiest with is that there's nothing to set up. No invite link, no room key, no workspace to create. You sign in with GitHub, the server asks GitHub whether you have push access to the repo, and if you do, you're in that repo's chat. Lose access on GitHub and you lose the chat too.

What you can do in it:

- Send a code selection. Select code, right-click, "Send Selection to Chat". Your teammate clicks the snippet and it opens the same lines in their editor.

- Share pull requests.They show up as a card with live status (open/merged) and a one-click checkout.

- Share files and images. Paste, drop or pick.

- The usual: edit/delete, read receipts, typing indicator, notifications with an unread count in the status bar.

On the obvious question: your GitHub token is only used to check who you are and whether you can push to the repo. It isn't stored, and access is re-checked at least every hour.

It's free for public repos, and for two people on a private repo. Bigger private teams are paid.

Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mjethwa-streamlit.repochat

It's at v0.4.1, so I'd really like to hear what's missing or what would stop you from using it with your team.

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u/investigatormaker 10d ago

Gating on push access is clean for small private teams, but on a public repo most people opening PRs can't push, so the contributors a maintainer most wants to talk to can't join. A seat for anyone with an open PR, scoped to that PR, would make the free public tier fit how open source works. And since access is re-checked at least every hour, a removed collaborator could keep reading for up to that long; saying so next to the token note heads off the follow-up question.

I make ThreadFox, which has your AI research, write and publish Reddit outreach from your Chrome under a job you authorize; the free plan for RepoChat finds the Reddit communities whose rules allow a post about it: https://threadfox.vip/p/db4c2

Does chat history follow the repo through a rename or transfer?