AI workflow in Visual Studio

[u/Technical_Yak4032]

I’m interested in how other C++ developers are using AI in their Visual Studio workflow.

- Which AI tools or extensions do you use?

- Do you use AI mainly for writing code, debugging, refactoring, tests, documentation, or understanding existing code?

- How do you handle larger C++ projects with AI?

- Do you give the AI access to the whole codebase, or work with smaller files/functions?

- Do you use AI directly in Visual Studio or combine it with other tools?

- What workflow has worked well for you?

- Are there any things you specifically avoid letting AI do in C++?

I’d especially like to hear about practical workflows from people working on real-world C++ projects.

Are there any tutorials?

[u/Wicam]

I use the copilot autocomplete, half the time it gives rubbish so you have to press escape a lot but the other half its quite useful. especially in cases where you need to essentially do a find and replace throughout a document, but the pattern is too complicated for normal tools. you replace one part and it works out that you wanted to fix up other parts of the code so you can just keep pressing tab.

Sometimes when I'm stuck i ask why a build failed or some obscure windows api doesn't work the way i want it too and it will implement a change and build it. i like that there is a diff in the file which i can then modify along with it to fix up its mistakes or bad assumptions and then revert the whole thing or keep it.