The Problem: Cloud AI is Great, but Privacy is Greater
We all love GitHub Copilot, but let's be honest: in an enterprise environment, Privacy isn't just a buzzword—it's a legal requirement. Sending proprietary codebases to cloud servers is often a strict "no-go" for many companies.
I realized that we needed a bridge between the power of LLMs and the security of a local environment. That’s why I built Local LLM Plugin Modern for Visual Studio 2022.
What is it?
It's a powerful, modern, and highly optimized AI assistant extension. It seamlessly integrates local LLMs via Ollama and cloud-based models like OpenAI, Anthropic (Claude), and Google Gemini directly into your coding environment.
Whether you want to run DeepSeek or Llama 3 entirely offline or leverage GPT-4o for heavy reasoning, this extension offers a native-feeling dark theme experience that boosts your productivity without leaving your IDE.
Instead of just "making it work," I rebuilt this extension to meet enterprise standards:
- Clean Architecture & MVVM: Separated UI, Core logic, and Infrastructure for maximum maintainability.
- Dependency Injection: Utilizing
Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to handle provider factories gracefully.
- Lightning Fast Text Injection: Utilizes Visual Studio's native
UndoContext. This ensures massive code blocks are applied instantly without freezing the editor and allows for a single-step Undo (Ctrl+Z).
- Memory Efficiency: Optimized handling of large text blocks using
StringBuilder and StringReader to prevent memory leaks.
Features that Boost DX (Developer Experience)
- Multi-Provider AI Support: Switch seamlessly between Ollama, OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini.
- Partial Selection Injection: Select a specific part of the AI's response to inject only that portion into your code, ignoring unnecessary conversational filler.
- Smart Defaults: Automatically configures API URLs and model names based on the selected provider.
- Advanced Text Manipulation Tools: Includes built-in tools to remove duplicates, modify and replicate variables, or batch-erase specific words.
- Native Dark Theme: A sleek interface that perfectly matches Visual Studio 2022's native dark mode.
Keyboard Shortcuts (Power User Friendly)
The UI is entirely optimized for keyboard-only navigation:
Ctrl + 1: Open the AI Assistant (Global VS Shortcut).Enter: Send your prompt to the AI.Shift + Enter: Apply the response directly to your editor and close the window.Esc: Cancel and close the assistant.
How to Get It?
You don't even need a link. Just open your Visual Studio 2022, go to Extensions -> Manage Extensions, and search for:
"Local LLM Plugin Modern"
Open Source & Contributing
This project is fully open source under the MIT License. I believe the best tools are built by the community, for the community.
Check out the repo here: furkiak/visualStudioLocalLLMPlugin
I'd love to hear your thoughts! Are you moving towards local LLMs for coding, or is cloud AI still your go-to? Let's discuss in the comments!
visualstudio #csharp #ai #productivity #programming