If VS Code is my cockpit, AI extensions are the autopilot. I still fly the planeābut now I focus on the horizon, not the switches.
In 2025, VS Code isnāt just an editor anymore. With AI-powered extensions, it has become a thinking partner that reviews, suggests, tests, and sometimes even explains my own code better than I do.
Here are 10 extensions that actually changed how I work (and most devs I meet havenāt even tried half of them).
š§ 1. Sourcery ā My Refactoring Sidekick
⨠Cleans messy functions, removes dead code, and suggests smarter refactors in real-time.
š Think of it as a ālinting + code janitorā on steroids.
š¤ 2. Sixth AI ā All-in-One AI Engineer
Chat, debug, and generate codeāall inside VS Code.
The best part? It remembers context across files, so youāre not copy-pasting prompts like in ChatGPT.
ā” 3. Vortex ā AI Code Editor on Demand
You highlight code ā Vortex rewrites, explains, or tests it instantly.
Perfect for āugh, I donāt want to write boilerplateā moments.
š§Ŗ 4. Qodo Gen ā Test Generation Beast
Unit tests are boring. Qodo Gen makes them less painful by generating meaningful test cases.
š„ļø 5. VS Code Commander ā Talk to Your Editor
Ever tried chatting with your editor?
With this, I literally type: āSet tab size to 4 and enable autosaveā ā Boom, settings updated.
š¤ 6. GitHub Copilot ā The OG Co-Pilot
Yes, everyone knows it. But hereās my honest take:
Copilot isnāt magic, itās like a pair-programmer internāsometimes brilliant, sometimes wrong, but always faster than doing it alone.
āļø 7. Tabnine ā The Privacy-Focused Alternative
Copilotās cousin that runs models locally for privacy-conscious teams.
Great for companies who canāt ship their code snippets to the cloud.
šŖ 8. Cursor ā The AI-Powered Editor
Not just an extension, but a VS Code fork built around AI.
Feels like editing with ChatGPT inside the editor.
āļø 9. Bito ā Knowledge at Your Fingertips
Explains codebases, APIs, and libraries in plain English.
I used it to understand a spaghetti legacy repoāit literally saved my weekend.
š§© 10. Keploy ā AI for Testing APIs
Mocks + tests APIs automatically.
If you build backends, this saves you from writing 100s of repetitive integration tests.
š” How My Workflow Changed
Before AI extensions:
- 30% time = coding
- 70% time = debugging, writing tests, cleaning code
After AI extensions:
- 60% time = coding & designing features
- 30% = collaboration & review
- 10% = repetitive cleanup (which AI now handles) I didnāt just get faster. I started focusing on problems, not boilerplate.
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