Coding Lab
A full-screen code editor with an AI developer beside it. Open a folder, edit files, use the terminal, and ask the agent to explain, plan or change code. Every change is tracked and can be restored.
Coding Lab is where you and an AI developer work on code together. It looks like a desktop code editor: a file explorer, editor tabs and a terminal, with a chat panel on the right where an engineering agent reads your files, runs commands and makes changes.
Open it from the sidebar (Code Lab, in the Intelligence group) or from the Coding Lab tab on the right edge of the main screen. Press Esc or the close button to leave. If files are unsaved, you are asked first.
The layout
- Title row: the menus File, Edit, Selection, View, Go, Run, Terminal and Help, the title "SyntrofAI Coding Lab", and close. Open files appear as tabs underneath. An unsaved tab shows a pulsing dot.
- Explorer: the folder name, buttons for New File..., New Folder... and Refresh Explorer, back and forward arrows, and the file tree.
- Search and Local Changes: panels in the activity bar on the left. Local Changes shows a count badge.
- Terminal: the panel along the bottom.
- AI panel: on the right. Drag its edge to make it wider or narrower, and hide or show it with Ctrl + L.
- Status bar: the folder name, line and column, and the file's language.
The welcome screen (no file open) offers Open folder, Clone repo and New file, and lists Recent sessions for the folder.
Open a folder
- Choose File → Open Folder, or Open folder on the welcome screen.
- In Open Folder, type a Folder path and press Go, or browse using the Locations chips, the Recent list (your last eight folders), the subfolder buttons and Up.
- Press Open This Folder.
Your project folders appear under the Projects location. Each folder keeps its own chat, draft, agent, mode and model, and the terminal reopens there. Switching folders with unsaved tabs asks before discarding them.
Clone a repository
- Choose Clone Repo from the File menu or the welcome screen.
- Paste the Repository URL (it must start with
https://) and, optionally, a Destination Folder Name. - Confirm. The repository is cloned into a subfolder of the current folder and opened.
Git never asks for a password here, so a repository that needs a sign-in will not clone this way. A clone that runs longer than five minutes stops.
Edit files
- Click a file to open it in a tab. Type, then press Ctrl + S. When the dot on the tab disappears, the file is saved.
- New File and New Folder ask for a name and create it in the folder currently shown.
- Right-click a file or folder for Open, Rename, Delete, Copy Path and Copy Relative Path. Delete asks first, and deleting a folder deletes everything in it.
- Ctrl + B shows or hides the sidebar.
Editable files: .py .js .ts .jsx .tsx .mjs .cjs .html .css .json .md .txt .yaml .yml .toml .xml .sql .sh .bat .vue .svelte .go .rs .java .c .cpp .h .hpp .cs .php .rb .swift .glsl .wgsl .vert .frag. Other types show "File type not supported".
The explorer and search hide names that start with a dot, and dependency, build, cache and log folders. Credential and system files, such as .env, keys and .git, cannot be opened: "Coding Lab cannot open or modify protected system or credential data."
Search the folder
Open Search and type at least two characters in Search this folder. The chips Keywords (file contents), Files and Folders are all on by default. Matching ignores case. Up to 100 results show, grouped by kind. Click one to open the file at that line, or to go to the folder.
Local Changes: checkpoints you can restore
Local Changes shows what changed in the open folder and keeps named checkpoints of it. It works on its own, separately from Git.
- Groups: UNSAVED EDITOR FILES, ON DISK, RETAINED RECOVERY and CHECKPOINT HISTORY. Each row shows a badge (U, A, M, D or R) and lines added and removed.
- See a change: click a row to open a read-only, colored diff.
- Create Checkpoint: give it a name (for example "Before refactoring authentication") to save the current state of the folder without touching its Git repository.
- Restore: on a row in CHECKPOINT HISTORY, preview how many files change, confirm that terminals and agents writing to the folder are stopped, then press Restore Files. A safety checkpoint is made first, so a restore can itself be undone.
- Retained recovery: a row here offers Review, then Keep Recovery or Discard Recovery.
Local Changes covers up to 20,000 files, 20 MB per file and 500 MB in total, and keeps up to 100 checkpoints. It skips dependency, build, log, cache and credential folders. Diff previews stop at 1 MB.
The terminal
The Terminal panel opens in the current folder. Its status reads Disconnected, Connecting... or the folder path when ready. Use Connect or Disconnect, and the terminal's own Clear.
Work with the AI developer
Choose who works, how and with which model
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mode | Agent: works normally with the workspace tools. Ask: answers questions and inspects the code without asking for edits. Plan: drafts an editable plan before changing anything. |
| Agent | One of the engineering agents in your agent library. Dev Lead is the default. Others include Backend Developer, Frontend Developer, Full-Stack Developer, DevOps Engineer, Data Engineer, ML Engineer, Mobile Developer and Game Developer. |
| Model | Reads Agent default until you choose. Pick a provider, search its models, and compare context size, price and capabilities. The choice applies to Coding Lab only. |
In Ask and Plan, the agent can bring up the same clarifying questions and plan approval card you see in the main chat.
Send a request
- Open a folder and pick a mode, an agent and, if you like, a model.
- Type your request. Enter sends and Shift + Enter adds a new line.
- To add images, use Insert Image, paste or drag them in. You can attach up to six per message, up to 8 MB each and 24 MB in total.
- Watch the work. A status line shows progress, a REASONING block counts the steps, and each action appears as a card with its input, live activity and result. Press the round button to stop.
- Review what changed in Local Changes, and press Copy under an answer to reuse it.
Mode, agent, model and New Chat are locked while a request is running.
What the agent sees
With every message, the agent receives:
- your open files, which of them are unsaved, the active file and your cursor;
- your selection (up to 12,000 characters) and the unsaved text in the editor;
- up to 20 editor diagnostics;
- the folder's Local Changes;
- your last ten terminal commands and their exit codes.
Chat history
The panel header has New Chat (click the title to rename it), a + to start another chat, and Chat History. History rows show the title, time and agent, with a delete button. The welcome screen lists the five latest chats for the folder.
Limits
- These are kept in this browser only, and do not follow you to another one: your last folder, your recent folders, the agent, mode and model for each folder, and the chat list (the 20 newest).
- Only the file types listed above can be edited.