Why I Didn’t Build a VS Code Plugin (and What I Built Instead)

Hey folks 👋

When I started building PromptCoder, the obvious idea was to create a VS Code plugin.
That’s what most devtools do - Copilot, Cody, etc.

But I deliberately went a different way.
Here’s why - and what came out of it.

🧠 The problem:
AI tools in IDEs are powerful… but limited.
Most of them operate only on the current file or selection.
For serious projects, that’s not enough - you need the full context: structure, imports, folder relationships.

💡 The decision:
Instead of building a plugin, I created a browser-based AI coding assistant that:
Loads the entire project structure
Lets you write prompts with full context in mind
Works without any setup - just open a link
Allows manual prompt crafting + AI editing
Lets you export changes back to your local folder (bidirectional sync coming)

🤔 Why not a plugin?
Limited UX
No control over UI or project structure
High barrier to onboarding (installs, configs)
Sharing/debugging harder
Browser gave me complete freedom to design the experience the way I wanted

📌 Status:
I’m still a solo founder - and PromptCoder is in active development.
It’s not perfect, but I’ve been dogfooding it for real-world projects, and I’m finally seeing something useful take shape.

If you’re working on a pet project or coding tool, I’d love to hear how you handled these tradeoffs.

🔗 Try PromptCoder: https://promptcoder.it.com