The Panel

Understanding the Aspect Code panel and its states.

Opening the panel

Click the Aspect Code icon in the Activity Bar to open the panel. You can also run "Aspect Code: Show Panel" from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P).

Setup Required state

When you first open a workspace, the panel displays "Setup required":

The panel shows:

Status indicator — "Aspect Code • Setup required"

KB regeneration mode — Current auto-regenerate setting (e.g., "KB: On Save")

Generate button (+) — Orange button to generate the knowledge base

Graph button — Opens the dependency graph visualization

Workspace stats — Files, dependencies, and cycle counts at the bottom

Up to Date state

After generating the knowledge base, the panel displays "Up to date":

Options available:

open kb — Opens the .aspect/ folder containing generated KB files

edit instructions — Opens .aspect/instructions.md for custom project instructions

Refresh button — Manually regenerate the knowledge base

Graph button — Opens the dependency graph visualization

Mode controls

The panel includes controls for instruction generation mode after clicking the '+' button in the bottom right corner:

Safe — More restrictive, conservative instructions (recommended for teams)

Permissive — Shorter, less restrictive instructions (good for personal projects)

Custom — Use your own custom instructions only (when .aspect/instructions.md is populated)

Off — Disable instruction generation entirely

Refresh — Regenerate instruction files

Copy — Copy KB content to clipboard

Power — Toggle extension enabled/disabled