AI Support in Theia IDE: The First Open, Transparent AI-Enhanced Development Environment
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the world of software development. Tools that leverage AI, like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and other proprietary solutions, have become valuable assets for developers, streamlining workflows and boosting productivity. However, these closed-source solutions often lack the transparency and flexibility that developers need to fully trust and customize their tools.
The Theia IDE is changing that narrative, becoming the first truly open, transparent AI-enhanced development environment. Built on Theia AI, an open-source framework for AI-powered tools, the experimental AI support in Theia IDE gives users complete control over AI interactions.
This new AI functionality allows developers to choose which AI models they want to use and provides complete visibility into the communication between the IDE and the AI. It enables customizing prompts and data interactions at runtime, ensuring maximum flexibility without sacrificing transparency.
What is Theia IDE?
The Theia IDE is a state-of-the-art code development tool built on the Theia Platform, designed with modern web technologies that allow it to run seamlessly in desktop and browser environments. It leverages various technologies, including compatibility with VS Code extensions and support for the Language Server Protocol (LSP) and Debug Adapter Protocol (DAP).
In many ways, Theia IDE is similar to VS Code. However, its flexible architecture allows customization without forking, making it the ideal foundation for creating custom tools and IDEs and integrating AI features.
Theia IDE is part of an open project under vendor-neutral governance, which avoids data collection and vendor lock-in, allowing developers to maintain independence from proprietary platforms.
What makes Theia IDE's AI support different?
The AI features in Theia IDE are designed with openness, transparency, and flexibility at the core. It’s ideal for developers who want the benefits from AI-driven tools without the trade-offs of vendor lock-in, data privacy concerns, and hidden processes.
Complete Control Over AI Models: Unlike AI-powered IDEs that force you into a specific AI model or subscription service, Theia IDE gives you complete control over which large language model (LLM) you use, whether you prefer a cloud-based LLM like OpenAI, a self-hosted model for privacy, or a local LLM. Developers can easily configure the IDE to use multiple models for different tasks or even allow users to configure the LLM on a per-use-case basis. This flexibility empowers developers to maintain independence from any single provider.
Complete Transparency in AI Communication: In many closed-source solutions, developers have little to no visibility into how the AI operates — what data is being shared, what is being received, and how prompts are constructed. Theia IDE flips this around by providing complete transparency in every interaction with the AI. You can view the entire communication history, seeing precisely what data is sent to the AI and what it returns, making building trust and optimizing interactions easier.
Customizable Prompts: One of the most powerful features of Theia IDE’s AI support is the ability to customize prompts. Users can view and modify the prompts sent to the AI to ensure they fit the project’s needs, coding standards, and preferences. This allows for optimizing the AI’s behavior at runtime, making it more adaptable to various coding contexts or even different development stages. You can even put these prompt templates into a software project to reflect the specific context of a project, such as coding guidelines, etc.
Openness and Flexibility for Developers: As an open-source project, Theia IDE encourages developer contributions. Whether you want to provide feedback, optimize prompt strategies, or contribute new features, Theia IDE fosters an open development process. This collaborative model ensures that the IDE evolves in ways that benefit the community, further enhancing its AI capabilities with input from real users. The modular architecture of Theia and Theia AI allows developers to extend the system or even build custom tools and IDEs without forking.
Supported Agents in Theia IDE
Several agents power Theia IDE’s experimental AI features, each designed to tackle specific tasks. This first experimental release is just the beginning—a foundational step that opens the door to continuous innovation. Future releases will introduce new agents, broader support for different LLMs, and innovative UX concepts that further enhance the developer experience. Let’s take a look at the agents currently supported in the Theia IDE:
Universal Chat Agent: This general-purpose agent is designed to answer questions on programming, software development, and other general queries. By default, it doesn’t have access to the current workspace, but you can add context manually via variables, such as #selectedText.
Orchestrator Chat Agent: The Orchestrator Agent analyzes the user’s request and delegates it to the most suitable agent. This simplifies the interaction for users, allowing them to ask a general question without worrying about selecting the right agent.
Command Chat Agent: The Command Agent is aware of all commands available in the Theia IDE. When prompted, it suggests commands relevant to the user’s request, such as toggling toolbars or opening settings. The agent presents these commands in the form of clickable buttons for easy execution.
Workspace Chat Agent: The Workspace Agent can access and navigate the user’s project files. It can answer questions about the file structure, provide file content, and help with project-specific queries. Therefore, it can answer context-related questions (see screenshot below).
Code Completion Agent: This agent provides AI-powered inline code completion in the code editor, suggesting code snippets and helping developers write code faster and more efficiently.
Terminal Assistance Agent: Integrated into the terminal, this agent suggests commands based on the user’s context, environment, and previous inputs. This feature saves time by eliminating the need to search for specific terminal commands.
With this first experimental release, Theia IDE sets the foundation for future AI innovation, offering endless opportunities for new agents, LLM integrations, and interactive UX concepts. The initial agent support is just the beginning of a broader vision to build truly open, AI-powered development environments that adapt to developers' evolving needs.
Built on Theia AI: A Framework for AI-Powered Tools
The AI support in Theia IDE is just the tip of the iceberg. At its core, these features are powered by Theia AI, an open-source framework designed for building AI-enhanced tools and IDEs. Theia AI is highly flexible and can be integrated into any tool, providing complete control over LLMs, prompts, and AI interactions. While Theia IDE showcases these capabilities for developers, Theia AI is designed for IDE and tool builders across all domains. Learn more about Theia AI.
Join the AI Development Movement
The experimental AI support in Theia IDE is available now, and we invite developers to explore, experiment, and contribute. Theia IDE is a glimpse into the future of AI-powered development environments — one where developers have control, transparency, and flexibility. Whether you're looking to contribute code, provide feedback, or test the AI features, your input will help shape the next generation of development tools.
Get started with Theia IDE AI Support and download Theia IDE. Join us in building an open, transparent, and flexible AI-powered future for developers.