How to Use Quick Commands from the Editor

Estimated time: 3 minutes
Difficulty: Beginner

Why you'd use this

Some requests come up so often that they are one click away: explain the file you are looking at, find a bug in it, refactor it, generate tests for it, or document it. These quick commands are on the editor's right-click menu and in the chat's command menu, and each one sends a well-formed request with the current file attached, so you get a consistent result without writing a prompt.

Before you start

Permissions required:

• None.

You'll need:

• A source file open in the editor.

Steps

1. Open a source file and right-click anywhere in the editor.
2. Choose one of the eLLM entries: Explain Current File, Find Bug, Refactor, Generate Tests or Generate Documentation.
3. The chat panel opens with the request already sent. Read the streamed reply; for Refactor, Generate Tests and Generate Documentation, review the proposed file cards and click Apply on the ones you want.
4. For a project-wide overview, run eLLM: Explain Project from the Command Palette or the / menu. The assistant reads the project map and key files and describes the structure.
5. To repeat a quick command from the keyboard, press / in the composer and pick it from the Understand or Generate group.

What you should see

Explain and Find Bug produce an answer with file and line references. Generate Tests proposes a new test file placed where the project's other tests live. Generate Documentation proposes doc-comments and README changes as diff cards.

Troubleshooting

• "Open a file to explain" message: the command needs an active text editor. Click into a file first.
• Find Bug reports nothing: describe the symptom in the chat instead, for example "The total is wrong when the cart is empty", so the search is targeted.

Related guides

• How to Review Changes and Run a Security Review
• How to Ask Questions About Your Codebase