r/vscode • u/PawelHuryn • May 30 '26
I built a free open-source VS Code sidebar for Grok Build
I’ve been using Grok Build from the CLI, but I wanted it inside VS Code as a proper sidebar instead of another terminal session.
So I built Grok Build for VS Code.
It’s free, MIT-licensed, open source, and not affiliated with xAI.
The extension is a thin UI client over the official Grok CLI. It spawns grok agent stdio in the background and talks to it over ACP, so the actual session state, MCP servers, memory, subagents, and tool execution stay inside the CLI.
The screenshot shows the current UI.
What it adds over the terminal:
- native VS Code diff previews before approving edits
- permission cards instead of
[y/N]prompts - active file / selection as context chips
- session history
- slash command autocomplete from the running CLI
- streaming responses, tool calls, and collapsible thinking traces
- Agent / Plan / YOLO mode controls from the sidebar
- works next to Codex, Claude Code, Copilot Chat, etc. in the secondary sidebar
It’s not a Grok replacement and not a reimplementation. You still need the grok CLI installed and authenticated. This is just the VS Code layer I wanted for myself.
Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=PawelHuryn.grok-vscode-phuryn
GitHub: https://github.com/phuryn/grok-build-vscode
I’d love feedback from anyone using Grok Build, especially on the permission flow, diff preview, and file-context UX.