AIRGAP StudioAIRGAP Studio

Switching AI Assistants

How to switch between AIRGAP Assistant and AIRGAP Lite Assistant.

Overview

AIRGAP Studio ships with two AI coding assistants, and only one is active at any time. You can switch between them depending on the task at hand.

Comparing the Two Assistants

ItemAIRGAP AssistantAIRGAP Lite Assistant
BaseCline 3.56.2 forkContinue 1.3.39 fork
BehaviorAutonomous agent (Plan/Act)Inline autocomplete + chat
StrengthsMulti-file refactoring, Checkpoint, Browser, automatic terminal executionFast autocomplete, Quick Edit, RAG search
Default active—✓ (default)
Recommended forAutonomous tasks and complex changesDay-to-day coding assistance

The two assistants do not run simultaneously. Activating one automatically deactivates the other.

Switching Procedure

Method 1: Command Palette

  1. Open the Command Palette with Ctrl+Shift+P
  2. Run AIRGAP: Switch Assistant
  3. Pick the assistant you want to activate from the QuickPick
  4. VSCodium restarts automatically with the new assistant active

Method 2: Launcher UI

  1. Open the AIRGAP Studio Launcher window
  2. Use the radio buttons under "Switch Assistant (restart required)"
  3. The Launcher restarts VSCodium

VSCodium Restart Required

Important — Switching assistants always requires a VSCodium restart.

Extension deactivation is delivered via the --disable-extension <publisher.name> CLI flag, which is only honored at VSCodium spawn time. Window-level reloads such as Developer: Reload Window do not apply it.

Internal flow:

  1. The switch command atomically writes an IPC signal file
  2. The C# Launcher detects the change and terminates the current VSCodium child process via its Job Object
  3. The Launcher respawns VSCodium with the new --disable-extension flag
  4. The window opens with only the newly selected assistant active

Verifying the Switch

You can confirm that the switch took effect by checking:

  • Activity Bar icon — Only the active assistant's icon is visible
  • launcher.log — The new spawn line lists --disable-extension <deactivated target>
  • New user-data/logs/ directory — VSCodium creates a directory with a fresh timestamp prefix

Active Assistant File Location

The active assistant is stored in:

  • Production: %ProgramData%\AirgapStudio\active-assistant.json
  • Development: build\vscodium\data\active-assistant.json

File schema:

{
  "assistantId": "airgap-lite-assistant"
}

assistantId values:

  • "airgap-lite-assistant" — AIRGAP Lite Assistant active (default)
  • "airgap-assistant" — AIRGAP Assistant active

Do not edit this file by hand. An inconsistent state can prevent the assistant from activating correctly on the next launch. Always use the AIRGAP: Switch Assistant command or the Launcher UI.