Tips & Tricks | Airgap Studio

Using the AI Assistant

Give Clear Instructions

Being specific with your requests to the AI assistant yields more accurate results.

# Inefficient request
"Fix this code"

# Effective request
"Add a null check to the handleSubmit function and show a toast notification to the user when an error occurs"

Provide Context

The AI can better understand context when you have files open or code selected. If multiple files are relevant, reference them with @filename.

Use Auto Compact

Long conversations can exhaust the context window. AIRGAP Assistant has Auto Compact enabled by default, which automatically summarizes the conversation.

Design Workflow

Bridge to Designer Integration

Generate design tokens in AIRGAP Bridge.
The tokens are automatically injected into AIRGAP Designer's system prompt.
When generating UI in Designer, you get consistent output with your design tokens applied.

Using UI Library Components

Search for components in the UI Library and use the Copy Code or Insert into Editor features.

Performance Optimization

GPU Acceleration

If you have an NVIDIA GPU, the AI engine will automatically use it. To verify GPU usage, run the following in the terminal:

ollama ps

If GPU appears in the PROCESSOR column, the GPU is being used correctly.

Adjusting Context Size

If AI responses are incomplete for complex tasks, check the context size. The default is 16,384 tokens and can be adjusted in the settings.

Disable Unused Extensions

Disabling unused extensions speeds up IDE startup. Select Extensions: Show Installed Extensions from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).

Layout Setup

Recommended Dual Monitor Layout

Monitor	Arrangement
Primary monitor	Code editor + terminal
Secondary monitor	AIRGAP Assistant (sidebar) + browser preview

Recommended Single Monitor Layout

Place the editor on the left and AIRGAP Assistant in the right sidebar.
Toggle the file explorer with Ctrl+B to free up screen space.
Show the bottom panel (terminal) only when needed with Ctrl+J.

Changing Models

To use a model other than the default Qwen3:8b, see Provider Configuration. In network-connected environments, external models such as Anthropic Claude and OpenAI GPT are also available.