Web IDE
Open your Remote Workspace in a full browser-based IDE — edit files, run terminals, and chat with the Kimchi agent without installing anything locally.
The Web IDE is a full browser-based IDE for your Remote Workspace. Open it from the Kimchi console to edit files, run terminals, and use Kimchi AI features without installing anything on your machine.
The IDE runs against your Remote Workspace, not your browser tab. Files, terminals, and agent sessions keep running when you close the tab, and the IDE reconnects to the same workspace state when you open it again.
Open the Web IDE
Open the Remote Sessions page
In the Kimchi console, open the Remote Sessions page and click the session you want to work with.
Open the IDE
Next to the web terminal, select Web IDE. The workspace opens in your browser with the file explorer, editor, and terminals ready.
What you get
The Web IDE is built on Eclipse Theia, an open-source IDE platform that looks and feels like VS Code:
- A full editor with file explorer, workspace-wide search, and split views
- Integrated terminals with shell access to the workspace
- Git support — inspect diffs, stage, and commit
- Debuggers, notebooks, and task runners
- Additional extensions from Open VSX, the open VS Code extension registry
The Kimchi VS Code extension is preinstalled, so you get the same editor-integrated experience as VS Code — side panel chat with the Kimchi Coding agent, streaming responses, multi-model support, and agentic tool use — while working on the same files the agent has open.
AI features
AI features are enabled by default and served from the Kimchi Inference API:
- Model list stays in sync — Models are fetched automatically from the Kimchi endpoint on startup and whenever the API key or endpoint changes. The list always mirrors what the endpoint serves, including the models available to the Kimchi CLI, and cannot be edited manually. Sunset models are excluded automatically.
- Reasoning support — Reasoning-capable models expose the same reasoning levels as the CLI:
off,low,medium, andhigh. - Web search — Chat agents can call the
web_searchtool. See Web search.
When no API key is configured, models show up as unavailable and no requests are made.
Configure AI features
In a Remote Workspace, the Web IDE picks up the Kimchi API key from the workspace environment, so AI features work without further configuration.
To provide or override the key yourself:
Set KIMCHI_API_KEY. The key stays out of any settings file.
KIMCHI_API_KEY=<your-key>Related settings:
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
ai-features.kimchi.endpoint | https://llm.kimchi.dev | Base URL of the Kimchi inference endpoint |
http.proxy | — | Proxy used for AI requests |
Web search
The web_search tool — the same tool the Kimchi CLI harness uses — is available to chat agents. It queries the Kimchi search API with your Kimchi API key, so no extra configuration is needed.
| Parameter | Values | Description |
|---|---|---|
query | — | Search query. Required |
recency | day, week, month, year | Limit results to a time window. Use for time-sensitive queries |
limit | 1–20, default 8 | Maximum number of results to return |
search_depth | basic, deep | basic is fast and cheap; deep trades speed for precision on complex queries |
max_content_chars | 200–10000, default 2000 | Content returned per result |
Lifecycle
- Closing the browser tab does not stop the workspace or its sessions — the same behavior as the PTY overlay.
- IDE preferences are stored in the workspace and persist between browser sessions.
- Reconnect later from the Kimchi console, or from the CLI with
/remote-sessions. See Resume a session later.
See also
- Remote Workspaces — Workspaces and sessions,
/teleport, and Remote Execution. - VS Code extension — The editor-integrated Kimchi experience that ships preinstalled in the Web IDE.
- CLI reference — Full command reference for
kimchi, including/remote-sessions.
Updated 3 days ago