Calamus - AI Text Assistant for VS Code

Calamus is a powerful VS Code extension that brings AI-powered text editing features directly to your text documents using Google Gemini. It provides tools for text checking, completion, translation, and improvement, all integrated seamlessly into your editing workflow.

Features

Check Text (F4)

Automatically proofread your text for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style issues.

• How it works: Analyzes the current paragraph (or selected text) and visualizes changes.
• Visualization: Deletions are shown as red strike-throughs, and additions/corrections appear as ghost text.
• Accept: Press Tab to apply the corrections.

Complete Text (F5)

Stuck on a sentence? Let Calamus finish it for you.

• Context-Aware: Analyzes up to 1000 characters of preceding text (including previous paragraphs) to generate natural continuations.
• Ghost Text: The suggestion appears as gray ghost text at your cursor.
• Accept: Press Tab to insert the completion.

Translate Text (F6)

Instantly translate text between English and your configured second language.

• Bi-directional: Automatically detects if the text is English (translates to target language) or the target language (translates to English).
• Preserves Nuance: Designed to maintain tone, style, and formatting.
• Configurable: Set your preferred Second Language in settings (default: Spanish).

Improve Text (F7)

Enhance the quality of your writing with a single keystroke.

• Professional Polish: Makes text clearer, more professional, and "native-sounding".
• Customizable: Uses a set of predefined instructions (configurable in settings) to guide the improvement process (e.g., maintaining tone, removing ambiguity).

Installation

1. Install the extension from the VS Code Marketplace or via VSIX.
2. Get a Google Gemini API Key from Google AI Studio.
3. Open VS Code Settings (Ctrl+,), search for calamus, and enter your API key.

Usage

Workflow

1. Open a text document (Markdown, txt, etc.).
2. Place your cursor in the paragraph you want to modify, or make a selection.
3. Trigger a command:
   • F4: Check for errors
   • F5: Generate text completion
   • F6: Translate
   • F7: Improve text
4. Review: The extension will show a diff (for edits) or ghost text (for completions).
5. Accept: Press Tab to confirm the changes.
   • If you move your cursor before accepting, the suggestions will disappear.

Commands

• Calamus: Check Text (F4) - Proofread and fix grammar/spelling
• Calamus: Complete Text (F5) - Generate text continuation
• Calamus: Translate Text (F6) - Translate between English and Second Language
• Calamus: Improve Text (F7) - Rewrite text for better style and clarity
• Calamus: Accept Completion (Tab) - Apply the current suggestion/fix
• Calamus: Clear Decorations - Remove all current suggestion highlights

Configuration

Customise Calamus in your VS Code Settings (Ctrl+, > Calamus):

• calamus.apiKey: Your Google Gemini API Key.
• calamus.model: The Gemini model to use (default: gemini-2.0-flash-lite).
• calamus.secondLanguage: The target language for the Translation feature (default: "Spanish").
• calamus.completionPrompt: Custom instructions for text completion.
• calamus.improveTextInstructions: A list of rules for the "Improve Text" feature (e.g., "Make it sound professional", "Use American English").

Requirements

• VS Code v1.104.0 or higher.
• A valid Google Gemini API Key.

License

MIT