An Introduction to Pieces for Developers ⎸ Visual Studio Code Extension

In 2022, our team set out on a journey to build the most advanced code snippet management and workflow context platform yet.

The debut release of our Flagship Desktop App got the ball rolling, and now our VS Code Extension aims to take developers’ productivity to the next level by incorporating key capabilities and our users’ favorite features directly into their IDE. We aim to bring developers’ workflows straight to their tools with ease. Pieces is the perfect tool-between tools to connect and supercharge your workflow.

Effortlessly save, enrich, search, share, reference, and reuse: Code snippets, workflow context, and other useful developer resources

The Pieces for VS Code Extension changes the way developers interact with their code. By saving highly reusable and valuable code from the browser, IDE or directly from their teammates, they save countless hours of finding the right snippet, understanding what the context is and then plugging it into their code for the best result. Pieces bring your tools to one place with all necessary capabilities like saving code, searching for it when it matters, resuing it seamlessly, and sharing it with one click!

Pieces is Trusted by the World's Best Developers

From students and indie developers to startups and open source teams, to enterprise organizations and beyond, Pieces for Developers is purpose-built as a cohesive layer and a "tool-between-tools" that boosts productivity in three major workflow processes: researching and problem-solving in the browser; working with colleagues in collaborative environments; and lastly, writing, reviewing, referencing, and reusing code in the IDE.

We are a venture-backed company supported by some of the world's best investors. Our products & company are secure and continuing to grow.

Our Visual Studio Code Extension, in combination with our Flagship Desktop App, provides users with a first-in-kind feature set that ambitiously augments your development workflows.

Take Back Your Time | Solving Developer Productivity Bottlenecks

Countless Google Searches, Open Tab Back-and-Forth & History Scrolling

More and more developer resources live online nowadays - tutorial sites, Stack Overflow posts, documentation & open source packages, wikis, blog posts - the list goes on and on. This, combined with the constant switching back to the IDE and other tools, often causes developers to lose track of where they were and start over again at the search bar.

Pieces Solution Highlights:

The Pieces for Developers | Desktop App ships with a first-in-kind Workflow Activity Stream that lets you pick up where you left off faster than ever.

Resurfacing Additional Context in Collaborative Environments

Task and project context regarding the who, what, where, and why is often discussed over a variety of channels, such as Email, Slack, Teams, Discord, Community Forums, Twitter, Reddit, and more. Keeping track of this critical context - decision outcomes, architectures, implementation solutions, best practices, power tips, configs - is becoming harder than ever.

Pieces Solution Highlights:

When you save code snippets with the Pieces for Developers | VS Code Extension it internally leverages our unique Context Awareness Engine to automatically extract and associate over 15 metadata heuristics.

The Pieces for Developers | Desktop App enables you to Toggle Realtime and Scope-Relevant Suggestions around materials to save, reference, reuse, and share.

Onboarding New Developers, Reducing Technical Debt & Code Reviews

Developers continuously have to navigate ever-growing code bases, backlog tasks, Jira Tickets, GitHub Issues, and Pull Requests, all in an effort to reuse existing code, onboard new developers faster, share relevant examples, reduce technical debt and drive code standardization.

Pieces Solution Highlights:

Powered by our On-Device Proactive Save & Pattern Engine, the Pieces for Developers | VS Code Extension can automatically recognize and save highly reusable, yet complementary materials for you.

Leverage the Pieces for Developers | Desktop App to discover and extract reusable boilerplate through our In-Project Snippet Discovery features running entirely offline and on-device.

Table of Contents & What's in this series

Article: Saving Useful Developer Materials

• Single Click Save in VS Code

• Suggested Save and On-Device Pattern Engine

• In-Project Snippet Discovery

Article: AI-Powered Material Enrichment & Metadata Association

• Context Awareness Engine and Origin Details

• Automatic Smart Descriptions

• Related Links and External Resources

• Tags and Automatic Topic Labels

• Related People and Associated Collaborators

• Sensitive Information Detection & Masking

Article: Search, Reference, Reuse and Share Saved Materials

• In-Editor Global Search with the Command Palette

• Workflow Activity Stream and process backtracking

• Saved Materials Quick Access and List View

• Atomic Auto-Complete Suggestions

• Explore Snippets with Pieces Insights

• Document Snippets with Pieces Insights

• Toggling Realtime and Scope-Relevant Suggestions

• Find related materials

• Personalized Link Sharing

• Select and Share with Context

• Access and Save Offline from Shared Link

Article: Getting Started and FAQs

• What is being installed?

  • Pieces for Developers | OS Server (Local Runtime Background Service)

  • Pieces for Developers | Flagship Desktop App

  • Pieces for Developers | Visual Studio Code Extension

  • Platform Requirements and downloading Pieces for VS Code

    • MacOS, Windows, Linux

    • Troubleshooting

• Frequently Asked Questions

  • Solving Common Connectivity Issues

Article: Additional Features and Extension Settings

• Managing and Updating your saved resources

  • Inserting a saved Code Snippet at your current cursor location

  • Editing saved Code Snippets and Text Notes

  • Reclassifying a Language Association of a saved Code Snippet

  • Deleting a saved material

  • Connecting to Custom Cloud Domain

Follow along with our series Pieces for Visual Studio Code extension. This series will highlight and document the features that save developers workflows and how our features are leading the charge of AI dev tools that ultimately elevate your workflow and 10x your productivity.

Pieces is just getting started with cutting edge, powerful and secure products across developers workflows. Check out more of our products!