watsonx Code Assistant

IBM® watsonx™ Code Assistant

Overview

IBM® watsonx™ Code Assistant is an innovative, generative AI coding companion that offers robust, contextually aware assistance for popular programming languages including Go, C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, TypeScript, and more. Seamlessly integrated into your IDE, you can accelerate your productivity and simplify coding tasks, all with trust, security, and compliance.

Features

Get code suggestions

Use chat conversations: Use natural language prompts to generate code suggestions. Use a chat conversation to enter a prompt that explains the code you need, and watsonx Code Assistant generates something you can choose to use.

Reference code: To ask questions or refine a specific file, class, function, or method in your workspace, you can use a code reference. These references provide important context and can help to increase the accuracy of the answer. As part of your chat message, type the @ symbol to see a list of files, classes, and methods from your workspace. Click to select the reference, and watsonx Code Assistant sends the contents of the reference as part of your message.

Code completion: Or, complete code in the editor. Start typing a line of code, then pause. IBM watsonx Code Assistant adds a code suggestion to complete the line that you typed.

You can also get a multiline code suggestion. Start typing a line of code,then use a keyboard shortcut, and watsonx Code Assistant adds a multiline code suggestion. Or, enter a comment that describes the code you want.

For more information, see the documentation for Getting code suggestions.

Explain code

Use generative AI to analyze and summarize your code to understand what the code does. Click the Explain option that precedes a code block or enter /explain in a chat conversation. IBM watsonx Code Assistant analyzes the code and provides a detailed explanation of what the code does.

For more information, see the documentation for Explaining code.

Document code

Generate comment lines that document what your code does. Click the Document option that precedes a code block or enter /document in a chat conversation. IBM watsonx Code Assistant analyzes the code and adds comments that document what the code does.

For more information, see the documentation for Documenting code.

Generate unit tests

Create unit tests to evaluate your code functions. Click the Unit Test option that precedes a code block or enter /unit-test in a chat conversation. IBM watsonx Code Assistant analyzes the code and creates a unit test.

For more information, see the documentation for Generating unit tests.

Translate code from one language to another

Use watsonx Code Assistant to translate code. In a chat conversation, use the syntax translate [from <source language >] to <target_language> <code reference>.

For more information, see the documentation for Translating code from one language to another

Setup

Provision a watsonx Code Assistant service instance on IBM Cloud for your organization.

To set up on IBM Cloud:

1. Explore the pricing plans.
2. Use the IBM Cloud catalog to provision a service instance of watsonx Code Assistant.
3. When you finish provisioning your instance, click Setup to open an onboarding checklist page to help you with configuration.
4. Have your developers create an IBM Cloud API Key.
5. Have your developers install the Eclipse plugin for watsonx Code Assistant.

For more information, see the documentation for:

• Setting up your watsonx Code Assistant service in IBM Cloud
• Installing the IDE extension or plugin