Your editor

With the Kyra extension installed, VS Code becomes something you can talk to. Kyra can open a file, search the workspace, read what is on screen, and write at your cursor — using the editor’s own commands rather than guessing at your screen.

Install

In the editor’s own terminal:

curl -fsSL "https://dl.kyra-hi.com/vscode" -o kyra-vscode.vsix
code --install-extension kyra-vscode.vsix
kyra install vscode

If code is not a command, run Shell Command: Install ‘code’ command in PATH from the command palette.

To check the download arrived whole first:

curl -fsSL "https://dl.kyra-hi.com/vscode?checksum=1"
sha256sum kyra-vscode.vsix

Note

It is not on the Marketplace. A listing is a public identity with a review on every update, which is a commitment worth making deliberately rather than acquiring as a side effect of wanting testers to have something to install. Reinstalling the .vsix is how you upgrade — the extension does not update itself, and its version changes on every build, so the Extensions list tells you exactly what you are running.

The two halves

kyra install vscode does something separate from installing the extension, and the difference matters.

	Installing the extension	kyra install vscode
Gives Kyra	Files, search, the editor’s commands, typing at your cursor	The Claude Code sessions running in that editor
Called	The provider	Mediation
Platforms	Everywhere	Linux and WSL only
Undo	Uninstall the extension	kyra uninstall vscode

You can have the first without the second. Many people should — the first is uncontroversial, the second is a deliberate grant.

Important

Reopen your Claude Code sessions after installing or uninstalling mediation. It applies when a session starts, so anything already open is unaffected until you reopen it. This is the one step kyra install cannot do for you, and the usual reason someone thinks it did not work.

Note

Mediation is Linux and WSL only. It identifies who is connecting using a kernel credential that only exists there. On macOS kyra install vscode refuses rather than writing a setting that would look applied and do nothing.

What it writes, if you would rather do it by hand

"claudeCode.claudeProcessWrapper": "<npm-global-prefix>/lib/node_modules/@kyra/cli/shim/kyra-claude-shim.py"

npm prefix -g prints the first part. kyra install --status reports what is wired without changing anything.

Using it

“Open the billing router.” “What file am I looking at?” “Search the workspace for where we handle refunds.” “Add a docstring here explaining the retry.” “Rename this symbol to settleInvoice.”

Kyra works from what the editor tells it — the open document, your selection, the symbol under your cursor — so “this” and “here” mean what you would expect.

The status bar shows a Kyra item when the extension is attached. No item means it has not found the local door yet, which is normal until kyra connect is running.

Writing files by voice

Kyra can create files and append to them, which turns out to be the thing people actually want when their hands are elsewhere — dictating a design note, adding to a scratch file, capturing a plan while walking.

Creating and appending stop to confirm first, and the confirmation stays short no matter how much text is involved.

What it will not do

• Run commands. The provider drives the editor, not your shell. Running things is a coding agent’s job, under its own permission mode.
• Reach outside your workspace. The writable root is the directory kyra connect started in.
• Act on a stale reference. Close the file Kyra was about to edit and the action fails rather than hitting whatever took its place.

Troubleshooting

No Kyra item in the status bar. Check kyra connect is running. The extension attaches to the local door, and the door is started by the daemon.

Kyra sees the editor but no coding sessions. Mediation is separate and opt-in — run kyra install vscode, then reopen the sessions.

Nothing happens on Windows. Check the title bar. An editor running as a Windows process cannot see a door inside WSL. Reopen the folder in the WSL remote.

Edited settings.json by hand and nothing changed. Under WSL, the file that decides it is the remote one. This is the usual reason a manual edit has no effect.

Next

• Coding agents
• How much Kyra asks
• Making your own application drivable

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Visual Studio Code is a trademark of Microsoft. Kyra is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Microsoft; the name identifies the editor the extension plugs into.