Quanta.Ai.Code.Editor

Quanta, a local-first AI code editor built on VS Code OSS with a Rust backend, has been released, offering agentic coding powered primarily by local LLMs via Ollama, with optional cloud backends. The editor includes 30+ built-in tools, a ReAct agent loop, three agent modes, sub-agent spawning, persistent todo lists, shadow-git checkpoints, full LSP integration, and MCP support, ensuring code never leaves the machine.

Quanta is a local-first AI code editor built on VS Code OSS, powered by a high-performance Rust backend. It gives you a complete agentic coding experience — reading files, writing code, running terminals, applying LSP fixes, and managing git — all driven by local LLMs through Ollama https://ollama.ai . Cloud providers OpenAI, Anthropic are supported as optional backends, but Ollama is the primary engine. Your code never has to leave your machine. Unlike cloud-first AI editors, Quanta is designed around local inference. The agent loop, tool execution, LSP integration, checkpoint system, and inline completions all happen locally through a Rust backend that communicates with the editor via JSON-RPC over TCP. Key Features key-features Feature Comparison feature-comparison Architecture architecture Quick Start quick-start Installation installation Agent Tools agent-tools Agent Modes agent-modes LSP & Diagnostics lsp--diagnostics Checkpoint System checkpoint-system Edit History & Undo/Redo edit-history--undoredo MCP Integration mcp-integration Model Management model-management HuggingFace Integration huggingface-integration Engineering Skills engineering-skills Voice & TTS voice--tts Session Management session-management Plan Mode plan-mode Configuration configuration License license 30+ built-in tools — read/write/edit files, unified diffs, terminal, grep, glob, git operations, LSP actions, and more ReAct agent loop — Think, Act, Observe, Feedback pattern with anti-loop guards and automatic retries 3 agent modes — Code full capability , Ask read-only , Plan read-only + plan writing Sub-agent spawning — Delegate scoped tasks to parallel sub-agents with up to 3 levels of nesting Persistent todo lists — Track multi-step work across conversation turns Ollama integration — Auto-detects and lists all local models with metadata Thinking/reasoning support — Configurable think levels Low/Medium/High for reasoning models Inline code completion — FIM completions with LRU cache, debouncing, and in-flight cancellation Local-first by design — Ollama is the primary backend; cloud providers OpenAI, Anthropic are optional. Your code never has to leave your machine. Shadow-git checkpoints — Automatic workspace snapshots before every agent write action Edit review system — Accept/reject individual edits with diff previews Stale-file detection — Prevents edits to files that changed since last read Terminal safety guards — Blocks destructive commands format, shutdown, force-delete Atomic writes — All file operations use temp-file-and-rename for crash safety Full LSP integration — Diagnostics, go-to-definition, find references, code actions, rename symbol 20+ engineering skills — Built-in guidance for TDD, code review, security review, debugging, and more MCP support — One-click enable for GitHub, Jina AI, Brave Search, Postgres, Puppeteer, and more HuggingFace model browser — Search, download, and install GGUF models directly from the editor Per-model configuration — Override temperature, think level, edit format, tool call mode, and more per model Voice support — Speech-to-text via Whisper, text-to-speech via Piper Note:Competitor data is based on publicly available documentation as of 2025. Features change frequently — verify with each tool's official docs before relying on this table for decisions. A dash — means we could not verify the feature's presence or absence and chose not to guess. | Feature | Quanta | Cursor | Claude Code | Zed AI | Aider | Cline | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| Local LLM Ollama | Yes | Limited ¹ | Yes ² | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ollama as primary backend | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Built on VS Code | Yes | Yes | No CLI | No Zed | No CLI | Yes extension | Rust backend | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Persistent shadow-git checkpoints | Yes | No ³ | No | No | No | Yes | Edit review accept/reject | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | LSP diagnostics to model | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | LSP code actions to model | Yes | — | No | — | No | — | LSP rename symbol to model | Yes | — | No | — | No | — | Inline completion local | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Sub-agent spawning | Yes | No ⁴ | Yes | No | No | No | Plan mode | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | MCP support | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | HuggingFace model browser | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Per-model config overrides | Yes | No | No | Partial | No | No | Per-task model routing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Engineering skills | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Voice STT + TTS | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Session export MD/JSON/PDF | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Configurable thinking levels | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Tool call modes parallel/sequential | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Tree-sitter fallback diagnostics | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Custom skills project + global | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Todo list tracking | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Footnotes: Cursor — Supports Ollama via OpenAI-compatible endpoint for chat and tab completion, but agent modes do not work with local LLMs as of May 2025 community feature request open . Claude Code — Supports local Ollama models via Anthropic-compatible API endpoint Ollama 0.14+ . Cloud Anthropic is the default backend. Cursor — Has session-local checkpoints that do not persist across IDE restarts and do not use a shadow git repository. They capture file changes only, not terminal side effects. Cursor — Has parallel agents via git worktrees Agents Window and /best-of-n multi-model runs, but does not support spawning sub-agents from within an ongoing conversation. ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Quanta AI Editor │ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ VS Code OSS Electron Frontend │ │ │ │ ┌───────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ Chat Webview │ │ Editor │ │ Inline Comp │ │ │ │ │ │ TypeScript │ │ Monaco │ │ TypeScript │ │ │ │ │ └──────┬────────┘ └──────┬──────┘ └──────┬───────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ┌──────┴──────────────────┴────────────────┴───────┐ │ │ │ │ │ Quanta Extension TypeScript │ │ │ │ │ │ RPC Client · Diagnostics · LSP Bridge │ │ │ │ │ └──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ └─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ JSON-RPC 2.0 over TCP │ │ ┌─────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Quanta Backend Rust │ │ │ │ ┌─────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ Agent Loop │ │ Tool Registry│ │ Session Manager │ │ │ │ │ ReAct │ │ 30+ tools │ │ persistence │ │ │ │ └──────┬──────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────────────┘ │ │ │ ┌──────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ Checkpoint Service · MCP · LSP Reverse RPC │ │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ Ollama │ │ OpenAI API │ │ Anthropic API│ │ │ │ │ │ localhost │ │ optional │ │ optional │ │ │ │ │ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └──────────────┘ │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Key design principles: - The extension is a thin UI layer — all agent logic lives in the Rust backend - Communication via newline-delimited JSON-RPC 2.0 over TCP localhost only - The backend manages tool execution, LSP reverse-RPC, checkpoints, sessions, and MCP - Cloud providers OpenAI, Anthropic are optional — Ollama is the primary inference engine - — Install and start the Ollama service Ollama https://ollama.ai Install a model example ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:7b - Git — Required for the checkpoint system Download the latest release from the Releases /ContegoCode/Quanta-Code-Editor/releases page Extract the archive and run Quanta.exe Open a project folder File Open Folder Open the chat panel — Click the Quanta icon in the activity bar Select a model — Click the model name in the chat header to pick from your Ollama models Start coding — Ask Quanta to build features, fix bugs, refactor code, or explain your codebase Tip:Use @ in the chat input to mention files and inject them as context. Download the latest release from the Releases /ContegoCode/Quanta-Code-Editor/releases page. Extract and run — no build tools required. Quanta's agent has access to 30+ tools organized into functional groups: | Tool | Description | |---|---| read file | Read file contents with line numbers 10MB limit, outline for large files | write file | Create or overwrite files atomically auto-creates parent dirs | edit file | Find-and-replace edits with multi-strategy matching exact, fuzzy, ellipsis | apply diff | Apply unified diffs with 7-strategy flexible patching | list directory | List directory contents dirs first, then files, alphabetical | find path | Glob-based file search / .rs , respects .gitignore | grep | Regex content search across files with context lines, pagination | terminal | Execute shell commands safety guards, streaming output, sandbox support | create directory | Create directories recursively | delete path | Delete files or directories blocked in Code mode for safety | copy path | Copy files or directories recursively | move path | Move or rename files atomic when possible | | Tool | Description | |---|---| diagnostics | Get LSP errors/warnings with freshness tracking and tree-sitter fallback | go to definition | Jump to symbol definition via reverse RPC to VS Code | find references | Find all references to a symbol across the project | get code actions | Get available quick fixes and refactorings | apply code action | Apply a code action with edit tracking and staleness checks | rename symbol | Rename a symbol across the entire workspace | | Tool | Description | |---|---| git status | Show working tree status with branch info | git diff | Show staged or unstaged changes | git commit | Stage and commit changes auto-creates .gitignore if missing | git branch | Create, switch, or list branches | git log | Show recent commit history | git stash | Stash, pop, or list stashes | | Tool | Description | |---|---| spawn agent | Spawn synchronous or async sub-agents up to 3 levels deep | create thread | Create independent background conversation threads | check subagent | Check status and retrieve results from async sub-agents | list agents and models | List available agents and models | | Tool | Description | |---|---| fetch | HTTP GET with HTML-to-Markdown conversion | image search | Search the web for images DuckDuckGo, no API key | skill | Load engineering skills from project, global, or built-in sources | tool search | On-demand deferred loading of MCP tools | write plan file | Write implementation plans in Plan mode | undo edit | Undo the most recent accepted edit to a file | todo list | Persistent task tracking across conversation turns | | Mode | Capabilities | Use Case | |---|---|---| Code | Full toolset except delete path | Building features, fixing bugs, refactoring | Ask | Read-only no file writes, no terminal | Understanding code, asking questions | Plan | Read-only + write plan file | Planning before implementing | Switch modes using the mode button in the chat header. Quanta provides deep LSP integration that feeds real-time diagnostics to the model: Push-based diagnostics — VS Code sends diagnostics to the backend cache as they change Per-file version tracking — Ensures diagnostics are fresh and correctly scoped Deduplication — Merges diagnostics from multiple sources LSP, tree-sitter Auto-refresh — Diagnostics are re-fetched after agent file edits Tree-sitter fallback — Syntax-based diagnostics for languages without an LSP Language-specific configuration — Auto-configures LSP servers for 20+ languages Supported LSP features: - Diagnostics errors, warnings, info, hints - Go to definition - Find references - Code actions quick fixes, refactorings - Apply code action with edit tracking - Rename symbol workspace-wide Auto-configured languages: C , TypeScript/JavaScript, Rust, Python, Go, Java, Kotlin, Dart, Ruby, F , Erlang, Haskell, D, R, LaTeX, and more. Quanta creates automatic workspace-level snapshots using a shadow git repository — completely separate from your project's own git repo. Automatic — A checkpoint is saved before every agent write action Works without git — Your project doesn't need to be a git repo Workspace-level — Covers edits, deletes, moves, and terminal-generated changes Browseable — View checkpoint timeline with messages and timestamps Restorable — Revert the entire workspace to any checkpoint Diffable — Compare any checkpoint against current state or another checkpoint Deletable — Select and delete individual checkpoints or all at once Safe — Checkpoints are stored in ~/.quanta/checkpoints/ and never touch your project Every agent edit is tracked in a per-edit history with full undo/redo support: Diff preview — See exactly what changed before accepting Accept/reject individually — Review each edit one at a time Accept/reject all — Bulk operations for multi-file changes Undo — Revert specific edits after they've been applied Redo — Re-apply undone edits Full diff view — Open a complete diff in a separate editor panel Edit history panel — Timeline of all edits in the current session Quanta supports the Model Context Protocol https://modelcontextprotocol.io for extending the agent with external tools: | Server | Tools | Description | |---|---|---| Jina AI | 20 | Web reading, search, screenshots, academic search arXiv/SSRN , image search, reranking, classification, PDF extraction. Requires Jina API key. | GitHub | 7 | Search repositories, read files, create issues, list issues, create PRs, create branches, push files. Requires GitHub token. | Filesystem | 6 | Read, write, list, create, move, and search files on the local filesystem. No API key required. | Fetch | 1 | Fetch web pages and convert HTML to markdown. Requires uvx Python . No API key required. | Git | 5 | Git status, diff, log, commit, and branch management. Requires uvx Python . No API key required. | Sequential-thinking | 1 | Structured step-by-step reasoning with branching, revision, and dynamic thought count. Recommended for Plan mode. | Memory | 4 | Persistent knowledge graph — create entities, relations, search nodes, read graph. | HuggingFace | 4 | Search models, get model info, list model files, download models. Requires HF token. | Serena | 7 | Semantic code analysis via LSP — find symbols, references, get details, replace symbol bodies, insert code before/after. Requires uvx. | Playwright | 6 | Browser automation — navigate, click, fill, screenshot, evaluate JS, select options. Official Microsoft server. | Arxiv | 5 | Search arXiv papers free-text, author, category , get full metadata, list subject categories. | Augments | 7 | Coding research — API docs, code examples, version comparisons, migration guides, error diagnosis, dependency scanning. Optional GitHub token. | PlantUML | 4 | Generate UML diagrams sequence, class, activity, and more from text descriptions. | Context7 | 2 | Up-to-date library and framework documentation fetched live from the source. | On-demand tool loading — MCP tools are deferred until needed, reducing context overhead by ~85% Custom server configuration — Add any MCP-compatible server API key management — Securely store credentials for MCP servers Server status monitoring — See connection status at a glance Tool search — The agent can search for and load MCP tools by keyword Route different models to different tasks for optimal performance: | Task | Config Setting | Description | |---|---|---| | Main chat | quanta.defaultModel | Primary model for agent conversations | | Sub-agents | quanta.subagentModel | Model for spawned sub-agents | | Summarization | quanta.summarizationModel | Model for auto-generating conversation titles | | Inline completion | quanta.inlineCompletion.model | Coder model for FIM completions | Fine-tune each model individually via the Local Model Override Settings panel ~/.quanta/model overrides.json : | Setting | Options | Description | |---|---|---| | Think level | Low / Medium / High | Reasoning depth for thinking models | | Temperature | 0.0–2.0 | Sampling temperature | | Top-p | 0.0–1.0 | Nucleus sampling threshold | | Top-k | 1–100 | Top-k sampling | | Num predict multiplier | 1x–10x | Scale max output tokens | | Tool call mode | Parallel / Sequential | How the model calls tools | | Edit format | WholeFile / UnifiedDiff / FindReplace | Preferred file editing strategy | | Context window | Custom | Override the model's context length | | Prefer write file | On / Off | Prefer whole-file writes with fallback to edit/diff | | Preserve thinking | On / Off | Keep thinking content during context compaction | | Max empty retries | 1–10 | Retries for empty completions thinking models | | Max unfinished retries | 1–10 | Retries when LSP errors remain | Override priority: User override Built-in profile Baseline defaults Browse and install models directly from HuggingFace without leaving the editor: Search — Find GGUF models by name, filter by pipeline tag and size Sort — By downloads, likes, or relevance Download — GGUF files or safetensors directories with progress tracking Auto-register — Downloaded models are automatically registered with Ollama Hardware specs — Detects CPU, RAM, GPU VRAM to help you pick the right model Cleanup — Tracks and removes orphaned blobs from cancelled downloads Model management — View and delete locally installed models Quanta includes 20+ built-in engineering skills that provide structured guidance for common development tasks: | Skill | Description | |---|---| help | Get help with Quanta features and commands | implement | Implementation guidance for features | init | Initialize a new project with Quanta | setup-project | Configure project with issue tracker | wayfinder | Navigate and understand a codebase | triage | Triage and prioritize issues | to-spec | Convert requirements to specifications | to-tickets | Convert specifications to tickets | grill-with-docs | Validate code against documentation | improve-codebase-architecture | Systematic architecture improvement | | Skill | Description | |---|---| tdd | Test-driven development with mocking | code-review | Structured code review | security-review | Security vulnerability review | diagnosing-bugs | Systematic bug diagnosis | deep-research | Deep research methodology | research | General research approach | prototype | Prototyping logic + UI | domain-modeling | Domain modeling with ADRs | codebase-design | Architecture design Design-It-Twice | simplify | Code simplification | verify | Verification strategies | resolving-merge-conflicts | Merge conflict resolution | webapp-testing | Web application testing | grilling | Code quality grilling | Create your own skills in: Project-local: .agents/skills/{name}/SKILL.md Global: ~/.agents/skills/{name}/SKILL.md - integration tiny.en, base.en, small.en models - Configurable language - Dictation toggle: Ctrl+Shift+M - Audio buffer processing with temporary file handling - integration with voice model downloads from HuggingFace - Configurable voice e.g., en US-lessac-medium - Speed control - Read aloud toggle: Ctrl+Shift+L - Markdown cleaning for natural speech - Voice listing installed and available - Create, list, load, and delete sessions - Auto-generated conversation titles - Search sessions by content - Per-session and cumulative token usage tracking - Session persistence to disk - Cascade delete for sub-agent sessions Export to Markdown, JSON, or PDF Import from JSON or Markdown- Exports include thinking content, tool calls, and timestamps Plan before you build: - Switch to Plan mode in the chat header - Ask Quanta to create an implementation plan - Review the rendered markdown plan in the plan panel - Click Implement Plan to switch to Code mode and execute - Edit the plan at any time via Edit Plan Plan files are saved to .quanta/plans/ and persist across sessions. | Setting | Default | Description | |---|---|---| quanta.serverHost | 127.0.0.1 | Backend server host | quanta.serverPort | 8080 | Backend server port | quanta.serverPath | "" | Custom path to backend binary | quanta.autoStartServer | true | Auto-start backend on activation | | Setting | Default | Description | |---|---|---| quanta.defaultModel | "" | Default model empty = first available | quanta.subagentModel | "" | Model for sub-agents | quanta.summarizationModel | "" | Model for title generation | | Setting | Default | Description | |---|---|---| quanta.inlineCompletion.enabled | true | Enable inline completions | quanta.inlineCompletion.model | "" | Override completion model | quanta.inlineCompletion.debounceMs | 300 | Debounce delay | quanta.inlineCompletion.maxContextLines | 100 | Context lines to send | quanta.inlineCompletion.minPrefixChars | 3 | Minimum prefix to trigger | | Setting | Default | Description | |---|---|---| quanta.autoApproveEdits | false | Auto-approve without diff preview | quanta.terminalSandbox | false | Terminal sandbox mode | | Setting | Default | Description | |---|---|---| quanta.treeSitterFallback | true | Tree-sitter syntax linting fallback | quanta.diagnosticsWaitMs | 2000 | LSP diagnostic wait time | | Setting | Default | Description | |---|---|---| quanta.speechToText.enabled | false | Enable speech-to-text | quanta.speechToText.language | en | Language code | quanta.textToSpeech.enabled | false | Enable text-to-speech | quanta.textToSpeech.speed | 1.0 | Speech speed | MIT License — see LICENSE /ContegoCode/Quanta-Code-Editor/blob/main/Extension/LICENSE for details. Copyright c 2026 Quanta AI Quanta AI — Local-first AI coding, powered by Rust and Ollama.