I ditched Copilot on VS Code for this free extension, and it's miles ahead
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A developer shares their experience replacing GitHub Copilot with llama-vscode, a free VS Code extension that connects local LLMs to the editor. The main motivations are avoiding Copilot's subscription fees and usage caps. llama-vscode supports chat, file context, agentic coding, and MCP server integration. The author pairs it with locally hosted models like Qwen3-35B running on llama-server instances, finding them capable enough for debugging and troubleshooting while keeping energy and cost overhead low.
Table of contents
I’m not fond of the Copilot functionality built into VS CodeThe llama-vscode extension has all the AI features I can ask forThe extension can even spin up a llama.cpp environment1.2K Impressions