EXPERIMENTAL FEEDBACK REQUEST - CALM VSCode Extension #1845
Description
Experimental Feature Feedback
The CALM maintainers seek your feedback on an experimental feature or module, detailed below.
Please add constructive positive or negative feedback as comments to this issue.
Description of Feature:
The CALM VSCode extension offers the ability to live-preview and navigate a CALM document within VSCode.
🎯 Interactive Preview Panel
- Live Architecture Visualization: Real-time diagram generation as you edit
- Smart Layout: Automatic positioning with multiple layout options
- Interactive Elements: Click to inspect, navigate between components
🌳 Tree View Navigation
- Structured Overview: Browse Nodes, Relationships, and Flows
- Quick Navigation: Jump between editor and preview
- Search & Filter: Find elements across large models
✨ Smart Editor Features
- Hover Information: Rich tooltips for model elements
- Auto-Refresh: Preview updates automatically on save
- Diagnostics Integration: Validation errors in Problems panel
See https://github.com/finos/architecture-as-code/tree/main/calm-plugins/vscode for screenshots and more detail.
📋 Template & Documentation Mode
- Documentation Generation: Create docs from CALM models
- Live Mode: Auto-refresh as you edit
- Multiple Formats: HTML and Markdown output
- Custom Templates: Use built-in or custom templates
Feedback Timeline:
- Publicised at Monthly Working Group Meeting on: 30 Sep 2025 Architecture as Code - Working Group Meeting - Tuesday 30th September, 2025 #1657
- Publicised at Weekly Office Hours on: 18 Sep 2025 Office Hours - 2025-09-18 #1622
- Announced on Architecture as Code Mailing List on: 04 Dec 2025 Office Hours - 4 Dec 2025 #1878
- Feedback Period Ends on: 30 Dec 2025
- Accepted as non-experimental / Removed from codebase on: December 11th, 2025
This experimental extension was retrospectively added into the experimental feature process on 24 Nov 2025 using dates where it was mentioned at Office Hours and the Monthly Working Group meeting.
Target Project:
https://github.com/finos/architecture-as-code/tree/main/calm-plugins/vscode
User Stories:
As a CALM architect I want to see a visual representation of the architecture as it is refined.
As a CALM architect I want to be able to use the CALM AI chatmode and have visual confidence in the generated output.
As a CALM architect I want to navigate around the CALM document
Feedback Emphasis:
- Usability
- Performance
- Visual representation of architectures
- Navigation of architectures
- Additional (missing) desired features
Current Limitations:
There is no interactive visualization of CALM documents. The only way to visualize a CALM architecture without this extension is:
- via CalmHub visualisation upload
- via the CALM CLI docify subcommand
Implementation Details:
- Can use CLI or built in validation
- Uses
calm-modelsandcalm-sharedmodules - on which the CALM CLI is built.