Lumen is a VS Code extension for experimenting with Modal inference pipelines through plain files. It turns lumen.config.json into a workspace home, keeps server/ and assets/ organized, and opens .lumen files in a schema-driven editor that non-developers can use.
- Install the extension and authenticate the Modal CLI on your machine with
modal token set. - Create
lumen.config.jsonat the root of a workspace and open it in VS Code. - Select
Initialize Lumen Workspace. - Start the dev server from the workspace home.
- Create or open an
assets/*.lumenfile and configure a pipeline.
lumen.config.jsonis the workspace home. It owns setup, server lifecycle, pipeline creation, skill installation, and navigation.server/is committed source. It contains the Modal app, pipeline modules, and the local runtime contract.assets/is for*.lumenconfigs and generated outputs near them.- A
.lumenfile is a JSON array of configs for one managed server. Each entry targets a pipeline and stores parameter values.
server/contains the scaffolded Modal runtime and user-owned pipelines.assets/contains*.lumenrunner configs and generated artifacts..agents/skills/and.claude/skills/contain the bundled agent skills that Lumen installs into the workspace.
- Build the extension with
bun run --cwd packages/vscode build. - Package a local VSIX with
bun run --cwd packages/vscode package. - Typecheck with
bun run --cwd packages/vscode typecheck.