The Livt extension is the primary interactive development environment. It uses the managed toolchain for project commands and keeps a language server and compiler worker ready for responsive feedback.
Livt Project view
Each discovered project is shown once with nested Sources, Tests, Project Files, Dependencies, Outputs, and Vendor nodes. Right-click a project or file to run actions in the correct project context.
Multi-root workspaces may contain several independent Livt projects. The extension resolves commands from the selected project instead of relying on the workspace root.
Language features
- completion for declarations, types, members, and imports;
- hover information from source and library documentation;
- go to definition and references, including readable library sources;
- document symbols, workspace symbols, rename, and inlay hints;
- diagnostics and quick fixes; and
- document or project formatting through the language server.
Tests and diagnostics
The Livt Tests view and VS Code Test Explorer show the same discovered tests. Run a project, component, or individual test and follow streamed build and simulation output while it is running.
Compiler and language-server diagnostics appear in Problems. Open a diagnostic to navigate to its source location.
Build output
Build progress identifies the file being processed. After a successful build, use the project Outputs node to inspect generated VHDL, reports, and integration artifacts. Generated files remain separate from authored source.
Livt Agent
Open Livt Agent from the Livt view. Add a project, directory, group, or individual file to Agent Context before asking the agent to inspect or change it. The context is an explicit access boundary.
For broad tasks, ask for a plan, review it, and then let the agent work incrementally. Generated changes remain reviewable and should be validated and tested before acceptance.
Status and recovery
Run Livt: Show Extension Diagnostics when a tool, license, project, or background service is unavailable. Restart only the affected service after an installation change.
Next, learn how to configure a reproducible project.