AI code assistant "aider" helps with programming across entire GitHub repositories

AI code generation tools like ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot are already available for software developers. However, these AI tools can only be used to automatically generate individual sections of code; the open source project "aider" now extends AI code generation to entire Git repositories. According to its creators, aider can be used not only for new projects, but also for existing, larger code bases.

"Aider is a command line tool that lets you pair program with GPT-3.5/GPT-4, to edit code stored in your local git repository. Aider will directly edit the code in your local source files, and git commit the changes with sensible commit messages," says the project website. This means that aider can be seen as a kind of AI mediator for ChatGPT, for which aider can, for example, create an overview map of entire Git repositories.

Once installed, the command line tool aider can include individual files in a ChatGPT session by calling it in the style of "aider <file1> <file2> ...". Alternatively, aider will use all files in the project when invoked from within the Git repository without a filename. Individual files can then be added or removed from the AI session within the chat session using the "/add" or "/drop" parameters.

Details on installing and using the AI assistant can be found on aider's GitHub page. The project page also contains sample chat transcripts with aider, e.g. changes to an existing JavaScript game or complex changes to multiple files, including debugging.