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Type / in the VS Code chat input to open the command menu. The menu only shows commands that are available in the current client, project, and session. Most commands are shared with the optional terminal UI. VS Code-only and terminal-only commands are listed separately at the end. For example, /share appears only when team sharing is enabled, and /tasks appears after the session has a task list.

Chat

/compress runs immediately. Smart compact is a separate automatic setting that monitors context usage.

Modes

You can also press Shift+Tab to cycle through the modes available in your environment. See Agent modes for when to use each mode.

Project and hardware tools

The Plot view is currently available in VS Code. /plot is not exposed by the terminal UI.
/hardware-force-release can interrupt another session that is using the board. Check /hardware-queue first.

Approvals and execution

Read Tool approvals before enabling automatic confirmation.

Connections and help

VS Code commands

VS Code adds three chat commands: Use /tutorial reset to show the tutorial entry prompt again.

Skill commands

Installed skills become slash commands when their names do not conflict with a built-in command. For example, if you have installed the corresponding skills:
Embedder loads the skill instructions before it handles the rest of the message. The available commands depend on bundled skills, project skills, and user-installed skills. See Skills for discovery and installation paths.

Terminal UI commands

These commands are available when you launch the interactive terminal UI with embedder. Use them in the terminal chat input. /thinking switches between two views of the thinking rows that appear above responses. Collapsed rows show a one-line summary with the thinking duration; select a row or run /thinking to read the full text. Embedder saves the selection to your user preferences, so it persists across sessions. Thinking starts collapsed. See Use Embedder from the CLI for installation and interface differences.
Last modified on September 19, 2026