Copilot agentic chat

[emarc]

Description

Next generation of Vaadin Copilot AI, with features similar to those prototyped.

Tier

Plus

License

Proprietary

Motivation

Background

The AI "command prompt" in Vaadin Copilot has so far been very limited (by design) mostly focused on small "one shot" UI changes to the current view.

Problem

Some of the main problems with the current solution includes

• no history (one-shot command, not a chat)
• limited ability to edit multiple files
• limited project-specific knowledge
• not available if the project "crashes" (not able to recover or help fix bugs)
• completely custom, not reusable for integrations like MCP

Solution

We've prototyped the next generation with technical and UX improvements.

First steps to "productize":

• Run in a separately, not "crash" with the application
• Make into a Chat with history, accessible from the browser (separately from the application)
• Modularize with MCP
• Improve "RAG"

Notes

This is fairly high-level and vague for now.

Requirements

• Run in separate process

• Chat -like experience with history

• "MCP ready"

• Improved RAG

• License check

• Feature flag (?)

Nice-to-haves

Risks, limitations and breaking changes

Risks

The UX regarding where and how the Chat is shown is a bit unclear; we have promising ideas, but it needs testing.

The industry landscape is changing more and faster than "usual"; e.g. MCP is still very much developing, IDEs feature set limited but evolving quickly. We need to be ready to course correct quickly. This is what the "modularity" aims for.

Limitations

The chat can be fairly simple for now, leaving advanced diffing etc to the IDE.

Breaking changes

We'll need to transition from the old prompt to the new chat. Exactly how will have to be worked out separately.

If/when we change the Copilot ui structure ("iframe solution"), it has some implications for the user.

Out of scope

No response

Materials

No response

Metrics

• Usage statistics

Pre-implementation checklist

• Estimated (estimate entered into Estimate custom field)
• Product Manager sign-off
• Engineering Manager sign-off

Pre-release checklist

• Documented (link to documentation provided in sub-issue or comment)
• UX/DX tests conducted and blockers addressed
• Approved for release by Product Manager

Security review

This needs a security review (of multiple parts).

• Security reviewed