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Getting Started with Forge

Forge 0.2.1 is in Preview. This page is the shortest path from download to a first Ask or Review session.

1. Download Forge

Install Forge 0.2.1 from the Visual Studio Marketplace, the Open VSX Registry, or download the VSIX from this site for VS Code and compatible editors such as Cursor.

Visual Studio Marketplace, Open VSX Registry, and direct VSIX download are all valid ways to install Forge 0.2.1.

2. Install in VS Code

From the Visual Studio Marketplace, open the Forge listing, install the extension, then continue at Open Forge below. Or install the downloaded VSIX:

1. Open VS Code.
2. Open the Extensions view.
3. Open the Extensions view menu (More Actions / …).
4. Choose Install from VSIX…
5. Select the downloaded forge-extension-0.2.1.vsix file.
6. Reload or restart the editor if VS Code asks you to.

Optional CLI:

code --install-extension forge-extension-0.2.1.vsix

Run that from the directory that contains the downloaded file, or pass the full path to it.

3. Install in Cursor

Cursor is VS Code-compatible. Install Forge from the Open VSX Registry in Cursor’s Extensions view, or use the same Install from VSIX workflow. Forge does not add a special Cursor Agent integration; it sits beside whatever coding agent you already use.

1. Open Cursor.
2. Open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P) and run Extensions: Install from VSIX…, or use the Extensions view menu → Install from VSIX….
3. Select the downloaded forge-extension-0.2.1.vsix file.
4. Reload the window if prompted.

4. Open Forge

1. Click Forge in the activity bar.
2. Open a workspace folder when you want repository tools or Project Memory.

That opens the Forge sidebar. Forge can reason with no folder open. Repository tools, Project Memory under .forge/, and legacy planning need a workspace folder.

5. API key

Forge 0.2.1 is free. It uses your own API key for the provider you select: OpenAI or Anthropic. When Forge reasons, that provider bills the request to your API account with them. Requests go directly to the provider you selected.

• A ChatGPT subscription is not OpenAI API billing, and a Claude subscription is not Anthropic API billing. You need an API account for the provider you use, with API access and billing configured.
• Create or manage keys on the OpenAI API keys page or in the Claude Console.
• Keep the key out of your repository. See OpenAI’s API key safety guidance. Anthropic shows a new key only once; store it the same way you would any other secret.
• Forge stores each key you supply in VS Code Secret Storage. Keys are not written to .forge/ or settings.json, and Forge never displays a stored key. OpenAI and Anthropic keys are stored separately.

6. Configure the provider, model, and key

Choose the provider and model in Forge. /model views or changes the reasoning model for the conversation you are in. Anthropic models show effort controls in Forge where that model supports them.

/key manages the API key for the active provider. You can also click the key icon in the Forge header. Its label follows the provider on the thread: Set OpenAI API key or Set Anthropic API key.

1. Open the Forge sidebar.
2. Select the provider and model, or run /model.
3. Run /key, or click the key icon, and paste the key when prompted.

Command Palette alternatives: Forge: Set OpenAI API Key and Forge: Set Anthropic API Key. Remove a stored key with Forge: Clear OpenAI API Key or Forge: Clear Anthropic API Key.

Two settings supply the default for a new conversation. An existing conversation keeps the model selected for that thread in Forge.

• forge.reasoning.provider — openai or anthropic. The shipped default is openai.
• forge.reasoning.model — model id for a new conversation. The shipped default is gpt-5. An Anthropic example is claude-sonnet-5.

The account for the selected provider has to allow the model you choose.

Other slash commands:

• /usage — token and request usage
• /conversations — browse conversations
• /new — start a new conversation
• /help — open Forge Help

7. First use

Forge is the reasoning companion. Your coding agent remains the implementation and execution agent.

Ask

Use Ask when you want Forge to independently investigate the repository and reason about an engineering question. Enter sends; Shift+Enter inserts a newline.

Example: “Where does this service load its deployment artifact, and what still points at the old path?”

Review

Switch the composer to Review proposal when you already have a plan, fix, or proposal from a coding agent and want Forge to check whether it actually fits the codebase. Paste the proposal, or use Choose source… to load it from the editor, clipboard, or a file.

Example: paste the agent’s plan to move a config file, then ask Forge whether the plan matches the repository you have.

After a review starts, the composer returns to Ask for follow-up. Help in the Forge header covers the rest of the sidebar.

Attachments

Attach images, PDFs, and supported text or source files. Choose them, drop them on the composer, or paste an image. You can stage more than one file and remove a file before you send. A message can be the files alone. They stay in the Forge knowledge directory until that send, which transmits the selected files to the provider on the thread. Not every model accepts images or PDFs. Text files can still be sent. After you send, the attachments stay with the conversation and remain after reload. If the local copy is missing, Forge treats that file as unavailable.

Conversations and Stop

A Forge Project is an engineering knowledge workspace. It is not a repository, an editor workspace, or a folder, and it can exist with no folder open. /conversations opens Conversations. The sidebar control is the everyday navigator. The organizer, opened from the Conversations title, is the larger management surface for projects, nested folders, search, project-specific tags, pin, archive, rename, move, and delete. Conversations that are not in a project yet stay Unassigned. /new starts a new conversation. A thread keeps its provider and model. Switching provider starts a new conversation and leaves the previous one in Conversations. Fork a completed answer to start an independent conversation from the transcript up to that answer. Conversations live in the Forge knowledge directory on this machine, outside editor extension storage and outside .forge/. They do not sync to the cloud. Project Memory remains under .forge/. An OpenAI thread may also use OpenAI’s durable Conversations API. An Anthropic thread continues from the Forge transcript.

While Forge is reasoning, Stop cancels the in-flight turn. The accepted prompt is kept, and the cancelled state survives reload.

8. Project Memory

Forge can save durable engineering findings under .forge/ in the workspace, including .forge/memory.json. That is project data on disk. It does not sync to the cloud.

Project Memory can preserve things such as:

• architecture decisions
• constraints
• runtime and deployment facts
• conventions
• known traps

In Forge, Save Finding writes a durable note to Project Memory. Uninstalling the extension does not delete .forge/.

9. Usage and cost

OpenAI or Anthropic bills API usage to the account for the provider you selected, according to that account’s plan and usage.

/usage shows local usage, including provider and token breakdowns. Those numbers stay in local editor storage. They are not a price estimate, and Forge does not publish a cost per request.

Monitor and control spend in your OpenAI usage dashboard or Anthropic usage page.

10. Privacy

When you Ask or Review, the context required for the request may be sent directly to the provider you selected, using your key. Files you attach and send go to that provider as well. Forge does not send telemetry, prompts, source, or attachments to DevFoundry. Repository tools do not read contents of .env* files. Conversations stay in the Forge knowledge directory on this machine and do not sync to the cloud. See Privacy for the data-flow detail.

Privacy Support & Feedback Forge 0.2.1 release notes Back to download