Ability to select Default Context in Chat

[Rockstage]

Validations

• [X] I believe this is a way to improve. I'll try to join the Continue Discord for questions
• [X] I'm not able to find an open issue that requests the same enhancement

Problem

Right now we have to select a context from the dropdown with nearly every message in order for the changes in the current file to be reflected in the prompt.

Co-pilot (altho limited), solves this issue quite elegantly by passing the current file with every chat prompt.

Solution

I believe the ability to set a default contextProvider for the chat, that can easily be overwritten, could greatly improve UX. If no context is selected from the dropdown, it falls back to the default, defined in the config.

{ "name": "open", "params": {}, "default": true },

Thanks for the incredible tool!

[sestinj]

@Rockstage Love this idea! Definitely something we can do

[telemakhos]

Hi any update with this? agree with the OP, there should be some option(s) to set default context. Having the extension to load the current active file by default once the user hits "Enter" (like in Cursor) would be ideal.

This is a massive UX trick to reduce friction and stay in flow. Having to add context every single time is kind of tiresome.

Just adding the current file would be already a massive win, but I'd suggest giving the user several default options:

• Current File: send only current file as context
• Open Files: send all current open files
• Chat files: include all files added in the chat so far
• etc

[sestinj]

A few updates on this:

• You can use option+enter to include the currently open file. We originally tried doing the opposite (open file by default), but overwhelmingly received feedback that this wasn't desirable
• Because we understand that this might be preferred for some users still, there's an "experimental.defaultContext" option in config.json, which allows you to select the current file or other context providers