CodeBuddy Tutorial

This is a tutorial — follow it once and you will download or install one surface, sign in, and send a first prompt.

Look up commands in the Cheatsheet; copy recipes from the Cookbook; untangle names in the Glossary.

Goal: stop treating CodeBuddy as "Tencent also has a coding assistant" and start knowing whether to open the IDE, install the plugin, or run codebuddy.

Step 0: pick a surface

The three official coding forms are not one product with three skins. The table is from the product overview:

Your situation	Use
You already live in VS Code / JetBrains / Visual Studio	Plugin
You want one sentence → prototype, mock, deployable app	IDE
You work in a terminal, or need headless / CI / bulk repo edits	CLI (CodeBuddy Code)

The three forms share one account quota (troubleshooting). Install one to start.

The pricing page is client-rendered. This site does not invent plan numbers. See codebuddy.cn/pricing. The page description mentions a limited-time free personal plan, a limited-time free enterprise flagship plan, and a dedicated enterprise edition.

Install the IDE

Source: Install and sign-in.

Requirements (official table):

OS	Supported versions
macOS	macOS 11 (Big Sur) and later
Windows	Windows 10 and later (Windows 7/8/8.1 not supported)

Official note: systems that miss those versions cannot start CodeBuddy IDE.

Download: CodeBuddy CN or the IDE landing page, matching your CPU. Official CN download is also listed as copilot.tencent.com/ide; intl is codebuddy.ai.

macOS: drag the package into Applications.

Windows (official steps):

1. Double-click the installer. If it asks to install for the current user only, choose OK.
2. Accept the agreement.
3. Pick the install location and keep choosing Next.

Personal sign-in (official): open the IDE → Sign in → WeChat or phone number → return to the IDE.

Enterprise / dedicated editions use Tencent Unified Identity or an address from your admin. This tutorial does not cover purchase.

Update: top-right Account → Check for updates → Install now if a build is waiting.

Install the plugin

Source: Plugin docs home.

Official minimum versions (plugin page; the overview lists Visual Studio as 17.0, the plugin page lists 17.6 — this table follows the plugin page):

IDE	Minimum
Visual Studio Code	1.82
Visual Studio	17.6 (VS 2022)
IntelliJ IDEA / PyCharm / GoLand / CLion / PhpStorm	2022.2
Android Studio	Flamingo | 2022.2.1
WeChat DevTools IDE	1.06.2409140

Official notes: other JetBrains IDEs follow the JetBrains marketplace; a compatibility pack goes down to 2020.3 but "cannot use the latest product features".

VS Code (three official paths):

1. Install VS Code 1.82+.
2. Install the extension by any of:
   • Official one-click install (VS Code must already be installed)
   • Marketplace search 腾讯云代码助手
   • Download the package and install it by hand

JetBrains: Settings → Plugins → search 腾讯云代码助手 → Install; or install from disk.

Sign-in: official login page — click the status-bar icon or the plugin login page.

Plugin capabilities (product overview): inline completion, fix, explain, unit tests, local review, @workspace / #Codebase, chat, custom instructions, RAG knowledge bases, Hunyuan / DeepSeek model switching.

First session: open a file you know, accept one completion, then ask what the file does. For repo-level questions use the official @workspace or #Codebase mentions. Do not assume the plugin has ingested every repo at the company.

Install the CLI

The product name is CodeBuddy Code. The binary is codebuddy. The npm package is @tencent-ai/codebuddy-code.

Sources: Installation guide, Quick start.

Package managers (start here)

Prerequisite (install page): Node.js 18.20 or later.

The troubleshooting page says the same. The docs overview CLI section says Node.js 18.0+. Tencent Cloud intl FAQ has said Node.js 22+. This page follows the install guide.

Official package-manager commands:

npm install -g @tencent-ai/codebuddy-code

pnpm add -g @tencent-ai/codebuddy-code

yarn global add @tencent-ai/codebuddy-code

bun install -g @tencent-ai/codebuddy-code

Homebrew (macOS/Linux, no Node.js) from the install page:

brew tap Tencent-CodeBuddy/tap
brew install codebuddy-code

or:

brew install Tencent-CodeBuddy/tap/codebuddy-code

Verify (install page):

codebuddy --version

Native binary (Beta)

The install page marks native install as Beta. Platforms: macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel x86_64), Linux (arm64 or x86_64), Windows (x86_64).

Migrate from npm:

codebuddy install

Fresh install (install page):

curl -fsSL https://www.codebuddy.cn/cli/install.sh | bash

irm https://www.codebuddy.cn/cli/install.ps1 | iex

The quick start publishes a second official pair:

curl -fsSL https://copilot.tencent.com/cli/install.sh | bash

irm https://copilot.tencent.com/cli/install.ps1 | iex

Both pages are official. Do not merge them. Follow the page you are reading.

If the command is missing, the install page says add:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Windows: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\codebuddy\bin.

Windows troubleshooting also requires Git Bash (troubleshooting).

Update:

codebuddy update

or re-run the package-manager install. Disable auto-update with export DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1.

Default config dir: ~/.codebuddy (Windows %USERPROFILE%\.codebuddy). Override with CODEBUDDY_CONFIG_DIR. The install page says this avoids clashes with other apps that use the CodeBuddy engine (for example WorkBuddy).

Sign in to the CLI

Source: Quick start · login.

On first launch:

Select login method:
› Log in via Chinese Site
  Log in via International Site
  Log in via Enterprise Domain
  Log in via iOA (Tencent only)

Method	When	Notes
Chinese Site	Users in China	Auth via copilot.tencent.com
International Site	Users outside China	Auth via codebuddy.ai
Enterprise Domain	Dedicated / private deploy	Needs the address from your company
iOA	Tencent employees	Internal only

Use ↑↓ and Enter; the browser finishes auth.

First CLI session

cd /path/to/your/project
codebuddy

Official strong recommendation:

> /init

The quick start calls /init "strongly recommended": it builds a project knowledge graph so later turns scan less. After a large structural change: /clear then /init.

Then:

> Help me analyze this project's structure

Language: /config → Language after launch.

One-shot (official examples):

codebuddy -p "Optimize this SQL query"

When the turn needs files or shell, official docs require -y or --dangerously-skip-permissions:

codebuddy -p "Review code quality of src/utils.js" -y

Permission modes: Shift+Tab (Windows also Alt+M). The quick start cycle is default → bypass → accept → plan. --permission-mode values on the CLI reference are default, acceptEdits, auto, dontAsk, plan, bypassPermissions. Do not mix the short key-cycle names with the flag names in scripts.

Full command table: Cheatsheet.

Step 4: write down standing rules

CLI troubleshooting maps CLAUDE.md → CODEBUDDY.md as the "AI instructions and memory" file. The user-level path in the migration sample is ~/.codebuddy/CODEBUDDY.md. Whether a repo-root CODEBUDDY.md is auto-injected is not a hard sentence on that page — check /config and the official memory doc instead of guessing.

The official "symlink (recommended)" migration is in the Cookbook.

Guardrails

• Copy install commands from official pages. The npm package is @tencent-ai/codebuddy-code, not a guessed @tencent/codebuddy.
• Native install has two official URL pairs (codebuddy.cn/cli and copilot.tencent.com/cli). Do not invent a third.
• -p is not "allow everything". File / shell / network turns need an explicit permission policy.
• Do not treat WorkBuddy, Yuanbao, or Hunyuan as the next lesson. They are one row each on the map.
• Do not amplify marketing percentages such as "90% efficiency".

Next

• Recipes: Cookbook
• Commands and keys: Cheatsheet
• Concepts: Glossary
• Official CLI next: the "Getting started" group on CLI docs