AI writing assistant for VS Code — prose, not code

No — Rewrait is a native Mac and Windows app that works at the operating-system level, over any window. There is nothing to install from the VS Code marketplace, nothing in your extensions list, and no impact on editor startup. Select prose anywhere — the Source Control commit box, a README, a code comment, a docstring — press the hotkey, and replace the selection with the rewrite. Because it isn't a VS Code plugin, it also isn't limited to VS Code: the same shortcut works in JetBrains IDEs, vim in a terminal, and — maybe most usefully — in the browser, on the GitHub PR descriptions and review comments where a lot of developer writing actually happens. If you switch editors next year, your writing layer comes with you: one tool for the prose around your code, everywhere that prose lives.

There is an overlap, so here is exactly how it behaves. Rewrait registers its shortcut globally with the operating system, so while Rewrait is running, pressing Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P with text selected triggers a rewrite — it takes priority over in-app bindings, including VS Code's command palette. Two practical ways to live with that. First, VS Code binds the command palette to F1 as well — same palette, no conflict — and remapping the palette in VS Code's keyboard shortcuts takes a minute if you prefer a different key. Second, much of the writing you'd rewrite lives outside the editor pane anyway: commit boxes, PR pages in the browser, Slack threads about the bug. Many developers keep F1 for the palette inside the editor and the hotkey for everywhere else. If that trade-off doesn't fit your setup, better to know before installing — we'd rather be upfront than surprise you on day one.

Copilot writes code; Rewrait handles the prose around it. Copilot autocompletes functions and, in chat form, explains and refactors code. Rewrait takes the English you typed — a rambling commit message, a PR description that buries the risk, a review comment that reads harsher than you meant — and rewrites it to be clear and readable, in place. The dividing line is simple: if a compiler will read it, that's Copilot territory; if a human teammate will read it, that's Rewrait territory. They run side by side without issue — Rewrait isn't an editor extension at all, so there's nothing competing inside VS Code. It's worth taking the prose seriously: commit messages and PR descriptions are the highest-leverage writing in a codebase, read for years by people debugging at 2am. That is the writing Rewrait is built for.

No — the rewrite engine's contract is to transform prose while preserving everything that isn't prose: markdown structure, links, file paths, inline code, command examples, and placeholders come back intact and verbatim. Rewrite a README section and the fenced code block inside it stays byte-for-byte; rewrite a docstring and the parameter names survive. You also control the blast radius with your selection: select one paragraph and only that paragraph is rewritten — the rest of the file is never touched, because Rewrait only ever sees the selected text. Every rewrite is shown for review before it replaces anything, so a result you don't like costs one keystroke to discard. Selections up to 10,000 characters are supported on Pro and Team (1,000 on Free), which comfortably covers a README's installation section or a long PR description in one pass.