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The VS Code extension

A machine is a folder you are editing. Open one as a workspace folder and every ordinary thing the editor does -- open, edit, save, search, rename, drag a file in -- happens inside the machine.

Install

Search for pilots in the Extensions view, or install pilots on the VS Code Marketplace. Nothing is installed in the guest.

pilots: Open Machine adds a pilot://<name>/<path> workspace folder beside whatever you already had open. pilots: Open Terminal puts a real shell in the same machine next to it, so the editor and the terminal agree about what is on disk.

Command palette

pilots: Open Machine

Commands

Command	What it does
`pilots: Set API Token`	Stores a token in the editor's secret storage. Never a setting: a setting is synced and readable by every other extension.
`pilots: Open Machine`	Adds the machine as a workspace folder.
`pilots: Create Machine`	Creates one and offers to open it.
`pilots: Open Terminal`	`pilot console` in a terminal panel.
`pilots: Destroy Machine`	Destroys it, after a confirmation, and removes its folder from the workspace.
`pilots: Refresh Files`	Drops the stat cache, for when something changed under you.
`Download to Local`	On a `pilot://` file, in the explorer or the editor tab menu.

Signing in

Nothing, if you have run pilot login: the extension reads the credential the CLI filed at ~/.config/pilots/credentials, along with the fleet it was filed against.

pilot login

pilots: Set API Token is for the other cases -- a token minted on the dashboard's Tokens page, or a second fleet. A token set there wins over the CLI's and lives in the editor's keychain rather than on disk.

Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
`pilots.apiUrl`	empty	The fleet's API URL. Empty uses the fleet in the CLI's credential, then `PILOT_API_URL`, then `https://api.pilotrun.app`.
`pilots.home`	`/home/pilot`	The directory Open Machine prefers. A preference, not a rule: a machine with no such directory opens where its code is, else at its own home, else at the root.

How it works

Every read and write is a command in the guest over the same exec route an agent uses, base64-encoded so binaries, CRLF and unicode survive a shell. There is no agent to install in the machine and no port to open, and a write to a suspended machine wakes it.

A listing costs ONE round trip, not one per entry. A stat per file is what makes a remote filesystem feel broken on a directory of any size.
Only stat is cached, and only for two seconds. A filesystem the editor caches is a filesystem that disagrees with the terminal running beside it.

Neovim

The Neovim plugin does the same thing over the same pilot:// URL scheme, with a terminal command beside it. Its guest commands are a port of this extension's, so a fix to one is a fix owed to the other.

Agents and MCP covers the other interfaces, and sandboxes covers what you are editing.