Skip to content

Getting Started

Install Agent Tools Loadout, add your first source, and equip content in under five minutes.

Installation

From the VS Code Marketplace

  1. Open VS Code
  2. Open the Extensions sidebar (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X)
  3. Search for "Agent Tools Loadout" or agent-loadout
  4. Click Install

From a .vsix file

If your organization distributes a custom build:

  1. Download the .vsix file from your internal artifact repository
  2. Open VS Code
  3. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P)
  4. Run Extensions: Install from VSIX...
  5. Select the downloaded file

From the command line

code --install-extension agent-loadout-0.1.2.vsix

Add Your First Source

After installation, you'll see a new icon in the Activity Bar on the left side of VS Code.

Step 1: Open the sidebar

Click the Agent Tools Loadout icon in the Activity Bar. You'll see a message: "No sources configured. Use 'Add Source' to get started."

Step 2: Add a source repository

Click the + button in the sidebar title bar, or run Agent Tools Loadout: Add Source from the Command Palette.

Enter a Git repository URL. Both HTTPS and SSH formats are supported:

https://github.com/your-org/agent-instructions.git
git@github.com:your-org/agent-instructions.git

Note

Authentication uses your existing Git configuration — SSH keys, credential helpers, personal access tokens. The extension does not store any credentials.

Step 3: Wait for the scan

The extension clones the repository (shallow, --depth=1) and scans for instruction content. You'll see a loading indicator while this happens.

Step 4: Browse content

Once loaded, the sidebar tree shows all discovered content organized by source and content type. Click any item to see a rich preview.

Equip Content

Single item

Right-click any content item and select Load. You'll be prompted to choose a target agent:

  • Cursor — writes to .cursor/rules/
  • GitHub Copilot — writes to .github/instructions/
  • Claude — writes to .claude/rules/

Multiple items

  1. Check the boxes next to the items you want to equip
  2. Click the download icon in the sidebar title bar
  3. Choose a target agent
  4. All selected items are written to your workspace

After equipping

Equipped items show a blue checkmark icon and (loaded) label in the tree. If the source content is updated after you equipped it, you'll see a warning icon with updated since loaded.

Unequip Content

To remove equipped files from your workspace:

  1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P)
  2. Run Agent Tools Loadout: Unequip
  3. Select the target agent
  4. Choose which files to remove

Next Steps

  • Features — Learn about search, filtering, format conversion, and more
  • Supported Agents — Understand where files go and how formats differ
  • Configuration — Tune sensitivity, set default agent, manage sources
  • Content Authoring — Write your own instruction content for your team