The open-source Cursor rival that became a VS Code fork manual

What it does

This repository contains a full fork of Visual Studio Code that injected AI agents, autocomplete, and local model hosting directly into the editor. Rather than bolting features on via an extension, the team modified the core build pipeline and internal services to stream diffs token-by-token, sync background file edits with the text buffer, and render React with Tailwind inside the VS Code shell. It is now deprecated and no longer maintained, though the code remains fully open source.

The interesting bit

The README essentially repositions the corpse: because Microsoft keeps VS Code’s packaging, signing, and auto-update pipeline private, Void’s working GitHub Actions and custom build scripts are now treated as the main artifact. It also solved the surprisingly stubborn problem of mounting React and scoped Tailwind inside VS Code’s rigid architecture, which plain forks cannot do without extending the compilation pipeline.

Key highlights

• Full VS Code fork with native AI integration rather than an extension layer
• Custom EditCodeService streams diffs in real time and VoidModelService syncs background file changes to the editor buffer
• Direct-to-provider messaging with no data retention by the editor itself
• Working open-source replacement for VS Code’s private build, packaging, signing, and auto-update pipeline
• AI provider layer built from scratch supporting FIM autocomplete, custom grammars for <thinking> tags, and tool tags via IPC

Caveats

• Development is permanently paused; the team warns that existing features will likely degrade over time
• The project explicitly points users to newer community forks rather than continuing itself

Verdict

Care if you are planning to fork VS Code and need a working example of how to compile React inside it, replace Microsoft’s private build pipeline, or wire AI providers through IPC. Skip it if you are looking for a maintained IDE; this is a reference archive, not a product.