{"id":4818,"date":"2026-04-23T11:03:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wholetomato.com\/blog\/?p=4818"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:03:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:03:42","slug":"visual-assists-ai-assistant-things-you-can-do-with-va-intelligence-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wholetomato.com\/blog\/visual-assists-ai-assistant-things-you-can-do-with-va-intelligence-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Visual Assist\u2019s AI Assistant: Things You Can Do with VA Intelligence Right Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve been following Visual Assist for a while, you might have noticed something a little different about the last few releases. Alongside the navigation improvements, refactoring updates, and parser optimizations, there’s a quieter but important thread running through it all: <\/span>VA Intelligence<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

We introduced Explain with AI a few releases back, and with 2026.3 we just shipped Change Code with AI. You can <\/span>download the latest release<\/span><\/a> to try it.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are two features, with the same underlying idea: use AI to complement the tasks that you normally do with Visual Assist.<\/span><\/p>\n

This post is a quick, honest look at what VA Intelligence can do for you <\/span>right now<\/span><\/i>, where it works best, and where things are heading next.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two features, one idea<\/b><\/h2>\n

VA Intelligence currently has two functions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Explain with AI<\/b> does what it says. Select a symbol or a block of code, run it, and get a plain-language explanation of what it does. Selecting and highlighting parts of your code provides the necessary context to our local LLM parser.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s useful when you’re dropped into an unfamiliar codebase and you\u2019re trying to understand a dense macro chain, or you just want a second opinion on what a piece of logic is actually doing before you make changes to it manually.<\/span><\/p>\n

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VA Intelligence’s explain symbol provides you the context and description of the symbol in the Find References dialog.<\/p><\/div>\n

Change Code with AI<\/b> is the latest addition added in <\/span>VA 2026.3<\/span><\/a>. It lets you describe how you want to transform code in natural conversation and you get the suggested replacement. Select some code, type a prompt, review what changes in a diff view, and decide whether to keep it. The diff view is always the last step before your code is touched.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both features work the same way under the hood: you select some code, VA passes it to a local AI model along with some surrounding context, and the model responds. That “surrounding context” part is important\u2014 we’ll come back to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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VA Intelligence currently has two features: Explain Code and Change Code<\/p><\/div>\n

Where they actually shine<\/b><\/h2>\n

Here’s the thing about both features: they work really well on <\/span>focused, localized tasks<\/span><\/i>. If you’ve been hesitant to try them because you’re not sure what to ask, here’s a prompt list to help you get started to give you a feel for where they land:<\/span><\/p>\n