Quickstart Guide

Tabnine AI code assistant: Quickstart Guide

Getting started with Tabnine

Tabnine provides AI assistance for software developers directly in the IDE, helping to streamline various daily software development tasks, including the following:

• Plan

• Create

• Test

• Fix

• Document

• Explain

• Maintain

Tabnine helps developers be more productive and achieve these tasks by providing code completions via the Tabnine Chat interface.

This guide covers:

• Installing the Tabnine plugin

• Getting started with code completions

• Getting started with Tabnine Chat

• Getting more out of Tabnine

1. Installing the Tabnine plugin

Make sure you've installed and activated the Tabnine plugin in your IDE.

2. Getting started with code completions

Tabnine's code completions help you write code faster.

As you code in your IDE, you’ll get AI-powered code suggestions based on your current context. The code completions adapt to your code as you type, and can offer code completions until the end of the line, for the next block of code, or full-function implementations.

Get started

Visit Getting the most from Tabnine's code completions and learn:

• How to get Tabnine's code suggestions as you code
• How to accept a code suggestion (or partially accept it)

What to expect from Tabnine's code completions

Tabnine's code completion model was trained on real code. This means it works best when your current context looks like real code.

You can trigger comments-to-code completions with real code comments (i.e., documentation) instead of questions or instructions.

Tabnine helps you code faster and save extra typing, accelerating small, mundane coding tasks or reminding you of a specific syntax.

Tabnine code completions were not designed to help with high-level design or general questions about code, or to understand instructions. For these types of requests, use Tabnine Chat.

3. Getting started with Tabnine Chat

Tabnine Chat was designed to help developers perform various daily development tasks through a chat interaction interface, where the developer asks or instructs Tabnine regarding a code-related task.

Get started

• Launch Tabnine Chat from within your IDE.
• Ask or instruct Tabnine Chat to perform a coding task using natural language, built-in actions, or using CodeLens.
• Tabnine Chat then returns an answer, which you can review and apply to your code.

4. Getting more out of Tabnine

Optimize your usage of Tabnine's AI by keeping it focused and following these best practices:

• Use detailed and specific prompts.
• Use specific context.
• Use different conversations for different tasks and topics.
• Try a step-by-step approach to solving a larger problem.

Didn't get the response you wanted?

Here are some tips:

• Try asking a slightly different question or providing more detailed instructions.

• Make sure you've selected the relevant code before you ask a question.

• Consider opening a new conversation (with a fresh chat history).

What can I expect from Tabnine Chat?

The Tabnine Chat model was trained mainly on code with a small subset of English language text to support the chat interactions.

• Ask questions about code: Tabnine Chat was designed for code-related tasks; don't expect it to provide answers on general knowledge, emotions, etc.

• Use English as the primary language: The primary language of interaction with the chat is English. Tabnine Chat may be able to answer questions in other languages, but again, it was not designed for it and the answer may not be optimal.

Tabnine Chat was designed to help you achieve high-level tasks. However, don't expect to get the response you need in one click or one short instruction. Use Tabnine Chat in a step-by-step approach, where you collaborate with Tabnine's AI in iterations towards solving a larger problem.

Examples of Tabnine in action

See these examples for some of the most common use cases:

• Plan
• Create
• Test
• Fix
• Document
• Explain
• Maintain

See more in Capabilities.