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IDE Integration

altimate-code integrates with your IDE via the Datamates extension, giving you AI-powered chat with 100+ data engineering tools directly in your editor.

Prerequisites

Install the altimate-code CLI globally:

npm install -g altimate-code

The Datamates extension requires this to be installed for the chat and tools to function.

Install the Extension

Install the Datamates extension for your IDE:

Open Altimate Code Chat

After installing the extension:

  1. Press Cmd+Shift+P (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux) to open the command palette
  2. Type Datamates
  3. Select Datamates: Open Altimate Code Chat

This opens the Altimate Code chat panel where you can interact with altimate agents and use all 100+ data engineering tools.

Features

  • Inline chat with altimate agents — ask questions, run tools, and get results directly in your editor
  • File context awareness — the agent sees your open files and project structure
  • Tool call results inline — SQL analysis, lineage, dbt operations, and more displayed in the chat
  • Agent mode switching — switch between Builder (full read/write), Analyst (read-only), and Plan (minimal access) modes from the command palette
  • 100+ data engineering tools — SQL validation, query optimization, column lineage, dbt model generation, FinOps analysis, schema exploration, and more

Configuration

The extension uses your existing altimate-code.json config. No additional IDE-specific configuration is required. Warehouse connections, LLM providers, permissions, and agent settings all carry over.

LLM Access

You need an LLM to power the chat. Two options:

  • BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) — Free and unlimited. Configure any of the 35+ supported providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, etc.)
  • Altimate LLM Gateway — Managed LLM access with dynamic model routing. 10M tokens free to get started — no API keys to manage

Full Datamates Documentation

The Datamates extension offers additional capabilities beyond Altimate Code Chat, including MCP server integrations, Knowledge Hub, Memory Hub, and Guardrails. See the Datamates documentation for full setup guides, integration configuration, and feature details.