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Setup Guide 05

AI Toolkit for VS Code

The control center for running local models (SLMs) and fine-tuning.

What is it?

The AI Toolkit for Visual Studio Code is an extension that simplifies downloading, running, and testing Local LLMs (like Phi-3, Mistral, Llama) directly within your editor.


Installation

1Open Extensions

In VS Code, click the Extensions icon (blocks) on the left sidebar (or press Ctrl+Shift+X).

2Search

Type "AI Toolkit". Look for the one by Microsoft.

3Install

Click Install. A new icon (often looking like a sparkly box) will appear in your sidebar.

4Explore Models

Click the new icon. You will see a "Model Catalog" where you can download optimized models to run offline.

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