Installation

Install ML.ai from the VS Code Marketplace or from a local VSIX, on macOS or Windows.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Editor	VS Code 1.125.0 or later, or Cursor
OS	macOS (Apple Silicon) or Windows (x64)
Not supported	Linux, Intel Mac, Windows ARM64, browser-hosted VS Code

The engine bundle ships native binaries per platform, so a build only exists for the platforms it was actually built for. See limitations for the reasoning.

Install from the Marketplace

This is the standard path for most installs: VS Code handles the download and setup, and future updates arrive the same way as any other extension update.

Open the listing and click Install:

marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=pixis-local.pixis

VS Code installs the extension and its bundled engine in one step. No separate download or setup is needed after this.

Install from a local VSIX

Installing from a .vsix file is for cases where the Marketplace isn't an option: an offline machine, a build shared directly by the team, or testing a specific version before it's published.

code --install-extension path/to/ml-ai-0.21.0.vsix --force

For Cursor, replace code with cursor.

--force overwrites an existing install of the same extension ID, which matters when you're updating from a VSIX rather than the Marketplace.

After installing

VS Code needs to load the newly installed extension before ML.ai can appear anywhere in the UI. Two steps get you there:

Reload the editor window

Extensions are loaded when a window starts, not the instant they finish installing. Reloading the window is what actually activates ML.ai.

Look for the ML.ai icon in the Activity Bar, the vertical strip on the side of the window. If it isn't there immediately, give it a moment: the extension can take a beat to register on a cold start, especially right after an install. Reload the window again and confirm the extension shows as enabled in the Extensions panel if it still doesn't show up.

If you previously installed a local VSIX of the same version and a Marketplace update doesn't seem to take effect, uninstall ML.ai first, then reinstall. See troubleshooting.

Next: first run.