Chat Integration

The @strata chat participant integrates strata into Copilot Chat. Ask natural language questions about your workspace and get AI-powered answers with full context.

How to Use

In Copilot Chat (or Claude Chat), type @strata followed by your question:

@strata what's the current workspace status?
@strata how do I validate config/main.yaml?
@strata which files have errors?

The participant injects workspace context into the LLM’s response, so answers are tailored to your actual state — not generic.

Slash Commands

In addition to freeform questions, use slash commands for specific workflows:

/status

Shows workspace health, active profile, readiness, and next steps.

Response includes:

| Property     | Value     |
| ------------ | --------- |
| Health       | 🟢 HEALTHY |
| Profile      | dev       |
| Readiness    | Phase 5/8 |
| Repositories | 2         |

Plus any issues and the next suggested action.

Use case: “Give me a quick overview of my workspace”

/validate

Validates the current file or a file you name.

@strata /validate config/main.yaml

Response shows:

• ✅ Validation passed (0 errors)

• ❌ List of errors with field paths and messages

Use case: “Check if my deployment file is valid before pushing”

/guide

Shows the 8-phase readiness checklist.

✅ Phase 1: Workspace initialized
✅ Phase 2: Repositories registered
⏳ Phase 5: Build artifacts ready — strata build run -f deploy/main.yaml

Use case: “What do I need to do next to be ready to deploy?”

/build

Lists all deployment files and shows how to build each one.

Response shows:

Available deployment files:

- deploy/dev.yaml
  strata build run -f deploy/dev.yaml --dry-run
  strata build run -f deploy/dev.yaml

- deploy/prd.yaml
  strata build run -f deploy/prd.yaml --dry-run
  strata build run -f deploy/prd.yaml

Use case: “How do I build my deployments?”

/deploy

Lists all deployment files and shows how to deploy each one.

Response shows:

Available deployment files:

- deploy/dev.yaml
  strata deploy run -f deploy/dev.yaml --dry-run
  strata deploy run -f deploy/dev.yaml --force

- deploy/prd.yaml
  strata deploy run -f deploy/prd.yaml --dry-run
  strata deploy run -f deploy/prd.yaml --force

Use case: “Walk me through deploying to production”

Freeform Questions

Ask any question and the participant provides workspace context:

@strata what configuration files do I have?
@strata why might terraform not be available?
@strata how do I connect the api module to my deployment?

The LLM sees:

The user is working in a strata infrastructure workspace.
Health: HEALTHY
Profile: dev
Readiness: Phase 5/8 complete
Next step: Build artifacts ready
Repositories: infra, modules
User question: [your question]

The LLM can then answer your question with full awareness of your workspace state.

Follow-Up Suggestions

After each response, the participant suggests follow-up questions:

After /status:
  → Show readiness guide
  → Validate current file

After /validate:
  → Show workspace status
  → How do I build?

After /guide:
  → Build my deployment
  → Deploy my deployment

Click a suggestion to send it. This creates a natural conversation flow without you needing to retype commands.

Workspace Context Injection

When you ask a freeform question, the participant automatically includes:

Context	Example
Health	HEALTHY, DEGRADED, or BROKEN
Profile	currently active profile name
Readiness	phases complete (e.g., 5/8)
Next step	what to do next with command hint
Repositories	list of registered repositories
Issues	any health issues reported

This means the LLM can give answers like:

“Your workspace is healthy and in Phase 5. To be ready for production, you need to: 1) Generate build artifacts with strata build run -f deploy/prd.yaml, 2) Run a dry-run deployment to preview changes…”

Instead of generic answers that don’t match your actual state.

Error Handling

“Strata CLI is not available”

→ The extension couldn’t find the CLI. Check:

1. strata.cliPath setting points to a valid executable

2. Run which strata in a terminal to verify it’s in $PATH

3. Reload the extension: Ctrl+Shift+P → “Developer: Reload Window”

Model call failed

→ If the LLM can’t generate a response, the participant falls back to showing you the raw workspace context and command hints.

Timeout

→ The LLM took too long. You can:

1. Ask a simpler question (shorter context = faster response)

2. Use a slash command instead (faster, no LLM call)

3. Check if the LLM service is operational

Privacy

The participant only sends:

• Workspace health status

• Profile names (not contents)

• Repository names and branches

• Document kinds and validation status

• Your question

It does not send:

• File contents

• Secret values

• Credentials

• Sensitive configuration data

All communication with the LLM goes through your Copilot Chat or Claude Chat client — the strata extension just injects context.

Limitations

• The participant can only validate files in your open workspace

• It can’t modify files or apply fixes directly (use CodeLens quick fixes instead)

• Freeform questions depend on the LLM’s knowledge (for truly custom questions, slash commands are more reliable)

• Follow-up suggestions only work within the same chat session

Examples

“How do I set up a new deployment?”

@strata how do I set up a new deployment?

Response includes:

Based on your workspace (Phase 5/8), here's how to set up a new deployment:

1. Scaffold a deployment file:
   strata new deployment --name my-deployment

2. Reference your configuration:
   kind: deployment
   spec:
     stages:
       - provisioner: platform_iac
         provisioner_config:
           source: @infra/my-infrastructure
   
3. Validate it:
   strata validate deploy/my-deployment.yaml
   
4. Build to preview:
   strata build run -f deploy/my-deployment.yaml --dry-run

“What’s blocking me from deploying?”

@strata /status

Response:

| Property  | Value                                  |
| --------- | -------------------------------------- |
| Health    | 🟡 DEGRADED                             |
| Profile   | prd                                    |
| Readiness | Phase 3/8                              |
| Issues    | 1 validation error in deploy/main.yaml |

Next step: Fix deployment validation errors
Hint: strata validate deploy/main.yaml

“Check this file for me”

@strata /validate deploy/production.yaml

Response:

Validating deploy/production.yaml…

❌ 1 error found:
- Unknown field 'replicas' — did you mean 'instances'? (spec.replicas)

Follow-up: “Fix this error” → opens CodeLens quick fix.