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Install the Sparkle Guardrails extension in VS Code to apply security guardrails on every AI prompt.

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Prerequisites

  • VS Code installed on your machine
  • A Sparkle account (sign in after installation)

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Install from the marketplace

1

Open the Extensions panel

Press Cmd+Shift+X (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+X (Windows/Linux), or click the Extensions icon in the activity bar.
2

Search for Sparkle Guardrails

Search for Sparkle Guardrails or thesparkle.sparkle-guardrails.
3

Install the extension

Select Sparkle Guardrails published by thesparkle, then click Install.

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Install from a VSIX file

If the extension does not appear in the marketplace, install it manually from Extensions Marketplace.
1

Download the VSIX file

Open Sparkle Guardrails on VS Code Marketplace and download the .vsix file.
2

Install from VSIX

Open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P or Ctrl+Shift+P), run Extensions: Install from VSIX…, and select the downloaded file.
3

Reload VS Code

Reload the window if prompted.
If a marketplace download saves without a .vsix extension, rename the file to end in .vsix before installing.
You can also install from the terminal: 
code --install-extension /path/to/thesparkle.sparkle-guardrails.vsix

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Sign in

After installation, open the Sparkle sidebar in VS Code and complete the sign-in flow with your Sparkle account.

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Verify installation

1

Confirm the extension is enabled

In the Extensions panel, confirm Sparkle Guardrails appears under Installed.
2

Open a project

Open the repository you want to protect with Sparkle.
3

Run a prompt

Use your AI coding features in that project. Sparkle applies guardrails on every prompt.

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Next steps

Using the Extension

Learn the basic extension workflow.

Troubleshooting

Fix common installation and connection issues.