About the Project — Clear Code
Inspiration. Clear Code was inspired by a simple but growing problem we kept seeing in classrooms: instructors can see what code was submitted, but not how it was written. With AI tools becoming part of students’ workflows, there was no clear, transparent way for instructors to understand how AI was used, when it was used, or how individual students contributed during the coding process. We wanted to bridge that gap without being invasive or restrictive.
What We Built. Clear Code is a VS Code extension that streams real-time code updates directly to instructors. Alongside this, we built a web application where instructors can view AI-related citations tied directly to specific code changes and track student contributions in group projects with far more precision than traditional tools. While platforms like GitHub show what changed, Clear Code pinpoints when contributions were made and how the code evolved over time.
How We Built It. We built the extension using JavaScript and the VS Code Extension API to listen for editor and file events, capture meaningful changes, and securely send them to our backend. The backend, built with Python and Flask, processes these events and stores them in a database, which powers the instructor-facing web app. The frontend was built with React and TypeScript, allowing instructors to explore timelines, citations, and contribution data in a clear, intuitive interface.
Challenges & Learnings. VS Code extensions were completely new to us, and one of the biggest challenges was discovering the platform’s limitations—what events were reliable, what data we could realistically capture, and how to do so efficiently without impacting performance. We also learned a lot about designing systems that handle real-time data streams and translating raw events into insights that are genuinely useful for educators. Overall, Clear Code pushed us to think deeply about transparency, responsibility, and how developer tools can be adapted for education in a rapidly changing AI landscape.
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