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Overview

Quick Edit is Polaris IDE’s powerful Cmd+K feature that lets you transform selected code using natural language instructions. Instead of manually editing code, describe what you want to change and let AI do the heavy lifting.

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How to use quick edit

1

Select code

Highlight the code you want to modify in the editor.
2

Press Cmd+K

The quick edit dialog appears with your selection ready for transformation.
3

Enter instruction

Type a natural language instruction describing the change you want.
4

Apply changes

Review the AI-generated transformation and accept or reject it.
Quick Edit maintains the same indentation level as your original code, ensuring consistent formatting.

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Natural language instructions

You can use conversational instructions to modify your code: 
// Instruction: "Add try-catch error handling"

// Before:
const data = await fetch('/api/users').then(r => r.json())

// After:
try {
  const data = await fetch('/api/users').then(r => r.json())
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Failed to fetch users:', error)
}

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Code transformation examples

Quick Edit can handle a wide variety of transformations:

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Refactoring

  • “Extract this into a separate function”
  • “Convert class component to functional component”
  • “Split this function into smaller helper functions”

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Type safety

  • “Add TypeScript types and interfaces”
  • “Make this type-safe with proper generics”
  • “Add JSDoc comments with type annotations”

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Error handling

  • “Add error handling with try-catch”
  • “Add input validation”
  • “Handle edge cases for null and undefined”

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Optimization

  • “Optimize this loop for performance”
  • “Memoize this function using useMemo”
  • “Convert to early return pattern”

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Documentation

  • “Add JSDoc comments”
  • “Add inline comments explaining the logic”
  • “Document parameters and return values”

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Selection tooltip integration

When you select code in the editor, Polaris shows a floating toolbar with quick actions:
  • Cmd+K icon - Opens quick edit dialog
  • Copy - Copies selection to clipboard
  • Cut - Cuts selection
  • Paste - Pastes from clipboard
The selection tooltip appears automatically when you highlight code, making quick edit always one click away.

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Documentation scraping with Firecrawl

Quick Edit integrates Firecrawl to enhance transformations with documentation context. When your instruction includes a URL, Polaris:
1

Detects URLs

Scans your instruction for HTTP/HTTPS URLs using regex pattern matching.
2

Scrapes documentation

Uses Firecrawl to convert the URL content to markdown format.
3

Includes context

Adds the scraped documentation to the AI prompt for more accurate transformations.

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Example with documentation URL

// Instruction: "Implement authentication using https://docs.example.com/auth"

// The AI will:
// 1. Scrape the auth documentation from the URL
// 2. Use it as context to generate the implementation
// 3. Follow the patterns and best practices from the docs

// URLs are automatically detected using regex:
const URL_REGEX = /https?:\/\/[^\s)>\]]+/g

// Matches:
// - http://example.com
// - https://docs.api.com/reference
// - Multiple URLs in one instruction

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API implementation

The quick edit endpoint is located at /api/quick-edit: 
POST /api/quick-edit

{
  "selectedCode": "function add(a, b) { return a + b }",
  "fullCode": "// Full file content for context",
  "instruction": "Add TypeScript types and JSDoc"
}

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Configuration

Quick edit uses these AI generation parameters:
  • Temperature: 0.7 (balanced creativity)
  • Max tokens: 2000 (allows larger transformations)
  • Context: Selected code + full file + scraped documentation

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Prompt structure

The quick edit prompt is carefully designed to ensure accurate transformations: 
You are a code editing assistant. Edit the selected code based on the user's instruction.

<context>
  <selected_code>{selectedCode}</selected_code>
  <full_code_context>{fullCode}</full_code_context>
</context>

{documentation}

<instruction>{instruction}</instruction>

<instructions>
  - Return ONLY the edited version of the selected code
  - Maintain the same indentation level as the original
  - Do not include explanations or comments unless requested
  - If the instruction is unclear, return the original code unchanged
</instructions>
Quick Edit returns the original code unchanged if the instruction cannot be applied or is unclear.

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Error handling

The quick edit system handles errors gracefully:
  • Invalid instruction - Returns original code
  • Authentication failure - Returns 403 Unauthorized
  • Missing parameters - Returns 400 Bad Request with clear error message
  • AI generation failure - Returns 500 with error details
  • Documentation scraping failure - Continues without documentation context

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Source code reference

Implementation details:
  • API route: src/app/api/quick-edit/route.ts:42
  • Firecrawl integration: src/app/api/quick-edit/route.ts:71
  • URL detection regex: src/app/api/quick-edit/route.ts:16
  • AI provider: src/lib/ai-providers.ts:6

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