Overview

AIDE Lite is an Claude powered AI development assistant that runs natively inside Mendix Studio Pro 10.24 LTS. It reads your full app model and lets you create and modify microflows through natural language conversation. No context switching, no copy-pasting, no leaving the IDE.

Note: This is the Lite version of AIDE. For AIDE Pro, refer here: AIDE Pro - Golden Earth

How It Works

When you open AIDE Lite and load your app context, it reads every entity with all attributes and data types, every association with parent/child relationships, every microflow with its complete activity sequence and flow control structure, every enumeration with its values, and every page name. This full model is sent to Claude as context, so the AI already understands your app's data structure and existing logic before you type a single message.

You then interact through a chat panel docked inside Studio Pro. Ask questions, request microflows, search for model elements, or get advice. Claude responds with real actions, not just text.

Use Cases

Speed up microflow development. Describe what you need — "Create a microflow that retrieves all active orders, calculates the total amount, and commits a log entry", and Claude builds it with the correct entity names, attribute types, and XPath constraints from your actual model.

Onboard to unfamiliar apps faster. Ask "Describe the domain model" or "What does ACT_Order_Process do?" and get an instant, accurate answer based on the real model, not documentation that may be outdated.

Edit existing microflows without clicking through dialogs. Change an XPath constraint, rename a microflow, add activities at a specific position, or replace activities entirely, all through conversation. Existing decisions, loops, and merges are preserved when editing properties.

Search across your entire project. Find any entity, microflow, page, or enumeration by name across all modules in one command. Marketplace modules are excluded automatically to reduce noise.

Get Mendix best practice advice in context. Claude has development guidelines built in covering naming conventions, XPath optimization, performance patterns, memory management, and security, and it applies them while looking at your actual model.

Build complex branching logic. Claude can't create decisions directly (an Extensions API limitation), but it works around this by creating sub-microflows for each branch and a router microflow that calls them. It labels activities with captions like "Add decision before this: check $IsValid" and gives you a one-line instruction for the manual step. You get ~90% automated.

What You Need

1. Mendix Studio Pro 10.24.x (LTS)
2. An Anthropic API key (bring your own: get one at console.anthropic.com)
3. Studio Pro launched with the --enable-extension-development flag

Your API key is encrypted locally with Windows DPAPI and never logged or stored in project files. You pay only for your own Anthropic API usage. This extension itself is free.

Three Claude models available: Sonnet 4.5 (recommended), Opus 4.6 (most intelligent), Haiku 4.5 (fastest).

Documentation

Typical usage scenario

AIDE Lite is for Mendix developers who want to accelerate their daily work inside Studio Pro. Typical use cases:

• Exploring an unfamiliar app: Ask Claude to describe the domain model, list microflows, or explain what a specific microflow does. It reads the actual model, not just names.
• Creating microflows faster: Describe what you need in plain English and Claude builds it: retrieves, creates, changes, commits, deletes, aggregates, microflow calls, and more, with correct entity and attribute names from your model.
• Editing existing microflows: Rename, add activities at specific positions, change XPath constraints, update variable names, or replace activities entirely. All through conversation.
• Searching across modules: Find any entity, microflow, page, or enumeration by name across your entire project without manually browsing the App Explorer.
• Getting best practice advice: Ask about performance, naming conventions, XPath optimization, or data modeling. Claude has Mendix development guidelines built in.
• Building complex logic: For branching logic requiring decisions, Claude creates sub-microflows for each branch with caption hints, then tells you exactly where to add the 1-2 manual decisions.

Features and limitations

Features

Model Reading

• Reads your complete app model: entities (all attributes with data types), associations (parent/child, type, ownership), microflows (activities, parameters, return types, flow control elements), pages (names), enumerations (with values)
• Full model is loaded into Claude's context on every request — Claude already knows your data structure before you ask
• Cross-module search by name across all element types
• Marketplace modules automatically excluded to reduce noise

Microflow Creation: 14 Activity Types

• CreateObject, Retrieve (with XPath), ChangeObject, Commit, DeleteObject
• CreateList, AggregateList (count/sum/avg/min/max), MicroflowCall
• Rollback, AssociationRetrieve, Sort, ChangeList, ListOperation, FindByExpression

Microflow Editing: 4 Tools

• Rename (all references auto-update)
• Add activities at specific positions (after start or before a given activity)
• Edit activity properties in-place: XPath constraints, variable names, entities, commit settings, captions, disabled state. Preserves existing decisions, loops, and merges.
• Replace entirely (original backed up as excluded microflow)

AI Conversation

• Streaming responses: tokens appear as they're generated
• Multi-turn conversation with context across messages
• Tool use loop: Claude can chain up to 5 rounds of read-plan-create-verify per message
• Prompt caching: ~90% cost reduction on follow-up messages within 5 minutes
• Stop button to cancel running requests

User Interface

• Dockable chat panel inside Studio Pro
• Status bar: green (ready), orange (outdated), yellow (loading), grey (no context)
• Quick action buttons on the welcome screen
• Token usage display per message
• Settings panel for API key, model, context depth, and max tokens

Security

• API key encrypted with Windows DPAPI, stored locally
• Never logged, never shared with anyone other than the Anthropic API
• Bring-your-own-key model — no bundled API key

Limitations

• Cannot create decisions, loops, merges, or splits: Claude creates sub-microflows for each branch and tells you where to add 1-2 decisions manually
• Cannot create or modify pages: Claude provides step-by-step Studio Pro instructions
• Cannot create nanoflows: Microflows only
• Cannot create entities, attributes, or associations: Claude describes what to create
• Cannot set security rules: Claude provides guidance on access rules
• Sequential activities only: Sub-microflow pattern for branching logic
• Cannot remove or reorder existing activities: Use Replace Microflow to rebuild
• Streaming is buffered: Tokens arrive in small batches (Mendix IHttpClient limitation)
• Requires --enable-extension-development flag: Add to Studio Pro shortcut target (one-time setup)

Dependencies

• Mendix Studio Pro 10.24.x (LTS)
• An active Anthropic API key with credits
• Internet connection (to reach `api.anthropic.com`)
• Windows (uses DPAPI for encryption)

No other dependencies. The extension uses only two NuGet packages:

• Mendix.StudioPro.ExtensionsAPI: 10.23.0 (Mendix Terms of Use)
• System.Security.Cryptography.ProtectedData: 8.0.0 (MIT License)

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does this extension send my app data to the cloud?

A: Your app model context is sent to the Anthropic API (`api.anthropic.com`) as part of the conversation. This includes entity names, attribute names and types, association names, microflow names and activity summaries, page names, and enumeration values. No source code, credentials, or file contents are sent. The data is used solely for the AI conversation and is subject to Anthropic's data policies.

Q: How much does it cost to use?

A: You pay only for your Anthropic API usage. The extension itself is free. A typical 10-15 message conversation costs approximately $0.05–$0.30 depending on the model chosen and the size of your app. Prompt caching reduces follow-up message costs by ~90%.

Q: Can I use this with Mendix 11?

A: The extension targets the Extensions API v10.23.0 and is built for Studio Pro 10.24 LTS. Compatibility with Mendix 11 has not been tested.

Q: Why can't Claude create decisions or loops?

A: The Mendix C# Extensions API does not expose interfaces for creating flow control elements (decisions, loops, merges, splits). This is a platform limitation, not an extension limitation. Claude works around this by creating sub-microflows for each branch and guiding you on where to add decisions manually.

Q: Is my API key safe?

A: Your API key is encrypted with Windows DPAPI (scoped to your Windows user account) and stored locally at `%APPDATA%\ClaudeCoPilot\config.json`. It is never logged, never included in project files, and only sent to `api.anthropic.com` in request headers.

Q: Is this Open Source?

A: Yes, here is the github repo: https://github.com/Golden-Earth-Inc/AIDE-Lite