Jade – Xojo Programming Blog

Improving Copy/Paste with Text

Paul Lefebvre — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 13:47:00 +0000

As you are undoubtedly aware, Xojo does not expose your source code as one big blob of text. That makes it tricky to copy code from Xojo or into Xojo from or to outside sources such as blog posts or LLM AI chats. Starting with 2026r2 we’ve made this easier.

Copying

Copying individual members (methods, properties, etc.) from a project item continues to work as before. However, we have added the ability for you to copy some entire project items out of Xojo as text.

Note: When copying a project item (or a member), the Navigator, not one of the editors, must have focus. You can tell it has focus by its color, which is non-gray (green on macOS, for example).

For example, you can select a class (or module or interface) and then paste its contents as text into your favorite text editor, blog editor or AI chat. As an example, here is the DataPoint class (from the Desktop Eddie’s Electronics example project) copied as text and pasted into this post:

Class DataPoint
  Public Sub Constructor(value as Integer, shape as Integer = 0)
    Self.Value = value
    Self.Shape = shape
  End Sub

  Public Function PointNearby(x as integer, y as integer, tolerance as integer = 10) As Boolean
    If Abs(x-Self.x) < tolerance And Abs(y-Self.y) < tolerance Then
      Return True
    End If
  End Function

  Public Property Label As String

  Public Property Shape As Integer

  Public Property Value As Integer

  Public Property X As Integer

  Public Property Y As Integer

End Class

This is surprisingly handy and is a great way to share your code outside Xojo. You can also select multiple project items at once, plus it works with layouts such as Windows, WebPages, Screens and Containers.

Pasting

Pasting code into Xojo has even more improvements. Previously you could paste single members (Methods, Enums, etc., but not properties) into a project item. Now you can paste multiple members at once, including properties. For example, select and copy the list of properties below and paste them onto a project item.

Note: When pasting the project item, the Navigator, not one of the editors, must have focus. You can tell it has focus by its color, which is non-gray (green on macOS, for example).

Public Property Company As String
  Private Property Country As String
Property Address As String
Public Property City As String

Public Property State As String // State code

You can even have different types of members in the selected text, like this:

Public Property Taxable As Boolean
Get
  Const kMax = 42
  Return False
End Get
Set
  Company = "TaxMan”
  Const kMin = 0
End Set
End Property
Public Property Company As String


Public Function Average(A As Double, B As Double) As Double
  Return (A + B) / 2
End Function

And taking things a step further, you can even paste in an entire class:

Class Calculator
  Public Sub Calc()
    Var i As Integer
  End Sub

End Class

Go ahead and copy the DataPoint class from the top and trying pasting it into a project.

And yes, you can also have multiple classes in the selected text:

Class Test
  Public Sub Hello()
    MessageBox("Hello")
  End Sub

End Class

Class Foo
  Public Sub Bar()
    Var i As Integer
  End Sub

End Class

If you paste in a block of text that is not recognized as Xojo code, it is inserted into a new Note, which is a quick way to get some docs added to your classes.

This pasting of project items works for classes, interfaces and non-nested modules. Now when an LLM creates a class for you, you can easily select the entire thing and paste it to add it to your Xojo project!

Paul learned to program in BASIC at age 13 and has programmed in more languages than he remembers, with Xojo being an obvious favorite. When not working on Xojo, you can find him talking about retrocomputing at Goto 10 and on Mastodon @lefebvre@hachyderm.io.

Polishing Jade: Now with OpenAI GPT, Local Models and Project Context

Paul Lefebvre — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 13:45:00 +0000

Jade, the Xojo AI assistant, has several significant improvements in 2026r2 that make it even more useful.

Settings

Let’s start with the Settings window, which now has its own AI panel for adjusting how Jade works.

By default, “Enable AI Features” is checked. However, if you are not onboard the AI train, then you can uncheck that setting to turn off Xojo AI integration. This removes the Jade button from the toolbar and also disables the Help menu option.

With AI Features enabled, you can choose the Service to use. By default, “Anthropic Claude” is selected so that your previous Jade configuration works the same as before, but you now also have all these services to choose from:

Anthropic Claude
OpenAI GPT
OpenRouter (Anthropic)
OpenRouter (OpenAI)
Local

More information about each of these is in the next section.

The “Allow access to project context” option lets Jade ask for information about your project, such as the names of project items, their source code and any compile errors.

The “Restore conversation from last time” option indicates if your last Jade conversation will be restored to the chat window when the IDE restarts.

Below this are the text areas where you can enter API keys for the services you are using.

Services

Anthropic Claude

When Anthropic Claud is selected, Xojo uses the most recent version of the Claude Sonnet model, which is currently 4.6. To use this service, you will need to create an Anthropic account, generate an API key and add some credits.

Access to project context is supported with Anthropic Claude.

OpenAI GPT

When choose OpenAI, Xojo uses a recent version of the gpt-mini model, currently gpt-5.4-mini. This particular model is fast, relatively inexpensive and well suited for coding purposes. To use OpenAI, you will need to create an OpenAI account , generate an API key and add some credits. There is also an option to earn some free credits that you can optionally turn on.

Access to project context is supported with OpenAI.

OpenRouter

OpenRouter is a unified API service that gives access to hundreds of LLMs from different providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, etc.) through a single endpoint and key.” Like the others you will first need to create an account, generate an API key and purchase credits. OpenRouter applies these credits as appropriate when using the models you have configured.

There are two options for OpenRouter, so that you can tell it whether to use the Anthropic or OpenAI API. When you choose Anthropic, OpenRouter will automatically route you to Claude models. When you choose OpenAI, OpenRouter will direct you to the default model specified in your OpenRouter account settings.

Not all models will work with Jade and some models have limitations. Currently, only OpenRouter with OpenAI and an OpenAI GPT model supports project context. If you want to try other models, you will likely need to disable the “Allow access to project context” setting in Xojo.

Local LLM

A local LLM is a model that you are running locally on your computer or server you control. To run a local LLM, we recommend using LM Studio which makes it easy to download and run models on a local server.

When this is selected, you also need to provide the base URL for your server. With LM Studio, it is typically:

http://127.0.0.1:1234

In our testing with Xojo we’ve found that a Qwen model, such as qwen3-coder-30b works OK. Other models may not provide useful responses or even work at all. Even though this model works, it is far less capable than Anthropic Claude or OpenAI GPT.

If you want to use Ollama, you’ll have to specify the model name as part of the base URL like this:

http://127.0.0.1:11434#qwen2.5-coder:14b

A local LLM does not have access to project context and choosing this service option currently ignores that setting.

Which Should You Use?

Based on our internal testing, Anthropic Claude has the most accurate responses. It is also the slowest and most expensive.

OpenAI with GPT is the fastest and is relatively inexpensive for what you get.

OpenRouter is really only recommended for advanced users, but it does provide an easy way to switch to specific models.

A local LLM is free to use and completely private, but it is also much slower and far less accurate. Depending on the model you choose, a local LLM also requires significant computing resources (RAM and GPU).

I hope you find these Jade improvements useful to you!

Jade Improvements

Paul Lefebvre — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:23:00 +0000

For Xojo 2026 Release 1, we’ve made some improvements to Jade, Xojo’s integrated AI assistant. Jade is easily accessible from the toolbar, making it handy for getting coding advice and asking general Xojo questions, especially about the documentation.

In this release, Jade’s output has been improved to limit scrolling when responses are shown, making it easier to read through the specific information and code samples. In addition, Jade now does a better job of parsing the results it gets, which prevents situations where responses could sometimes get cut off.

Lastly, Jade has had some fixes to improve reliability and has been updated to use Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 for more detailed and accurate responses.

These improvements may be small, but they allow Jade to continue to be a helpful Xojo coding assistant.

Introducing Jade, the Xojo AI Assistant

Paul Lefebvre — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 16:31:26 +0000

With Xojo 2025 Release 3, we are introducing Jade, an AI assistant for Xojo. This initial version is primarily for asking general Xojo-related questions and can be used as an alternative to the documentation.

Getting Started

Jade uses Anthropic Claude as its engine, so before using Jade, you first need to sign up for an Anthropic API key to access Claude. You can do this from the Anthropic Claude Console.

From there you can create your account. After you’ve done that, you will want to get an API key to use with Xojo. Click on the “API keys” tab to see existing keys and create new ones. Click the “Create Key” button to generate a new key. In the dialog, give it a name to indicate its purpose.

When you click Add, the actual key will be shown. Copy it to the clipboard.

Note that you cannot see the key again after closing that dialog, but you can always create a new key at any time.

Now go to Xojo Settings and in the General tab, paste it into the “Anthropic API Key” field.

Go back to the Claude Console and click on the Billing tab to buy credits. Interacting with Jade requires credits. The amount of credits used depends on the complexity of your interactions. Until you get used to Jade and credit usage, you’ll probably want to start with a small amount, like $5, and disable auto-reload.

Using Jade

To use Jade, select Help->Ask Jade or click the Ask Jade button in the toolbar. You’ll get some short introductory text. Note: Using Jade requires an internet connection.

You interact with Jade similarly to a chat app by typing prompts in the conversation area (bottom section) and pressing Send. Jade will think for a moment and then display its response.

If Jade’s response includes Xojo source code you can click one of the buttons above the code block to copy the code to the clipboard or to directly insert it into the active code editor.

When interacting with Jade, keep in mind that although it remembers the context from the current conversation, it has no knowledge of prior conversations. Click the “Start Over” button to clear things and start a new conversation. Starting a new conversation is useful when switching to a different topic as it prevents Jade from relying on information you previously discussed that is no longer relevant.

The Export button saves the current Jade conversation to a JSON file which is a great way to save information you want to retain and refer to later.

Other Tips

Jade currently uses Claude Sonnet 4, but this may change as newer models become available.
The only thing Jade knows about your project is what type it is (Desktop, Web, iOS, etc.). If you want Jade to offer suggestions based on your code, you will need to copy/paste the relevant code into the Jade conversation area.
Your Jade conversation is restored when the IDE restarts. If you get errors, ensure that you have valid internet access, that the API key is valid and you have a positive credit amount.

Wrap

We hope you find Jade helpful with your Xojo development. Remember, Jade in Xojo 2025r3 is the first version of an AI assistant for Xojo and will improve over time. In subsequent releases we expect to add more capabilities and project integration. Read more about Jade in Xojo’s Documentation.