Introducing Finish Changes and Outlines, now available in Gemini Code Assist extensions on IntelliJ and VS Code

Source: Google Developers Blog

March 10, 2026

We are continually looking for ways to reduce friction in the developer workflow and consistently hear that developers experience friction when writing long, paragraph‑style prompts. This process often feels unnatural to engineers and disrupts their workflow by forcing them out of the editor. A single prompt is often insufficient for guiding large‑scale or multi‑step changes, leading to a frustrating cycle of trial and error. At the same time, deciphering complex or unfamiliar codebases remains a time‑consuming challenge, often bottlenecked by missing or outdated documentation.

To solve these developer friction points, we are introducing two new features to the Gemini Code Assist extensions for IntelliJ and Visual Studio Code: Finish Changes and Outlines. Powered by Gemini 3.0, these tools shift the AI interaction model from tedious prompt engineering to seamless, contextual in‑editor programming.

Finish Changes: Show, Don’t Tell

Finish Changes acts like an AI pair programmer, without requiring you to write a prompt. It observes your in‑progress code modifications and uses Gemini 3.0 to complete the intended task. By synthesizing your holistic intent from partial code, pseudocode, and comments, you can stay completely within the editor and maintain your flow state.

Core Workflows

• Implementing Pseudocode – Write a high‑level pseudocode sketch and let Gemini fill in the detailed implementation. Plain English is fine; you don’t need to worry about syntax details.

• Applying Patterns – Demonstrate a repetitive change once, and Gemini applies that pattern everywhere else it is needed in the file.

• Following Instructions – Add instruction comments directly in your code, e.g.:

  // TODO: replace this loop with a stream operation
  //! Refactor this method to use async calls

  Gemini can use these comments to improve the code, incorporate error messages, or act on code‑review feedback.

• Completing Code and Refactoring – Finish partially written code and propagate related changes, fixing references throughout the file to keep everything consistent.

When invoked, Finish Changes automatically includes other open files as extra context, ensuring the model understands your project‑specific styles and internal APIs. Gemini predicts edits, and the changes are shown as a diff where you can review, edit, apply, or discard the suggestions.

Invocation:

• Mac: Option + F
• Windows / Linux: Alt + F

Outlines: A Living Design Document

Outlines improve code comprehension directly within the IDE by generating concise, high‑level English summaries interleaved with your source code.

Features

• Full‑File Explanation – The IDE automatically generates a detailed outline for the active file when the Outline sidebar panel is open.
• Interactive Navigation – Outlines appear both inline and in a dedicated side panel. Clicking an item scrolls the editor to the corresponding code block.
• Customizable and Syncable – Toggle the visibility of inline outline statements to switch between an annotated view and a code‑only view. Regenerate the outline after code changes to keep it synchronized.

Invocation:

• Mac: Option + O
• Windows / Linux: Alt + O

Scaling Developer Velocity

Outlines drastically cut ramp‑up time for new engineers by automatically summarizing code files, reducing the need to manually decipher and contextualize complicated code. Once you understand the code and pinpoint where new edits should go, you can seamlessly transition to using Finish Changes: sketch your logic or demonstrate a refactoring pattern, and let Gemini 3.0 handle the tedious implementation details.