Enhancement: Add @cosmosdb /help to the AI menu

[sajeetharan]

Transferred from: AzureCosmosDB/cosmosdb-vscode-ai-assistant-preview#20
Original author: @mkrueger | Created: 2026-05-21
Assignee: @languy | Labels: enhancement, P1

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Would be nice if the help could be accessible here as well - "@CosmosDB /help" isn't easily discoverable.

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Comments

@sajeetharan (2026-05-25):

Great suggestion! I think there are two viable approaches here:

Option A: Add @CosmosDB to the editor right-click context menu
Add an @CosmosDB entry alongside the existing "Ask @Azure" option in the editor context menu. This would open the chat panel with the @CosmosDB participant pre-selected, making it immediately discoverable for users who are already familiar with the right-click AI workflow.

Option B: Replace "Explain Query" with @CosmosDB
Since "Explain Query" is already a capability provided by @CosmosDB, the existing context menu entry could be replaced (or augmented) with a direct @CosmosDB entry.

Personally, I'd lean toward Option A (adding it alongside "Ask @Azure") since it preserves the dedicated "Explain Query" shortcut for quick one-shot use while also surfacing the full @CosmosDB participant for more complex interactions. But Option B is cleaner if we want to consolidate.

@languy (2026-05-26):

Adding a resource item in the resource tree context menu (where "Ask @Azure" lives) and adding a context menu item here are not mutually exclusive IMO. Both provide entry points to the chat participant from different places. I would recommend to enable them both in order to maximize discovery and usage.

Here I propose something simpler. Add a "Help" menu item, segregated from the other buttons by a separator (since it's not a functionality, but more of a documentation link).

It preserves the useful "Explain Query" one-shot use, but also provides a way to expose "/help" to the user. "Explain" and "Help" do open the same chat participant, but the functionality is different, so they're not redundant.

@tnaum-ms (2026-05-26):

Good call! I like the approach of adding a "Help" menu item in the AI toolbar group, separated by a divider. That is the most visible and predictable place for it.

The context menu addition in the tree view is cheap to add and does not hurt, so I would include both.

However, I am only now noticing a broader discoverability problem that this issue surfaces.

Why would a user click the "AI" button in the first place? The features behind it: query generation and query explain - are real, high-value capabilities. But the button label "AI" does not communicate any of that.

There is no signal that says "this is where you generate queries" or "this is where you can explain what your query does." Users who do not already know about these features have no reason to click there.

I think there is a case for promoting these to the top level as named actions. We know horizontal toolbar space is tight, but a small reorganization might create room.