Feature Request: Give ChatGPT a Full-Project Coding Agent
I would love to see ChatGPT gain an optional full-project coding/development mode, similar to what tools like Cursor are now offering.
I am building and maintaining a fairly large WordPress-based website and software platform for my nonprofit organization. My project includes PHP, JavaScript, CSS, WordPress plugins, database systems, routing, uploads, video systems, and other custom functionality.
ChatGPT has been extremely helpful to me in building it, but there is a major limitation: I have to continually take pieces of my project and bring them into the conversation.
For example, when one page doesn’t work, the problem might actually be in:
- a router
- a PHP include
- a shared plugin function
- CSS loaded somewhere else
- JavaScript
- a database connection
- another file that the page depends on
I don’t always know which file controls the problem. That’s part of why I use ChatGPT—I know what I want the system to do, but I’m not a professional programmer.
I would like an optional ChatGPT mode where I could securely give ChatGPT access to an entire development folder or repository and have it:
- Understand the project structure.
- Search across all files.
- Follow dependencies between files.
- Identify what controls a particular feature.
- Diagnose errors across multiple files.
- Work with PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, databases, etc.
- Run tests or commands in a controlled development environment.
- Inspect browser/console errors.
- Make proposed changes and let me approve them.
- Keep track of the architecture and changes as the project develops.
- Explain what it is doing in plain language instead of assuming I am an experienced developer.
The last part is extremely important to me.
I have been able to build something far beyond my technical experience because ChatGPT can explain things to me and then give me the exact steps or code I need. I don’t need an AI that simply takes over and throws technical instructions at me. I need an AI that can see the entire project while still teaching and guiding the person building it.
This is also being built for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving veterans. I am doing much of this work myself with limited resources. Having ChatGPT capable of working directly with the entire project would make an enormous difference—not just for convenience, but in what a small nonprofit can realistically build without having the resources to hire a development team.
I understand that giving an AI direct access to a codebase creates security considerations. I would be completely comfortable with an approval system where ChatGPT can inspect everything but must ask before modifying files, deploying changes, or performing potentially destructive actions.
I don’t want ChatGPT to replace me as the person making decisions. I want it to give me the ability to build things that are currently beyond my technical skill level.
That is the feature I would genuinely like to see from ChatGPT.