ADCode is a full desktop IDE - Monaco editing, real terminals, git, debugging, four ways to connect AI - that funds itself with an occasional sponsored card and pays you half of every advertising dollar. This guide takes you from download to working code, and tells you where everything lives.

1. Install it

Press the download button on the home page - it detects your operating system and fetches the right installer directly. Windows gets an executable installer, Linux an AppImage, and macOS users can grab a disk image from the downloads page or install with one line of shell.

The first launch creates an anonymous account so your earnings have somewhere to go. There is nothing to sign up for, no card to add, and no wizard to click through.

2. Open something

Open a folder the way you would expect - File, then Open Folder, or drag one onto the window. Everything restores between sessions: the same folder, the same tabs, the same terminal history. Closing ADCode is safe at any moment; unsaved work is kept and offered back if anything closes unexpectedly.

New file? Known extensions get sensible boilerplate automatically - the doctype for HTML, the main function for C. One Ctrl+Z empties it if you would rather start clean.

3. Edit

Most of the editor works with zero configuration because the defaults are the product:

Suggestions appear as you type; Tab takes one, Escape dismisses the list.
Format on save is on - Ctrl+S tidies the file first, using your language server when there is one.
Errors underline themselves while you type, and confusing compiler messages are rewritten into plain English above the original wording.
Multi-cursor works the way you expect: Ctrl+click places cursors, Ctrl+D grabs the next copy of the selected word.

Every one of these is a switch in Settings, each documented in the docs. Nothing requires an extension.

4. Run things

The terminal at the bottom is a real shell pointed at your project folder. The Run button above it works out the command from the project's shape - npm, cargo, python - and if a tool is missing it tells you which one and where to get it instead of failing cryptically. For JavaScript, TypeScript, and Python, F5 runs under a real debugger: click left of a line number to set a breakpoint.

5. Connect AI (or don't)

The assistant is bring-your-own: Settings, then Connect a model, then pick a provider or paste any OpenAI-compatible address - including a local model on your own machine. Your key is checked before saving and stored in your operating system's keychain. Inline completion and the chat widget both work off whichever model you connected, per project. Skip this entirely and the editor loses nothing.

6. Let it pay you back

A sponsored card appears occasionally in the corner. It never takes the caret, never steals focus, and never blocks what you are typing - it animates in at the edge and dismisses itself after eight seconds, or the moment you close it. It stays away entirely while you are debugging, and while your editor is not the window in front. Each verified view credits half the advertiser's payment to your ledger, visible to six decimals, row by row. Standard cadence is at most one card per ten minutes. Turn the frequency down, or turn ads off completely, and the editor does not change in any other way.

Where to go next

Every feature has its own page in the documentation, each with steps, benefits, and an honest note on how it compares. The sidebar groups them the way Settings does, so the page about a switch is always findable from the switch itself.