faaah_error
Makes Faaah(and a few other) sounds on error
Error Sound Alert
Plays a sound whenever your code errors:
- On save — if the saved file has an Error-severity diagnostic (works for any
language with a linter/language server: Python via Pylance/Pyright, ESLint, etc.)
- On running a file — if the terminal command you ran (e.g.
python app.py)
prints something matching an error pattern.
- On a long-running process (e.g.
uvicorn main:app --reload) — the terminal
output is streamed live, so if an error appears at any point while the server
keeps running, the sound plays immediately (no need to wait for it to exit).
Cases 2 and 3 use the same mechanism: VS Code's Terminal Shell Integration API
streams live output from any terminal command, so "run a file" and "long-running
server" are really the same code path — a regex check against each new line of
output.
Setup (development / local use)
npm install
npm run compile
Then in VS Code: F5 (Run Extension) to launch an Extension Development Host with
it loaded, or package it for real installation:
npm install -g @vscode/vsce
vsce package
code --install-extension error-sound-alert-0.1.0.vsix
That's the entire setup — no external services, no API keys, nothing to configure
to get started. Defaults are on out of the box.
Requirements
- VS Code 1.93+ (for the Terminal Shell Integration streaming API)
- Shell integration must be enabled in VS Code (it is by default) and your
shell must support it (bash, zsh, pwsh, fish — most default setups already work).
You can check: run a command in the integrated terminal; if VS Code shows a
colored bar/mark next to the command in the terminal, shell integration is active.
- Linux only:
paplay (pulseaudio-utils) or aplay (alsa-utils) — one of these is
present on almost every desktop Linux install already. macOS uses built-in
afplay; Windows uses built-in PowerShell Media.SoundPlayer. No extra
installs needed on Mac/Windows.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
errorSound.enabled |
true |
Master on/off switch |
errorSound.sound |
faaah |
classic-beep | descending-error | buzzer | alarm | faaah | custom |
errorSound.customSoundPath |
"" |
Path to your own .wav/.mp3 when sound is custom |
errorSound.onSave |
true |
Play on save-with-error |
errorSound.onTerminalOutput |
true |
Play on matching terminal output (run/uvicorn/etc.) |
errorSound.errorPatterns |
Python-ish defaults |
Regexes checked against each terminal output line |
errorSound.cooldownMs |
3000 |
Minimum gap between two plays, to avoid spam |
Command palette:
- Error Sound: Choose Sound — quick-pick a bundled sound or browse a custom file, with instant preview
- Error Sound: Play Test Sound
- Error Sound: Toggle Enabled
Bundled sounds
All 5 bundled sounds (including faaah) are synthesized tones generated
programmatically (gen_sounds.py) — no copyrighted audio, so they're safe to
ship and redistribute freely. Swap in your own with custom + customSoundPath.
Extending beyond Python
Nothing here is Python-specific:
- The save-watcher uses VS Code's generic
Diagnostic API, so it works for any
language extension that reports errors (JS/TS via ESLint, Go, Rust, etc.) with
zero changes.
- The terminal-watcher just regex-matches text, so add patterns for other
ecosystems' error formats to
errorSound.errorPatterns (e.g. add
"error TS\\d+:" for TypeScript, "panic:" for Go, "NullPointerException"
for Java) — no code changes needed, just settings.
Known limitation
If shell integration isn't active for a terminal (some remote/SSH or exotic shell
setups), the terminal-based detection (cases 2 & 3) won't fire for that terminal,
though save-detection (case 1) still works. The extension logs this to its
"Error Sound Alert" output channel.
