StashPad
Stage prompts and ideas while Claude Code works the terminal. Drop one in when the moment's right — editable text, no queue, no auto-send.
Why not just use Claude's queue?
A queue is linear. Real prompting branches. One ask spawns tweaks, re-explains, side-quests into bugs — and you can't predict any of that when you queue.
StashPad is the staging area in between. While Claude grinds on something in the terminal, you park whatever crosses your mind — half-formed asks, related ideas, follow-up tweaks, edge cases you want to come back to. Cards sit on the side. When the conversation calls for one, you click it. The text lands at the cursor of the active terminal — editable, no \n, no auto-submit. You decide the order. You press Return.
It's a stage of thoughts and ideas, not a pipeline you commit to up-front.
Table of contents
Highlights
- Two-zone pad — Next Up (on-deck) and Parked (scratch tray).
- One-shot or sticky cards — one-shots vanish after a click, stickies stay forever.
- Folders — single-level groups inside Parked with drag-between, rename, and collapse. Inbox always exists.
- Tags — free-form, multiple per card. Click any pill to filter the pad. Workspace name auto-applied as a non-removable system tag.
- Click to inject — text lands at the cursor of the active terminal via a single
sendText(text, false) call. No \n, no term.show() stealing focus.
- Drag to inject — drop a card anywhere outside the sidebar to send its text to the terminal.
- Quick capture —
Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + S parks the editor selection. Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + V parks the clipboard.
- Search & filter — press
/ to focus the filter input, click tag chips to scope the view.
- Per-workspace storage — every workspace has its own pad. Nothing crosses projects unless you want it to.
Install
From a .vsix
Build (or grab the artifact from a CI run):
npm install
npm run package
In VS Code: Extensions → … → Install from VSIX... → pick the produced stashpad-<version>.vsix.
Developer: Reload Window.
From a clone
Run the extension under the VS Code debugger (see Development).
How it works
StashPad lives in its own sidebar in the Activity Bar. The capture input at the top stashes a thought with one keystroke (Enter). New cards land at the top of Parked → Inbox as one-shots.
- Click a card → the text drops into the active terminal at the cursor. No
Return is pressed for you.
- A one-shot card disappears after one inject (hollow dot,
ONE-SHOT chip).
- A sticky card stays forever (filled dot,
STICKY chip). Click the dot or chip to toggle between them.
- Promote a card to Next Up to keep it ready in the on-deck slot.
- Drag a card within the same folder/zone to reorder, drop it onto another folder to move it.
- Drag a card out of the sidebar — onto the terminal or the editor — and StashPad still routes its text to the active terminal via the same inject path.
- Folders are single-level collapsible sections inside Parked.
+ new folder to add; hover a folder header for ✎ rename and ✕ delete (deleted folders return their cards to Inbox).
- Tags are free-form labels. Click
+ on a card to add one. Click any tag pill to filter the pad to cards sharing that tag.
- The project auto-tag is the workspace name. It's added to every new card and can't be removed — so cards from different projects don't pollute each other's view.
Filter & search
The filter bar lives directly under the capture input.
- Press
/ from anywhere in the sidebar to focus it.
- Type → cards filter live; zone and folder counts switch to
visible / total.
- Click a tag pill on any card to scope the view to that tag.
- Active filters appear as chips with
× removers, plus a clear all link.
Esc while focused on the filter clears it.
Shortcuts
| Shortcut |
Action |
Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + P |
Focus capture (reveals StashPad if hidden) |
Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + S |
Park the current editor selection (in editor) |
Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + V |
Park the clipboard contents |
Enter (in capture) |
Park the thought |
/ |
Focus the filter / search input |
Esc (in search) |
Clear the filter |
| Click a card |
Drop its text into the active terminal |
| Drag a card |
Drop its text wherever (terminal, editor, anywhere) |
Remap any of them via Cmd/Ctrl + K, Cmd/Ctrl + S → search "stashpad".
Commands
| Command |
Purpose |
StashPad: Focus Capture Input |
Reveal StashPad and focus the capture field. |
StashPad: Park Selection |
Stash the current editor selection (auto-tagged with language and project). |
StashPad: Park Clipboard |
Stash the clipboard contents. |
StashPad: Test Inject |
Diagnostic — sends hello from stashpad to verify the inject path. |
Development
Prereqs: Node 20+, npm 10+, VS Code 1.85+.
git clone https://github.com/abdalhalimalzohbi/StashPad.git
cd stashpad
npm install
npm run watch
Open the repo in VS Code → press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host with StashPad loaded. Reload the host window after rebuilds (Developer: Reload Window).
Common scripts:
npm run typecheck # host + webview
npm run lint
npm run format
npm run build # one-off
npm run package # produces a .vsix
See CONTRIBUTING.md for architecture rules, commit format, and PR checklist.
Contributing
Issues, ideas, and pull requests are welcome. Start with the templates under .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ and read CONTRIBUTING.md.
Security issues: see SECURITY.md.
License
MIT © abdalhalimalzohbi
