LeftOff

Resume Where You Left Off

A VS Code extension that remembers why you were working on something — not just the git changes.
Automatic context capture • Quick notes • Rich resume panel with optional AI summaries • Session history

✨ Key Features

• 🔄 Automatic Context Capture — Open tabs with cursor positions, active editor, terminal names, current git branch, and detailed uncommitted diffs (insertions/deletions + colorized snippets). Powered by VS Code's built-in Git API.
• 📝 Quick "Why" Notes — Ctrl+Alt+N (or click the status bar icon) to record your intent at the current file and line. No more forgetting context!
• 🎨 Beautiful Resume Panel — On reopen (or session boundary), get a rich overview: your last note, change statistics, collapsible colorized diffs, open files/terminals, and an optional AI-generated summary of what you were doing + suggested next steps.
• 📜 Session History — Automatically archives previous sessions (up to 15). Browse any past session with the same rich panel — invaluable after weekends or longer breaks.
• 🧠 Smart Session Boundaries — Configurable triggers for ending a session: editor restart (always), returning from idle (default 30min), or switching git branches. No more stale context.
• 🤖 Multi-Provider AI Summaries (opt-in) — Choose from Google Gemini (free tier), Local LLMs (Ollama, LM Studio, etc.), OpenAI, Anthropic, or Azure OpenAI. Guided one-click setup, keys stored securely, nothing leaves your control.
• ⚡ Frictionless UX — Status bar icon with dropdown menu (Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+L). No Command Palette diving required. Works automatically in the background.

Privacy-first: AI only sends minimal context (notes, file paths, truncated diffs) to your chosen provider when the resume panel opens. No telemetry, no data collection.

📸 Screenshots & Demo

Add GIFs and screenshots to the images/ folder to make the marketplace listing shine! Recommended: 10-15 second animated demo of adding a note → making changes → closing/reopening window → seeing the resume panel with AI summary and colorized diffs.

The Resume Panel

Your notes, total diff stats, per-file collapsible colorized diffs, open files list, terminals, and AI summary all in one beautiful webview.

Status Bar Quick Menu

One-click access to Add Note, Show Resume, Browse History, Setup AI, and more.

(Replace the placeholder image links with real screenshots once created. Tools like Screen Studio or VS Code's built-in recording work great for creating demo GIFs.)

🚀 Quick Start

1. Install from the VS Code Marketplace
2. Open any workspace — LeftOff activates automatically on startup
3. Edit files, switch branches, open terminals as normal
4. Add a Quick Note with Ctrl+Alt+N (macOS: Cmd+Alt+N)
5. Close and reopen the VS Code window (or trigger idle return / branch switch) to see the "Welcome Back" panel

Enable AI Summaries (Highly Recommended)

• Click the LeftOff status bar item (or use the menu command)
• Select "Setup AI Provider"
• Choose Gemini (free tier) or your preferred provider
• Follow the guided prompts for API key and settings

The resume panel will now include a concise, context-aware AI summary.

📋 Commands & Keybindings

⚙️ Configuration

Works great out of the box. Customize via VS Code Settings (search for leftoff):

Key Settings

• leftoff.enableAiSummary: false (turn on for AI summaries)
• leftoff.idleThresholdMinutes: 30 (0 to disable idle-based boundaries)
• leftoff.detectBranchSwitch: true
• AI provider/model options, diff capture limits (maxDiffFiles, maxSnippet*), history size, AI prompt tuning (aiMax*)

See the full table and descriptions in the extension's Features tab or DEVELOPMENT.md.

🔧 Technical Details

• Debounced capture (2s for cursor moves, instant for notes and major events)
• Diff-aware using VS Code's Git extension API (no shell commands)
• Per-workspace storage via workspaceState
• Smart history with reasons for session end ("restart", "idle return", "branch switch")
• Secure AI — keys in VS Code SecretStorage, minimal data sent only on resume panel open

For complete architecture, file-by-file breakdown, local development, packaging, and publishing instructions, see DEVELOPMENT.md.

📜 What's New

See the full history in CHANGELOG.md. The VS Marketplace displays this file directly.

🤝 Contributing

Bug reports, feature requests, documentation improvements, and code contributions are all welcome!

• See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines
• See CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
• See DEVELOPMENT.md for setup

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Built with ❤️ by Anand Shah to help developers maintain context and get back into flow state faster.

If you find LeftOff useful, please star the repo on GitHub and leave a review on the Marketplace! Feedback and ideas are always appreciated — open an issue.