Caspian Notes
A personal notes library for VS Code. Store notes as Markdown files, browse them in an Instagram-style masonry grid, filter by tags, and one-click copy, insert at cursor, or send to your AI chat extension of choice.
Features
- Masonry library — variable-height cards arranged in a responsive multi-column grid that reflows as you resize the panel.
- Activity-bar sidebar — a dedicated tree view lists every note with right-click Copy / Insert / Edit / Send to Chat / Delete.
- Grid / list toggle — Google Keep-style switch between masonry and compact list view; persists per webview.
- Tag filtering — chip row above the grid, click to combine filters (AND semantics). Tag counts update as you add and remove notes.
- Instant search — substring match across title, body, and tags.
/ focuses the search box.
- Markdown storage — one
.md file per note with YAML frontmatter. Readable outside the extension, git-friendly.
- Global library — notes live in VS Code's global storage so the same library shows up in every workspace.
- Four card actions — copy to clipboard, insert at cursor, open in edit view, or send to chat (configurable command ID).
Install
VS Code Marketplace: ext install CaspianTools.caspian-notes
Open VSX: available via the ovsx published release.
From source: git clone, npm install, npm run compile, then vsce package and install the produced .vsix.
Usage
- Click the Caspian Notes icon in the activity bar (the masonry glyph) — or run
Caspian Notes: Open Notes Library from the command palette for the full grid.
- In the sidebar, use + (view-title) to add your first note, or right-click any item for Copy / Insert / Edit / Send to Chat / Delete.
- In the full grid, click a card to run the default action (
copy by default). Hover to reveal per-action buttons: Copy, Insert, Chat, Edit.
Commands
| Command |
What it does |
Caspian Notes: Open Notes Library |
Opens the masonry grid in the active editor column. |
Caspian Notes: New Note |
Opens the library and focuses the editor modal. |
Caspian Notes: Insert Note at Cursor |
QuickPick picker that inserts the chosen note body at the cursor. Useful with keybindings. |
Caspian Notes: Refresh |
Refreshes the sidebar tree (usually updates automatically via store change events). |
Keyboard shortcuts inside the panel
| Key |
Action |
/ |
Focus search |
Ctrl/Cmd + N |
New note |
Enter / Space on a card |
Run default action |
Esc |
Close editor modal |
Ctrl/Cmd + Enter in editor |
Save |
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
caspianNotes.defaultCardAction |
"copy" |
Action when you click a card: copy, insert, or edit. |
caspianNotes.chatCommand |
"workbench.action.chat.open" |
VS Code command ID invoked by Chat. The note body is passed as its argument. |
caspianNotes.minColumnWidth |
260 |
Minimum masonry column width in pixels. |
Send-to-chat compatibility
The default workbench.action.chat.open works with GitHub Copilot Chat and other extensions that register on the generic chat command. For Claude Code, look up the current command ID (it varies across versions) and set caspianNotes.chatCommand accordingly. If the configured command fails, the body is copied to your clipboard as a fallback.
Storage
Notes are stored at context.globalStorageUri/notes/*.md. Each file is a human-readable Markdown document with frontmatter:
---
id: 4f9c2e4e-...
title: Code review
tags:
- review
- claude
createdAt: 2026-04-25T12:00:00.000Z
updatedAt: 2026-04-25T12:00:00.000Z
---
Review the following code for…
You can manually copy the notes/ folder between machines. VS Code Settings Sync does not sync globalStorageUri — cross-device sync will be added in a future release (see CHANGELOG.md).
Screenshots
License
MIT
