Agent Monitor
Agent Monitor gives you a phone-friendly dashboard for your AI coding workspace. You can watch conversations live, send follow-up tasks, browse project files, and mirror the active editor terminal without sitting in front of your machine.
It is designed for local AI workflows in VS Code and Cursor, with support for chats from Cursor, Codex, and Copilot-based sessions.
What You Can Do
- View AI conversations from your editor in a clean mobile dashboard
- Open an existing conversation and send a follow-up task back into that thread
- Start a new task in Codex, Copilot, or Cursor
- Browse project files in a read-only file explorer
- Mirror the active integrated terminal and run new commands remotely
- Connect from your phone with a PIN and optional ngrok tunnel
Quick Start
Requirements
- Python 3.11 or newer
- VS Code or Cursor
- Optional: an ngrok auth token if you want a public tunnel URL
- Optional: a reserved ngrok domain or custom hostname if you want a shorter branded tunnel URL
Install From VSIX
- Open Extensions in VS Code or Cursor.
- Open the
... menu.
- Choose Install from VSIX...
- Select the
.vsix file.
- Reload the editor if prompted.
Start Agent Monitor
- Open the Command Palette.
- Run
Agent Monitor: Start.
- Wait for the first startup to finish. The extension creates a local Python environment automatically the first time.
- Run
Agent Monitor: Show QR Code to scan from your phone, or run Agent Monitor: Open Dashboard to open the web app directly.
If you did not set a PIN manually, Agent Monitor generates one automatically on first start and stores it in the extension settings.
Dashboard Views
Conversations
The Conversations view is the main dashboard.
- See live and archived conversations
- Open a conversation and read the full thread
- Continue an existing thread remotely
- Start a new task in Codex, Copilot, or Cursor
Files
The Files view is a read-only project browser.
- Browse project folders detected from your conversations
- Open text files inline
- Preview images inline
- See metadata for binary files that cannot be previewed
Notes:
- File access is read-only
- Only known project roots from detected conversations are exposed
Terminal
The Terminal view mirrors the active integrated terminal in your editor.
- See commands captured after Agent Monitor attaches
- Run a new command in the attached terminal
- Keep shell state between commands because it uses the live editor terminal
Important limitations:
- Agent Monitor cannot recover old terminal scrollback from before it attached
- Shell integration must be available in the terminal
- This is not a full terminal emulator, so full-screen interactive tools are out of scope
Commands
| Command |
What it does |
Agent Monitor: Start |
Starts the local monitor server |
Agent Monitor: Stop |
Stops the monitor server |
Agent Monitor: Show QR Code |
Shows a QR code and PIN for quick phone access |
Agent Monitor: Copy Tunnel URL |
Copies the current dashboard URL |
Agent Monitor: Open Dashboard |
Opens the dashboard in your browser |
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
agentMonitor.pin |
auto-generated |
6-digit PIN used to unlock the dashboard |
agentMonitor.port |
8008 |
Local port for the monitor server |
agentMonitor.ngrokAuthToken |
empty |
Optional ngrok token for tunnel access |
agentMonitor.ngrokDomain |
empty |
Optional reserved ngrok domain or custom hostname, for example agent-monitor.ngrok.app |
agentMonitor.autoStart |
false |
Start Agent Monitor automatically when the editor opens |
Privacy And Security
- The dashboard is protected by a PIN
- By default, Agent Monitor runs locally on your machine
- If you add an ngrok token, Agent Monitor can expose a remote tunnel for phone access outside your local network
- If you choose a custom ngrok hostname, that hostname must already be reserved on your ngrok account
- The file explorer is read-only
- Terminal commands run in your active editor terminal, so treat remote access as trusted access
Troubleshooting
First start feels slow
That is expected. The extension creates a Python virtual environment and installs backend dependencies on first launch.
Python not found
Install Python 3.11 or newer and make sure it is available as python, python3, or py.
No conversations appear
- Make sure you have opened or used supported AI chats locally
- Run
Agent Monitor: Start again if the monitor is not running
- Use the sync button in the dashboard to reload from disk
Terminal says no terminal is attached
- Open an integrated terminal in the same editor window where Agent Monitor is running
- Run a command in that terminal
- Make sure shell integration is available
- Reload the editor window if the terminal mirror was added or updated recently
I cannot connect from my phone
- Confirm the monitor is running
- Check the PIN
- If you are off-network, make sure your ngrok tunnel is available
Build From Source
If you are developing the extension locally:
npm install
npm run compile
Then press F5 in VS Code or Cursor to launch an Extension Development Host and run Agent Monitor: Start there.
To package a VSIX:
npx @vscode/vsce package
License
MIT
