Automatic Projects Bar

Automatically organize and access all your projects from a dedicated sidebar panel in VS Code. Never search through folders again!

Features

📂 Smart Project Detection

Automatically scans your projects directory and intelligently detects projects based on 12 built-in validators:

• Git repositories (.git folder)
• NPM projects (package.json)
• Python projects (requirements.txt, setup.py, pyproject.toml)
• Rust projects (Cargo.toml)
• Go projects (go.mod)
• Docker projects (Dockerfile, docker-compose.yml)
• Java projects (pom.xml, build.gradle)
• C# projects (.csproj, .sln)
• PHP projects (composer.json)
• Ruby projects (Gemfile)
• C++ projects (CMakeLists.txt, Makefile)
• VS Code workspaces (.vscode folder)

🎨 Rich Project Metadata

Each project displays comprehensive information:

• Project type icons - Visual indicators for each detected project type
• Version information - From package.json, Cargo.toml, go.mod, etc.
• Git branch - Current branch name for Git repositories
• Dependencies count - Number of project dependencies
• Available scripts - NPM scripts or similar
• Rich tooltips - Hover for detailed project information

🗂️ Organized Hierarchy

Projects are displayed in a tree structure that mirrors your filesystem:

• Folders (groups): Directories containing multiple projects
• Projects: Detected project folders with special icons
• Sorted naturally (folders first, then alphabetically)

🔍 Quick Search

Instantly filter and find projects by name using the built-in search functionality. Press the search icon in the panel or use the command palette.

🎯 Quick Actions

Right-click on any project or folder to access convenient actions:

• Open: Replace current workspace with the selected project
• Open in New Window: Open the project in a new VS Code window
• Open in Explorer: Reveal the project folder in your system's file explorer

🔧 Highly Configurable

Customize the extension to match your workflow:

• Multiple root paths - Scan multiple project directories
• Custom validators - Define your own project detection patterns
• Disable validators - Turn off unwanted project type detection
• Scan depth control - Limit how deep the scanner searches
• Exclude patterns - Skip specific folders (node_modules, .git, etc.)

♻️ Auto-Refresh

The panel automatically updates when you change settings. You can also manually refresh anytime using the refresh button.

Usage

1. Install the extension
2. Configure your settings (optional):
   • Open VS Code Settings (Ctrl+, or Cmd+,)
   • Search for "Automatic Projects Bar"
   • Configure paths, validators, and scan options
3. Access your projects: Click the Project Dashboard icon in the Activity Bar (sidebar)
4. Search & Open: Use the search icon to filter, right-click to open projects

Extension Settings

This extension contributes the following configuration options:

Basic Settings

• automaticprojectsbar.projectsPaths: Array of paths to scan for projects (default: ["~/Projects"])

• automaticprojectsbar.excludePatterns: Folder patterns to exclude (default: ["node_modules", ".git", "dist", "build"])

• automaticprojectsbar.maxScanDepth: Maximum directory depth to scan (default: 3)

• automaticprojectsbar.showHiddenFolders: Scan folders starting with . (default: false)

Validator Settings

• automaticprojectsbar.disabledValidators: List of built-in validators to disable
  • Available: git, npm, python, rust, go, docker, java, csharp, php, ruby, cpp, vscode
• automaticprojectsbar.customValidators: Define custom project detection rules (files, folders, filePatterns with matchType substring/regex)

Title Bar Color

• automaticprojectsbar.dynamicTitleBarColor: Tint the title bar from the opened folder name (default: true)
• automaticprojectsbar.titleBarColorScope: workspace (per-window colors, writes .vscode/settings.json) or global (focused window only, no workspace file) (default: workspace)

Example Configuration

{
  "automaticprojectsbar.projectsPaths": ["~/Projects", "~/Work", "/opt/dev"],
  "automaticprojectsbar.excludePatterns": [
    "node_modules",
    ".git",
    "dist",
    "archived"
  ],
  "automaticprojectsbar.maxScanDepth": 4,
  "automaticprojectsbar.disabledValidators": ["docker", "ruby"],
  "automaticprojectsbar.customValidators": [
    {
      "id": "flutter",
      "name": "Flutter",
      "priority": 90,
      "files": ["pubspec.yaml"],
      "filePatterns": ["*.dart"]
    }
  ]
}

Requirements

• VS Code 1.105.0 or higher
• No additional dependencies required

Known Issues

None currently reported.

Release Notes

0.0.6

New Features

• Dynamic title bar color - Each project window is tinted with a color derived from its folder name (dynamicTitleBarColor, scope workspace/global)
• Persistent collapse state - Collapsed tree branches stay collapsed across refreshes and window reloads
• Regex custom validators - filePatterns now supports matchType: "regex" in addition to substring matching
• Type-grouped sorting - Project leaves are grouped by project type, then sorted by name

Bug Fixes

• Fixed false-positive detection - Detectors no longer flag a folder as a project just because a filename contains git/docker/vscode (e.g. a lone .gitignore); detection now uses precise markers
• maxScanDepth, excludePatterns, and showHiddenFolders are now actually enforced during the scan
• Unified all built-in detectors onto the single data-driven rule engine

0.0.5

Complete architecture overhaul with extensive new features:

New Features

• 12 built-in project validators for comprehensive language/framework detection (Git, NPM, Python, Rust, Go, Docker, Java, C#, PHP, Ruby, C++, VS Code)
• Rich metadata extraction - Display version numbers, git branches, dependency counts, and available scripts
• Project type icons with visual indicators for each detected type
• Enhanced tooltips with detailed project information in markdown format
• Multiple root paths support - Scan multiple directories simultaneously
• Custom validators - Define your own project detection patterns with files, folders, and file patterns
• Configurable validator control - Enable/disable specific built-in validators
• Advanced scan options - Max depth control (1-10), exclude patterns with glob support

Bug Fixes

• Permission errors handling when scanning restricted directories

0.0.4

Major architecture overhaul with extensive new features:

• 12 built-in project validators for comprehensive language/framework detection
• Rich metadata extraction - versions, git branches, dependencies, scripts
• Project type icons with visual indicators for each type
• Enhanced tooltips with detailed project information
• Multiple root paths support - scan multiple directories
• Custom validators - define your own project detection patterns
• Configurable validator control - enable/disable specific validators
• Advanced scan options - max depth, exclude patterns
• Improved error handling for permission issues and edge cases
• Complete configuration documentation

0.0.3

Previous release with basic project detection and management features.

0.0.1

Initial release with basic project loading and sorting functionality.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

See LICENSE file for details.

Enjoy organizing your projects!