Azure Board Work Item Viewer

View your Azure DevOps sprint work items and work item details directly in the VS Code sidebar — without leaving your editor. Ask questions about your sprint using GitHub Copilot Chat with @azureboards. No PAT token required.

Features

Sprint sidebar

• See all your assigned sprint work items in a collapsible panel at the top of the sidebar
• Click any item to load its full details instantly
• Switch sprints via the calendar icon in the view toolbar
• Colour-coded type badges: US, BUG, FEAT, TASK, EPIC
• Configurable work item types — show Tasks, Epics, or any custom type from your project

Work item detail

• Title, type, state, assigned-to and story points
• Description and Acceptance Criteria rendered from Azure DevOps rich HTML
• Acceptance Criteria displayed as a visual checklist (□ items) when written as a list
• Parent work item banner with one-click navigation
• Full branch panel: linked branches with per-repo colour indicators and one-click Checkout

Branch name suggestions ✨

When a work item is loaded the sidebar suggests up to 3 ready-to-use branch names derived from the work item type, ID, and title:

fix/123-null-pointer-on-login
fix/null-pointer-on-login
fix/123

Click any chip to create the branch and switch to it immediately (git checkout -b).

Copilot Chat — @azureboards ✨

Ask questions about your sprint and work items directly in the Copilot Chat panel:

Requires GitHub Copilot Chat. Uses your existing Copilot subscription — no API key needed.

Authentication

• Signs in via Microsoft OAuth using VS Code's built-in authentication provider
• No PAT token, no manual credential entry
• Works with Azure DevOps Services (dev.azure.com)

Getting Started

1. Install and sign in

Install the extension. On first launch VS Code will prompt you to sign in with your Microsoft / work account.

2. Configure

Click the ⚙ Configure icon in the Azure Boards view toolbar and follow the prompts:

• Select your organization
• Select your project
• Select your team

The extension auto-resolves your current sprint.

3. Browse your sprint

Your assigned work items appear in the sprint panel. Click one to see details.

4. Use Copilot Chat

Open the Copilot Chat panel and type:

@azureboards /sprint

Requirements

Extension Settings

Keyboard shortcuts

The sprint list is fully keyboard navigable:

• ↑ / ↓ — move focus between work items
• Enter or Space — load the focused work item
• Enter / Space on the sprint header — collapse / expand the panel

Troubleshooting

Sign-in fails Run Azure Boards: Configure from the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).

Sprint panel is empty

• Confirm the correct project and team are configured
• Check azureBoardViewer.workItemTypes includes the types your team uses
• Click the ↺ Refresh icon

@azureboards says "No Copilot model available" Install the GitHub Copilot Chat extension and sign in to GitHub Copilot.

git checkout -b fails for suggested branch The branch may already exist. The extension will offer to switch to it instead.

Privacy

The extension communicates with:

• dev.azure.com — to fetch your work items (using your Microsoft account session)
• app.vssps.visualstudio.com — to enumerate organizations during setup
• GitHub Copilot (via VS Code LM API) — only when you use @azureboards in chat

No data is stored externally. Credentials are managed entirely by VS Code's built-in auth provider.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome at github.com/GuruPrasath-91/AzureBoardWorkItemViewer.

License

MIT