DevNotes+

Website · User Guide · Install from the Marketplace

The note panel your editor was missing

The problem isn't that developers don't document. It's that there's nowhere good to put it. Markdown files in the repo root accumulate and get ignored. Code comments can't hold screenshots. External apps don't know your codebase.

DevNotes+ was built for exactly this gap: notes are linked to specific files and lines, organized by branch, stored alongside their images and attachments, shared selectively with teammates, and never more than a sidebar away.

And because DevNotes+ is also an MCP server, AI assistants like Claude Code can access that context directly—without copy-pasting notes into every conversation.

Quick Start

1. Open a workspace folder in VS Code.
2. Click the DevNotes icon in the activity bar.
3. Press Ctrl+Alt+Q (Cmd+Alt+Q on Mac) to capture your first note — if an editor is focused, the note is automatically linked to that file and line.
4. Click the note body in the sidebar to edit it inline, or click Open in editor for the full rich-text editor.

Features

Notes

Code Linking

Attach a note to a specific file and line in your workspace:

• A gutter icon marks every line that has a linked note
• Hover the line to see the note title in the standard hover widget
• The status bar shows how many notes are linked to the active file
• Jump to file on any card navigates the editor to the linked line
• Code links update automatically when files are renamed inside VS Code

Organisation

• Tags — coloured pills with custom hex colours and Lucide icons. The five defaults (Idea, Todo, Bug, Meeting, Reference) are fully customisable. tags.json is committed to git so your team shares the same tag set.
• Branch scoping — scope a note to the current git branch; it only surfaces in the sidebar when you're on that branch.
• Reminders — set a due date on any note. An overdue indicator appears in the status bar and a notification fires when the reminder is due.
• Search and filter — filter by tag, branch scope, starred, or archived state.

Rich-Text Editor

The full editor (opened from any sidebar card) supports:

• Headings (H1–H3), bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, inline code
• Bullet lists, ordered lists, task lists (checkboxes)
• Tables — add and remove rows and columns inline
• Code blocks with monospace formatting
• Images — paste or drag-and-drop; stored in .devnotes/assets/
• Clickable hyperlinks that open in the browser
• Blockquotes and horizontal rules

The sidebar also supports inline editing — click the body of any card to edit in place without opening the full editor.

Team Features

All notes are private by default (gitignored). To share a note, toggle Share this note from its overflow menu — DevNotes+ adds an exception to .devnotes/.gitignore for that file so it flows through git like any other source file.

GitHub Integration

Connect a GitHub account from the Set up integrations banner in the sidebar, or later from Integrations in the ⋯ overflow menu beside the search box (uses VS Code's built-in GitHub auth — no personal access token needed):

• Link a PR or issue — paste a GitHub URL to attach it to a note; status (open, merged, closed) is displayed on the card
• Create an issue — convert any note into a GitHub issue directly from the overflow menu

Claude Code / MCP

Register DevNotes+ as an MCP server so Claude Code can interact with your notes from the conversation. Three ways in:

• Set up integrations — the banner shown in the sidebar on a fresh install; click Register MCP server
• Integrations in the ⋯ overflow menu beside the search box — reopens that banner at any time, even after "Never show again"
• Command Palette → DevNotes: Connect to Claude Code (Register MCP Server)

Then restart Claude Code. Claude can list notes, read content, create and update notes, search, append, and complete todos — all attributed in the Activity feed.

Export

• HTML — exports all notes as a styled, self-contained HTML file with images embedded
• Markdown — copy any note as Markdown to paste into Slack, Notion, GitHub, or anywhere else

Keyboard Shortcuts

All other actions are available from the sidebar and the Command Palette (DevNotes: prefix).

Storage

Notes are stored in .devnotes/ at the root of your workspace as plain Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. Images and attachments go in .devnotes/assets/. The folder is gitignored by default — only notes you explicitly share are committed.

This means your notes are:

• Portable — readable in any Markdown editor, no lock-in
• Diffable — shared notes show up in git diff and PR reviews like any source file
• Backed up — lives wherever your repo lives

Documentation

The full user guide lives on the DevNotes+ website:

• Getting started
• Anchoring notes to code
• Organizing notes
• Claude Code & MCP
• Team sharing
• File format

Issues, Feature Requests & Contributions

Found a bug, hit an edge case, or have an idea for something DevNotes+ should do? The quickest route is Send feedback in the ⋯ overflow menu beside the search box, or DevNotes: Send Feedback in the Command Palette — both open the right issue form with your DevNotes+, VS Code, and OS versions already filled in.

You can also open an issue directly. If a similar issue already exists, a 👍 on it helps us prioritize it.

Pull requests are welcome too. Check the contributing guide before diving in.