Dinotty for VS Code

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Dinotty terminals, seamlessly integrated into VS Code.

Dinotty for VS Code brings Dinotty-powered terminal sessions into VS Code's integrated terminal. Opening a connection creates a new Dinotty tab and pane, then presents that terminal through the standard VS Code terminal UI with replay-aware rendering, geometry synchronization, and automatic reconnection.

[!IMPORTANT] This extension is a terminal client for Dinotty, not a full Dinotty administration interface. It does not browse or manage existing tabs and panes. The Connections view stores local server profiles used to open new terminals.

Features

• Integrated terminal experience - Open Dinotty from the Activity Bar, Command Palette, or VS Code terminal profile menu.
• Multiple server profiles - Save, test, edit, and select Dinotty endpoints without putting credentials in workspace settings.
• Secure credentials - Access codes are stored in VS Code SecretStorage and are redacted from titles, logs, state files, and error messages.
• Reliable terminal rendering - Snapshot replay and synchronized output are committed atomically so partial frames are not shown in the terminal.
• Responsive terminal sizing - Remote geometry is coordinated with the current VS Code panel, including recovery when the remote terminal is larger than the available space.
• Resilient sessions - Temporary WebSocket failures reconnect to the same Dinotty pane with bounded exponential backoff.
• Optional appearance sync - Use the native VS Code theme or import base and ANSI colors from Dinotty for each newly opened terminal.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.90.0 or newer.
• Dinotty v0.18.0 or newer.
• A reachable Dinotty HTTP(S) endpoint.

The minimum Dinotty version must include snapshot_request and replay_begin/replay_end support, introduced by Dinotty commit 8bcee3186ea900f458ff4cb23bc56804b0bd3ae1.

Installation

Install a published .vsix with the VS Code command:

1. Open the Command Palette.
2. Run Extensions: Install from VSIX....
3. Select the Dinotty VSIX file and reload VS Code when prompted.

To build a VSIX from source:

npm ci
npm run package:vsix

The package is written to artifacts/dinotty-vscode.vsix.

Quick Start

1. Select the Dinotty icon in the Activity Bar.
2. Choose Add Dinotty Connection.
3. Enter the Dinotty server URL, a local display name, an optional remote working directory, and an optional access code.
4. Select the saved profile in the Connections view.
5. Use the newly created terminal like any other VS Code integrated terminal.

You can also run Dinotty: Connect from the Command Palette or select Dinotty from the terminal profile menu. When more than one profile exists, the extension asks which server to use.

What Happens When You Open a Terminal

The extension performs the following sequence for every new terminal:

1. Resolves a snapshot of the selected local connection profile.
2. Optionally reads Dinotty appearance settings.
3. Calls POST /api/tabs to create a new Dinotty tab and pane.
4. Connects to that pane through /ws?paneId=....
5. Requests and renders a terminal snapshot at a compatible size.
6. Forwards subsequent terminal input, output, and resize events.

Closing the VS Code terminal disconnects its local WebSocket endpoint. It does not delete the Dinotty tab created on the server. Editing or deleting a saved profile also does not retarget terminals that are already open.

For loopback server URLs, the first local filesystem workspace folder is used as the working directory. Remote server profiles omit cwd by default so a local path is never mistaken for a server path. Set the profile's remote working directory when the Dinotty host needs a specific Windows, POSIX, UNC, or container path.

Connection Profiles and Security

Connection profiles are local client configuration, not Dinotty server resources. A profile contains a display name, normalized server URL, optional remote working directory, ordering metadata, and an optional reference to a credential.

• Profile metadata is stored in globalStorageUri/connection-store-v1.json.
• Access codes are stored only in VS Code SecretStorage under randomized slots.
• A terminal freezes its resolved profile when it is created. Later profile edits affect only new terminals.
• A missing referenced secret is treated as an error; the extension never silently retries the profile without authentication.
• Access codes can be used over HTTP and HTTPS. Non-loopback plain HTTP requires an explicit warning because credentials and terminal traffic are unencrypted; use HTTPS for remote servers whenever possible.
• HTTP and WebSocket authentication use Authorization: Bearer <access-code>.

Profiles are shared by VS Code windows using the same user profile. Writes use an atomic state file and a bounded writer lease. Cross-window consistency is best effort rather than a distributed transaction: in an extreme stale-writer overlap, the last completed atomic write can win.

Terminal Behavior

Rendering and replay

The extension understands Dinotty output, resize, reconnect, replay, synchronized-output, shell-info, and session-exit messages. Replay and nested synchronized output are committed as one frame while small; large frames are streamed in bounded chunks so valid scrollback is not rejected.

Geometry

VS Code panel capacity and Dinotty render geometry are tracked independently. A remote grid that fits can be displayed with a dimensions override. An oversized remote grid pauses incremental rendering. Actual user input or a terminal dimension change can reclaim the local geometry; the most recently active terminal and window focus alone never resize the shared Dinotty PTY.

Reconnection

Temporary transport failures reconnect to the original pane after 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 15s, and then 30s. Retries stop after 10 attempts or 5 minutes. Authentication failures, missing panes, and authoritative session exits do not reconnect.

Input entered while a terminal is being created, connected, or reconnected is held in a bounded queue. Input that was already sent is never replayed automatically.

Appearance

Set dinotty.terminalAppearanceMode to control the appearance of newly opened Dinotty terminals:

The extension does not modify terminal.integrated.*, workbench.colorCustomizations, terminal fonts, contrast settings, or the global VS Code theme.

The legacy dinotty.syncAppearanceFromDinotty setting is deprecated. An explicit true maps to exact, while false maps to native. The new setting always takes precedence.

Commands

Known Limitations

• The extension creates a new Dinotty tab and pane for every terminal; it does not list, reopen, rename, split, or delete existing Dinotty resources.
• Closing a VS Code terminal does not delete its remote Dinotty tab.
• Remote workspace paths are not mapped to the Dinotty host.
• Dinotty geometry is shared across clients on a last-resize-wins basis. snapshot_request and resize events cannot provide strict multi-client geometry consistency without additional server protocol support.
• Appearance settings are global Dinotty settings, not per-session values, and are frozen when a terminal is created.

Troubleshooting

• Run Dinotty: Test Connection to check the selected URL and access code.
• Open Dinotty: Show Log for redacted connection and protocol diagnostics.
• If authentication fails, edit the profile and explicitly replace or clear its saved access code.
• If shared profile storage becomes temporarily unavailable, the Connections view can continue using its last valid snapshot in read-only mode. Run Dinotty: Refresh Connections after resolving the storage problem.

Development

npm ci
npm run check

Useful commands:

The integration test downloads or reuses VS Code 1.90.0. Linux CI requires xvfb-run for extension-host tests. The VSIX uses an allowlist and contains only the manifest, README, license, media assets, and the generated production bundle.

License

MIT