Joy for VS Code

Your Joy backlog, right inside the editor.

A VS Code extension that surfaces the Joy backlog of any repository you open: an activity-bar tree with parent/child nesting, lifecycle actions on each item, and auto-refresh when the underlying files change. Part of the Joyint ecosystem.

Install

From the Marketplace: open the Extensions view, search for Joy, and install joyint.joy-vscode. Also on the Open VSX Registry for VSCodium, Cursor, and other Open VSX editors.

From a VSIX: grab it from the latest GitHub release and install it one of two ways:

Command line (works on Linux, macOS, Windows):

code --install-extension joy-vscode-X.Y.Z.vsix

VS Code UI: open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P), run Extensions: Install from VSIX..., then pick the downloaded file.

Requirements

The joy CLI must be installed on your system. The extension shells out to it for every read and write and does not bundle a binary.

On first activation the extension auto-discovers joy via PATH, your login shell, and common install locations (~/.local/bin, /usr/local/bin, /opt/homebrew/bin, ~/.cargo/bin, plus the Windows equivalents). The resolved path appears in the status bar; click it to override via a guided dialog. The path can also be set explicitly via the joy.executablePath setting.

Features

• Backlog tree in a dedicated Joy activity-bar container - milestones as top-level groups (plus a "No Milestone" group), items nested by parent, ordered oldest or newest first via a title-bar toggle.
• Structural drag and drop in the tree: drop an item on another item to re-parent it, on the "No Milestone" group or empty area to un-parent / unlink it, on a milestone to link it. Right-click an item to remove its parent. No manual ordering.
• New Item / New Milestone buttons in the view title.
• Item detail form, in the secondary side bar by default: edit title, type, priority, effort, milestone, and description; add and remove parent, assignees, and dependencies; trigger lifecycle verbs; read and add comments.
• Board with status columns and a Mine filter: drag cards between columns to change status, click a card to open it, filter by id or title, and sort by updated, created, id, title, effort, priority, or type.
• Editor links: Joy item ids (ACRONYM-XXXX) in code, Markdown, or commit messages become links that open the item, with a hover showing its title and status.
• GitHub Copilot integration: the Joy: Init Copilot command teaches Copilot the Joy workflow and adds a /joy prompt to Copilot Chat — see GitHub Copilot integration.
• Authentication built in: a modal passphrase prompt (with reveal toggle) appears when joy requires auth; the failed action retries automatically after login.
• Live refresh on changes under .joy/items/ (debounced) so tree, detail, and board stay in sync with terminal use, git pull, or AI edits.
• Compact status bar entry: check when ready, key when unauthenticated, warning when the CLI is missing or too old - details in the tooltip.
• Cross-platform: Linux, macOS, and Windows.

GitHub Copilot integration

Run Joy: Init Copilot from the Command Palette to wire Copilot into this repo. It runs joy ai init --tool copilot (prompting once for your Joy passphrase) and:

• writes .github/copilot-instructions.md, so Copilot Chat knows to drive the backlog through the joy CLI instead of reading or editing .joy/ files directly;
• adds a /joy prompt (.github/prompts/joy.prompt.md) — type /joy in Copilot Chat to get the Joy-aware assistant;
• registers the ai:copilot@joy member so Copilot's commits are attributed.

Pick a capable Copilot model (for example a full GPT-5 or a Claude model). Smaller models such as GPT-5 mini tend to ignore custom instructions and count .joy/ files by hand instead of running joy ls.

Documentation

• Vision - what's in and out of scope
• Architecture - how the extension talks to the joy CLI
• Contributing - coding conventions, development setup, commit messages

Status

Published to the VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX. Each vX.Y.Z tag (pushed by just publish / joy release publish) drives a GitHub release plus the Marketplace and Open VSX uploads from CI. Tracked under JVSC-0001-D4 and the milestones beneath it.

License

MIT.