TODO Beacon scans your codebase for TODO/FIXME/BUG-style comments and parses a plain-text task file, then shows both side by side in the Activity Bar — so you never have to choose between "TODOs live in code" and "tasks live in a list."
Features
📋 Code TODOs
Scans every file in the workspace for configurable comment tags (TODO, FIXME, BUG, HACK, NOTE, REVIEW, DEPRECATED, …) and groups them by tag in a dedicated tree view.
- Only matches tags that actually sit inside a comment — a CSS rule like
.btn-warn:hover { is never mistaken for a WARN: tag.
- Markdown heading titles (
# Code Review: ...) are never mistaken for a tag either.
- Groups are sorted in a fixed, scannable priority order —
DEPRECATED, FIXME, BUG, XXX, WARNING, TODO, NOTE — with any other configured tags appended alphabetically. WARN is merged into the WARNING group.
- Click an item to jump straight to that line in the file.
✅ Task List
Auto-detects a task file in your workspace root (tasks.todo → TODO.md → todo.md → TASKS.md → tasks.md, or a path you configure) and renders it as a tree.
- Supports both TaskPaper (
.todo) and Markdown checkbox (- [ ], - [x], - [-]) formats.
- Markdown headings are nested by heading depth, so
## sections sit under their parent # section — collapsing a section collapses everything beneath it, and indentation matches the document structure.
- Click a task to jump straight to it in the task file.
🔄 Always in sync
A file watcher refreshes both views automatically as files change, or trigger it manually via the refresh button in the view title or the Refresh TODOs command.
Configuration
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
todo-beacon.tags |
TODO, FIXME, BUG, HACK, NOTE, TEST, DEBUG, OPTIMIZE, PERF, REVIEW, IDEA, WARNING, WARN, DEPRECATED, XXX |
Comment tags to detect in source files. |
todo-beacon.taskFile |
"" (auto-detect) |
Path to the task file, relative to the workspace root. Leave empty to auto-detect. Supports TaskPaper (.todo) and Markdown (.md) formats. |
todo-beacon.exclude |
node_modules, .git, dist, build, wwwroot, assets, out, .vscode-test, and common per-language cache/build folders (.angular, .next, .nuxt, .turbo, .cache, __pycache__, .pytest_cache, .mypy_cache, .gradle, .dart_tool, target, …) |
Glob patterns to exclude from code scanning. |
todo-beacon.maxFileSizeKb |
1024 |
Maximum file size in KB to scan. Larger files are skipped. |
TaskPaper
Work:
- Fix bug @done
- Refactor loop (#7f3a)
Personal:
- Call dentist
Markdown
## Work
- [x] Fix bug
- [ ] Refactor loop (#7f3a)
### Personal
- [ ] Call dentist
Requirements
VS Code 1.90.0 or newer.
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome at github.com/Langenhorst-IT-Solutions/TODO-Beacon-Extension. Planned features and design decisions are tracked in ROADMAP.md.
npm install
npm test # run the test suite
npm run coverage # run tests with a coverage report
License
MIT
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