Every open file, down the side.

The tab bar works until it doesn't. Open a dozen files and the tabs shrink, then scroll, then start hiding the one you want behind a chevron.

Editor Bays puts your open editors in a vertical list in the sidebar, where a name stays readable however many of them there are.

A list you can actually read

Every open editor gets a row: its name, and the folder it lives in underneath.

Real icons: from whichever file icon theme you already use.
State on the row that owns it: unsaved dots, Git status, errors and warnings.
The active file: highlighted, always.
Compact mode: name and path on one line, when you would rather see more rows.

Actions where the file already is

Hover a bay and its actions appear. While you are only reading, none of them are on screen.

Pin the files you keep coming back to, and they stay at the top.
Close without aiming at a small target.
Add to Copilot Chat straight from the row.
Do what the file does: preview a Markdown, an image or a CSV, run a test or a script, format a JSON, send an .http request, open a PDF in the app that owns it.

Right-click gives you a context menu built to VS Code's own shape: it opens under the cursor, with submenus, keyboard navigation and type-ahead.

Close, close others, close to the right, close the group.
Reveal in the Explorer view, or in the system file manager.
Copy the relative path, the absolute path, or the contents.
Compare with the active editor, open changes, split right.
Open the timeline, duplicate the file, move it to a new window.

Groups, when you split

Split the editor and the view gathers each group under a heading of its own.

Rename a group to what it actually is.
Colour it blue, green, yellow, orange, red or purple, all from your theme.
Lock it so nothing closes by accident.
Fold it away while you work somewhere else.

Diffs sit under the file they came from

A diff, a staged change, a snapshot or a comparison is drawn indented under its source, as a variant of it.

Three versions of one file stay one entry with three rows beneath it, and the parent says how many it has.

Claude Code conversations keep their name

A Claude Code tab gets its own branding and its whole title, read from the live transcript instead of the truncated Conversation with... VS Code shows. Plan previews are recognised too.

It follows your files

Rename a file, move it, drag a folder or delete it, and the open bays follow.

No stale paths, and no rows pointing at something that is no longer there.

Make the list yours

Setting	What it does	Default
`bays.showFilePath`	The folder under each name	On
`bays.compactMode`	One line per bay, at reduced height	Off
`bays.enableHoverActions`	The buttons that appear on hover	On
`bays.enableDragDrop`	Reorder by dragging, within a group and across groups	On
`bays.animations`	Everything the view moves. `workbench.reduceMotion` turns it off too	On
`bays.followProductIconTheme`	Draw the panel's glyphs with your product icon theme	On
`bays.syncCursorPosition`	Hold the cursor at the same line in a bay and its variants	Off

The toolbar carries a View Options menu for the two you flip most, and a Save All button that appears only while something is unsaved.

A few things worth knowing

Editor Bays has a few deliberate boundaries:

Cursor position sync is experimental, and off until you ask for it.
A webview cannot cross the application boundary: nothing can be dragged in from outside VS Code.
The view shows what the editor has open. It is not a file browser.

Getting started

Click the Editors icon in the Activity Bar.

Your open editors are already in it. There is nothing to configure.

Settings use the bays. prefix: filter for @ext:Lovervoid.bays.

Requires VS Code 1.85 or later.

Why Editor Bays?

Because the tab bar runs out of room and the sidebar does not.

Every file you have open. Readable. In one column.

Questions and bug reports: the Q&A tab on this listing.

MIT License.

Editor Bays

Lovervoid