🔔 Error Bell

Never miss a failed build again.

Error Bell is a VS Code extension that listens to every terminal command you run and plays a sound the moment one exits with an error — so you can stay focused on your work instead of babysitting the terminal.

Requirements

VS Code 1.120.0 or newer
Shell integration active in your terminal (enabled by default in VS Code for PowerShell, bash, zsh, and fish — see Shell Integration docs if you use Git Bash, WSL, or a custom shell)
Windows: built-in (uses PowerShell + Windows Media Player)
macOS: built-in (uses afplay)
Linux: paplay (PulseAudio) or mpg123 or ffplay — at least one must be installed

What It Does

Error Bell hooks into VS Code's terminal shell execution events. Every time a command finishes, it checks the exit code:

Non-zero exit code → plays your configured error sound
Exit code 0 → plays your configured success sound (optional)
Quiet hours active → stays silent regardless of exit code
Cooldown not elapsed → skips the sound to prevent spam
Ignored exit codes (e.g. 130 for Ctrl+C) → always silent

A status bar item in the bottom-right corner shows the current state at a glance and can be clicked to toggle the extension on or off.

When you open a terminal that doesn't have shell integration active, Error Bell will offer a setup guide so you can enable it — because without shell integration, exit codes cannot be detected.

Settings

Open Error Bell Settings from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P → Error Bell: Settings) to configure everything through a clean UI. All settings are also available in VS Code's standard Settings editor.

General

Setting	Description
Enable Error Bell	Master on/off switch for all sounds
Explicit Sounds (18+)	Unlocks adult/explicit sound categories in the sound pickers. Requires age confirmation.

Error Sound

Setting	Description
Sound	The sound to play on failure. Options: `System Sound`, `Random`, `Selective Random`, any built-in meme sound, or a custom file.
Volume	Playback volume from 0% (muted) to 100%.
Cooldown	Minimum seconds that must pass between error sounds. Set to `0` for no limit.
Ignored Exit Codes	Comma-separated list of exit codes that never trigger a sound (default: `130` for Ctrl+C).

Success Sound

Setting	Description
Sound	Optional sound to play when a command exits successfully. Set to `Disabled` to turn it off, or choose `System Sound`, `Random`, `Selective Random`, or a custom file.

Quiet Hours

Setting	Description
Hours	A time range (24h format) during which all sounds are silenced. Supports overnight ranges, e.g. `22:00` to `08:00`. Leave blank to disable.

Sound Picker Features

Random — picks from all available sounds in that category on every trigger
Selective Random — you choose a pool of sounds; Error Bell picks randomly from your pool
Custom sounds — browse for any audio file (MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC, M4A, AAC, WMA, AIFF, OPUS); name it and it appears in the picker with a delete button
Preview — hover over any sound in the picker for 300 ms to preview it before committing

Diagnostics

The Terminal Support button in Settings shows which currently open terminals have shell integration active and which do not, so you know exactly where error detection will work.

Thank You

Thank you for using Error Bell! This extension was built out of a genuine need — running long builds and missing failures is frustrating, and a simple sound solves that entirely. I hope it saves you as much time as it saves me.

Suggestions & Feedback

Have an idea, found a bug, or want a new sound category? I'd love to hear from you:

📬 devmg7568@gmail.com

All feedback is welcome — feature requests, UX improvements, platform-specific issues, or just a note to say it worked for you.

Enjoying Error Bell?

If this extension saves you time, please consider leaving a ⭐ review on the Marketplace — it helps others discover it and keeps the project going. Thank you!

Error Bell – Terminal Sound Alerts

Milan Garmora