Too Many Cooks - VSCode Extension

Visualize multi-agent coordination in real-time. See file locks, messages, and plans across AI agents working on your codebase.

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+ is required. The too-many-cooks package is fetched automatically via npx.

Features

• Agents Panel: View all registered agents and their activity status
• File Locks Panel: See which files are locked and by whom
• Messages Panel: Monitor inter-agent communication
• Plans Panel: Track agent goals and current tasks
• Real-time Updates: Auto-refreshes to show latest status

Quick Start

1. Add the MCP server to your AI coding assistant (see below)
2. Install this VSCode extension
3. The extension auto-connects on startup
4. Open the "Too Many Cooks" view in the Activity Bar (chef icon)

All tools use npx too-many-cooks, sharing the same SQLite database at ~/.too_many_cooks/data.db.

MCP Server Setup

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport stdio too-many-cooks --scope user -- npx too-many-cooks

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "too-many-cooks": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "too-many-cooks"]
    }
  }
}

OpenAI Codex CLI

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.too-many-cooks]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "too-many-cooks"]

GitHub Copilot

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "servers": {
    "too-many-cooks": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "too-many-cooks"]
    }
  }
}

Commands

• Too Many Cooks: Connect to MCP Server - Connect to the server
• Too Many Cooks: Disconnect - Disconnect from the server
• Too Many Cooks: Refresh Status - Manually refresh all panels
• Too Many Cooks: Show Dashboard - Open the dashboard view

Configuration

Architecture

The extension connects to the Too Many Cooks MCP server which coordinates multiple AI agents editing the same codebase:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     VSCode Extension                         │
│  ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐       │
│  │  Agents  │ │  Locks   │ │ Messages │ │  Plans   │       │
│  └────┬─────┘ └────┬─────┘ └────┬─────┘ └────┬─────┘       │
│       └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘              │
│                           │                                  │
└───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┘
                            │ MCP Protocol
                            ▼
              ┌────────────────────────┐
              │   too-many-cooks MCP   │
              │        Server          │
              └───────────┬────────────┘
                          │
                          ▼
              ┌────────────────────────┐
              │   ~/.too_many_cooks/   │
              │        data.db         │
              └────────────────────────┘

Related

• too-many-cooks - The MCP server (npm package)
• dart_node - The underlying Dart-on-Node.js framework

License

MIT