CLI Inspector — Neuron Cloud (VSCode extension)
An interactive neuron tag-cloud of your most-used shell command lines, right
inside VSCode. Each node is a full command line (command + arguments); size and
colour scale with how often you've run it. Click a node to copy the full command
to your clipboard and see where it was run.
This is a TypeScript port of the standalone cli_inspector.py script — it needs
no Python and works in any workspace.
Commands
Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and run:
| Command |
What it does |
| CLI Inspector: Show Neuron Cloud |
Visualize your entire shell history. |
| CLI Inspector: Show Neuron Cloud (this workspace only) |
Only commands recorded as running inside the open workspace folder. |
| CLI Inspector: Pick History File… |
Choose the history file manually and save it to settings. |
History source
By default the extension auto-detects your shell history:
- Windows — PSReadLine
…\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\PSReadLine\ConsoleHost_history.txt
- macOS / Linux —
~/.zsh_history, then ~/.bash_history, then fish history
Override it with the cliInspector.source setting (or the Pick History File…
command) if your history lives elsewhere.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
cliInspector.source |
"" |
Absolute path to the history file. Empty = auto-detect. |
cliInspector.topN |
100 |
Most-frequent commands rendered as large nodes. |
cliInspector.recentN |
300 |
Recent unique commands also included as nodes. |
Controls (in the cloud)
- Click a node — copies the full command, opens a panel with run-count and directories.
/ — focus the search box; matches stay lit, the rest fade.Esc — close the panel / clear the search.
Develop
cd vscode-extension
npm install
npm run compile # or: npm run watch
Press F5 in VSCode to launch an Extension Development Host, then run one of
the commands above. Package a .vsix with npx @vscode/vsce package.
How the "where did it run" works
The parser replays cd / Set-Location / pushd commands as it scans the
history, so each command is associated with the directory it most likely ran in.
That's also what powers the (this workspace only) view. Commands with no cd
trail before them show location unknown.
