Reels Watcher lets you sign in with Instagram and watch a scrollable reels feed in a docked VS Code view with a floating, draggable and resizable player UI.
Features
Direct Instagram username/password sign-in inside the extension viewer.
Instagram 2FA code verification support.
Mobile-style feed UI in a dedicated VS Code side view (not a separate editor tab).
Floating player widget that you can drag and resize inside the view.
Reels-only feed (no generic media feed).
Auto-scroll behavior: when a video ends, it moves to the next one.
Hover behavior: if your mouse is over the viewer, the current reel replays instead of advancing.
No in-extension hard limit on usage.
Quick Setup
Open Reels Watcher from the Activity Bar (or run Reels Watcher: Open viewer).
Enter Instagram username and password in the viewer.
If prompted, enter your 2FA verification code.
Use Refresh to reload reels.
Drag the player by its top bar and resize from the bottom-right corner.
Development
npm install
npm run compile
Press F5 in VS Code to run the extension development host.
Ship / Publish
Update publisher in package.json from local-dev to your Azure DevOps publisher id.
Update repository links in package.json (repository, bugs, homepage).
Build package:
npm run package
This generates:
reels-watcher-0.0.3.vsix
Install locally for testing:
code --install-extension reels-watcher-0.0.3.vsix
Publish to Marketplace (after creating a Personal Access Token in Azure DevOps):
npx vsce login <your-publisher>
npm run publish
Commands
Reels Watcher: Sign in with Instagram
Reels Watcher: Sign out
Reels Watcher: Refresh feed
Reels Watcher: Open viewer
Settings
reelsWatcher.fetchLimit (number, default 50)
Important API Notes
Reels discovery and playback are based on Instagram web session responses and may change if Instagram updates its web format.
If login needs verification (checkpoint or 2FA), complete verification in browser first, then try again.
