RuntimeWire for VS Code, VSCodium & Antigravity

The latest AI news right in your status bar — perfect for the minutes you spend waiting on Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, or any agent to finish. A single status-bar entry rotates through fresh RuntimeWire headlines plus one clearly-labelled native sponsored slot you can earn a revenue share from by signing in. No sidebar, no panel, no webview — just one glanceable line.

Runs identically in VS Code, VSCodium, and Google's Antigravity IDE — it uses only the standard, open-source VS Code status-bar API (createStatusBarItem), so the same build loads in every VS Code-compatible editor with nothing Microsoft-specific to miss. Antigravity is a VS Code fork that installs extensions from Open VSX, so the same package that ships to VSCodium drops straight into Antigravity's status bar.

This is the editor companion to the RuntimeWire CLI. It never patches Claude Code, Codex, or any other extension, and it never reads your code — it's a standalone status-bar entry.

What it does

Headline ticker — the latest AI headlines rotate through one status-bar entry. Click it to open the RuntimeWire menu and read any of them.
One native sponsor — a single, clearly labelled Sponsored · Brand slot is mixed into the rotation (never more than one).
Earn a share — sign in with Google and a cut of sponsor revenue accrues to you for impressions (the slot dwelling in your status bar) and clicks. Clicks are worth far more than impressions.
Live balance — your earnings show in the status-bar tooltip and menu: $0.42 today · $7.11 lifetime.
Read the whole headline — long titles are trimmed to fit the status bar; hover the entry and the tooltip shows the full, untruncated headline.
Pause anytime — mute the ticker with one click (status bar menu or the RuntimeWire: Pause/Resume ticker command) without uninstalling. It stays paused across restarts until you resume.
Filter topics — pick only the topics you care about (AI, startups, products, funding, …) via runtimewire.categories.
Make it pop — turn on runtimewire.prominent for a high-contrast background so the entry is easy to spot on a busy status bar.
Fail-soft — a network blip, empty feed, or missing ad never breaks the ticker. Anonymous mode always works; you just don't earn until you sign in.

Install

VS Code

Search RuntimeWire in the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X) and click Install, or install from the Visual Studio Marketplace.

VSCodium

VSCodium uses the Open VSX registry instead of the Microsoft Marketplace. Either:

From the Extensions view — search RuntimeWire (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X) and click Install (VSCodium points its Extensions view at Open VSX by default), or
From a .vsix file — download the latest runtimewire-*.vsix from the GitHub releases, then run Extensions: Install from VSIX… from the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) and select the downloaded file.

Antigravity

Google's Antigravity IDE is a VS Code fork and, like VSCodium, installs extensions from Open VSX. The same build works there with no extra steps. Either:

From the Extensions view — search RuntimeWire (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X) and click Install (Antigravity points its Extensions view at Open VSX), or
From a .vsix file — download the latest runtimewire-*.vsix from the GitHub releases, then run Extensions: Install from VSIX… from the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) and select the downloaded file.

The RuntimeWire entry appears in Antigravity's status bar exactly as it does in VS Code — it sits alongside any other status-bar items (including quota monitors like Antigravity Pulse), never replacing them.

Getting started

Click the RuntimeWire entry in the status bar (bottom-right) to open the menu.
Choose Sign in and authenticate with Google, then copy your publisher key (it starts with rwpub_) from the dashboard and paste it back into VS Code.
Keep coding — impressions and clicks earn automatically.

Before you sign in you'll already see real headlines and sponsored slots — a live preview. Those preview impressions don't earn you anything; sign in to start earning your share.

Status bar

State	Meaning
`$(pulse) <headline>`	A live RuntimeWire headline. Click to read it.
`$(megaphone) Sponsored · Brand — …`	The native sponsored slot. Click to open it.
`RuntimeWire` / `RuntimeWire offline`	Still loading, or the backend is temporarily unreachable.

Click the entry to open the RuntimeWire menu — read any headline or the sponsor, sign in/out, open the earnings dashboard, or refresh. The tooltip always shows your current revenue share.

Commands

Open the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P):

Command	Description
`RuntimeWire: Sign in`	Authenticate with Google + store your publisher key.
`RuntimeWire: Sign out`	Remove the stored key and stop earning.
`RuntimeWire: Refresh`	Reload headlines + the sponsored slot now.
`RuntimeWire: Open earnings dashboard`	Open your publisher dashboard.
`RuntimeWire: Open current headline or sponsor`	Open whatever the status bar is showing.
`RuntimeWire: Menu`	Open the full RuntimeWire menu.
`RuntimeWire: Pause/Resume ticker`	Mute (or un-mute) the rotation without uninstalling.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`runtimewire.apiBase`	`https://runtimewire.com`	RuntimeWire origin to read news + ads from.
`runtimewire.newsCount`	`5`	How many headlines to rotate beside the sponsored slot (4–6).
`runtimewire.refreshSeconds`	`180`	How often headlines + the sponsor refresh.
`runtimewire.categories`	(all)	Only show these topics. Leave empty for all. Options: `ai`, `startups`, `products`, `funding`, `founder-moves`, `exits`, `venture`, `scoops`, `latest`.
`runtimewire.prominent`	`false`	Give the status-bar entry a high-contrast background so it's easier to spot.

Privacy

The extension talks only to your configured RuntimeWire origin. Anonymous mode sends no account information. When signed in, it reports ad impressions and clicks to attribute your revenue share — the same anti-fraud serving the website uses. It never reads your code, prompts, completions, or any chat content. Your publisher key is stored in VS Code SecretStorage (your OS keychain), never in plaintext settings.

License

MIT