AIGuard

AIGuard is a lightweight VS Code extension that watches your workspace for signs of AI coding activity and alerts you when that activity appears to stop.

It is designed for local AI-assisted workflows with tools such as Codex, Claude Code, Cline, Gemini-powered agents, Cursor-style agents, and similar coding assistants that modify files inside your project.

What It Does

Instead of depending on any single AI tool's internal API, AIGuard watches normal workspace activity that AI agents usually produce:

• text document edits
• file create/change/delete events
• document saves
• git status and diff changes

If no activity is detected for the configured timeout, AIGuard shows a VS Code warning so you can quickly check whether your agent has stalled, gone idle, or finished unexpectedly.

Why Use It

AIGuard is useful when you:

• kick off long-running AI coding tasks and step away
• want a simple idle alert without wiring into a specific AI provider
• switch between multiple local AI tools and want one consistent watcher
• want a lightweight signal that your agent may need attention

Commands

Open the Command Palette with Ctrl + Shift + P and run:

• AIGuard: Start Watching
• AIGuard: Stop Watching
• AIGuard: Set Idle Timeout
• AIGuard: Show Status

Recommended Workflow

1. Open your project folder in VS Code.
2. Start your AI coding task however you normally do.
3. Run AIGuard: Start Watching.
4. Leave the extension running while the agent works.
5. If activity stops for the configured timeout, AIGuard will notify you.

The default idle timeout is 0.5 minutes.

Settings

The extension contributes the following settings:

• aiguard.idleTimeoutMinutes: Minutes of inactivity before showing an alert. Default: 0.5
• aiguard.enableSound: Plays a short beep when idle is detected. Default: true
• aiguard.watchDocumentChanges: Watches unsaved editor changes and saves. Default: true
• aiguard.watchFileSystemChanges: Watches workspace file create/change/delete activity. Default: true
• aiguard.watchGitChanges: Polls git status and diff output for activity changes. Default: true
• aiguard.gitPollSeconds: Git polling interval in seconds. Default: 10

You can change these in VS Code Settings by searching for AIGuard.

Install Locally

Option 1: Run in Extension Development Host

npm install
npm run compile

Then press F5 in VS Code and launch Run AIGuard Extension.

Option 2: Package as a VSIX

npm install -g vsce
npm run package

Install the generated package:

code --install-extension aiguard-0.0.1.vsix

Development

Useful commands:

npm run compile
npm run watch
npm run package

Main entry point:

• src/extension.ts

Notes And Limitations

• AIGuard infers activity from workspace behavior. It does not integrate directly with Codex, Claude, or any other provider.
• The git watcher only works when the opened workspace is also a git repository.
• Idle detection is based on observed changes, so a model that is thinking without touching the workspace may still appear idle.
• Ignore behavior is currently built around common folders such as node_modules, .git, build, dist, .next, coverage, and .vscode.

Summary

AIGuard gives you a simple safety net for AI-assisted coding sessions: if the workspace goes quiet, you get a prompt to check in.