A modern project planning and management board built right into VS Code. Organize tasks, track progress, and collaborate with your team without ever leaving your editor.
Installation
Launch VS Code Quick Open (Ctrl+P), paste the following command, and press enter.
A streamlined project management board inside VS Code Stay in flow. Ship faster. Never leave your editor.
About
Swimlane is a lean, offline-first kanban extension for Visual Studio Code. It lets you manage tasks, monitor progress, and organize your workflow right where you code.
No extra tools. No accounts. No cloud dependency. It all lives locally.
What It Does
Classic kanban layout — Backlog, In Progress, Done
Fully customizable columns to match your workflow
Detailed task cards with priority labels, tags, assignees, checklists, and notes
Multiple workspaces per project
6-character invite codes for easy workspace sharing
Everything saved locally via VS Code global state
Clean, minimal interface designed for focus
Keyboard-driven navigation
Input sanitization and validation built in
Setup
From the Marketplace
Open the Extensions panel (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X)
Search for Swimlane
Click Install
You can also install manually from a .vsix file via the Extensions menu.
First Use
Launch Swimlane with the keyboard shortcut:
Windows/Linux:Ctrl+Alt+S
macOS:Cmd+Alt+S
Workspaces
Creating one
Press New
Give it a name and display name
Share the generated invite code with your team
Joining one
Press Join
Enter the 6-character invite code
Set your display name
Managing Tasks
Hit + Add Item to create a new task
Click any card to open the full editor
Drag or use the modal to move tasks between columns
Add tags, set priority, write checklists, and attach notes
