Touch Grass IDE

The open-source brainrot IDE. Play games while AI writes your code.

"Why alt-tab to doom scroll when you can doom scroll in your IDE?"

Why Touch Grass IDE?

We've all been there. You prompt Claude, Cursor, or Copilot, and now you're staring at a terminal for 30 seconds to 5 minutes waiting for AI to write your code. It's too short to start a new task, but just long enough to destroy your focus by checking Twitter.

Touch Grass IDE solves this by bringing productive procrastination directly into VSCode. No context switching. No browser tabs. No guilt (okay, maybe a little).

But wait, doesn't Chad IDE do this?

Sure, if you:

• Have an invite (closed beta, very exclusive, much wow)
• Trust a VC-backed startup with your "brainrot" data
• Want to connect your actual Stake gambling account to your IDE (seriously?)
• Enjoy closed-source software where you can't see what's happening
• Think Y Combinator endorsing gambling-in-IDEs is peak innovation

Touch Grass IDE is different:

Features

Games

Four built-in games to fill those AI generation gaps:

Skill Games:

• Snake - The classic. Chase high scores, unlock achievements.
• Flappy Bird - Tap to not die. Harder than it sounds.

Casino Games:

• Plinko - Drop balls, hit multipliers, feel something.
• Slots - Chase the 777. Lose all your Grass Coins. Repeat.

Unlike Chad IDE, we don't connect to real gambling platforms. Your wallet is safe. Your fake Grass Coins? Not so much.

Reading

Stay informed without leaving VSCode:

• Hacker News - Top stories, comments, the whole orange site experience
• LessWrong - AI alignment content for the intellectually curious
• Astral Codex Ten - Scott Alexander essays for your big brain moments
• Custom Sources - Add your own RSS feeds and embeds

Pomodoro Timer

A full-featured Pomodoro implementation:

• 25-minute work sessions
• 5-minute short breaks
• 15-minute long breaks (every 4 sessions)
• Session tracking and statistics
• Earn Grass Coins while you work (configurable rate)

$GRASS Economy

Our completely fake, totally worthless, absolutely addictive currency system:

• Earn Grass Coins during Pomodoro work sessions
• Spend them on casino games
• Lose them all and unlock the "Fanum Tax" achievement
• Brag about your balance to absolutely no one

Starting balance: 100 $GRASS

39 Achievements

Unlock achievements across five rarity tiers:

• Common - First steps into brainrot
• Uncommon - You're getting the hang of this
• Rare - Dedicated procrastinator
• Legendary - Touch grass? Never heard of it
• Cursed - Secret achievements for true degenerates

Hidden achievements include gems like:

• Midnight Coder - Use the panel between 2-5 AM
• Skill Issue - Die within 3 seconds in Snake
• Rage Quit - Play 5 games in under 2 minutes
• Paper Hands - Reach 0 $GRASS balance

Auto-Detection

Touch Grass IDE automatically detects when AI is generating code:

• Claude terminal activity
• Cursor AI operations
• GitHub Copilot suggestions
• Generic AI/Agent patterns

Panel appears when AI starts, disappears when it's done. Seamless procrastination.

Installation

From VSCode Marketplace

1. Open VSCode
2. Go to Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X)
3. Search "Touch Grass IDE"
4. Click Install
5. No invite required. We're not Chad IDE.

From Source

git clone https://github.com/CMLKevin/touch-grass-ide.git
cd touch-grass-ide
npm install
npm run compile

Then press F5 in VSCode to launch the extension in debug mode.

Usage

Commands

• Touch Grass: Open Brainrot Panel - Open the panel manually
• Touch Grass: Toggle Auto-Detection - Enable/disable auto-show
• Touch Grass: Reset All Stats - Nuclear option for a fresh start

Settings

{
  "touchgrass.autoDetect": true,
  "touchgrass.autoMinimize": true,
  "touchgrass.brainrotIntensity": "casual",
  "touchgrass.enableAchievements": true,
  "touchgrass.casinoEnabled": true,
  "touchgrass.earningRate": 1,
  "touchgrass.idleTimeout": 30,
  "touchgrass.customSources": []
}

Brainrot Intensity Levels:

• touching-grass - Light usage, you're still functional
• casual - Normal degenerate behavior
• degenerate - Concerning but not clinical
• terminal - You should probably go outside

Philosophy

Touch Grass IDE exists because:

1. AI coding is the future, but waiting is boring
2. Context switching kills productivity more than mini-games
3. Open source > closed source, always
4. Fun shouldn't require a VC pitch deck
5. Your IDE, your rules - no data harvesting, no real money gambling, no "invite only" gatekeeping

We're not trying to "turn rage bait into a product strategy." We're just developers who wanted to play Snake while Claude thinks.

Contributing

PRs welcome! This is open source, unlike some IDEs.

# Fork the repo
# Create your feature branch
git checkout -b feature/add-tetris

# Commit your changes
git commit -m "Add Tetris because why not"

# Push to the branch
git push origin feature/add-tetris

# Open a PR

Ideas for Contributions

• More games (Tetris, 2048, Minesweeper)
• More article sources
• Better achievement ideas
• Themes and customization
• Whatever weird feature you want

FAQ

Q: Is this a joke? A: It's a fully functional VSCode extension. Whether it's a joke is up to you.

Q: How is this different from Chad IDE? A: We're open source, free, don't require invites, don't integrate real gambling, and actually exist publicly. Also we're not backed by Y Combinator, which apparently now funds "brainrot" as a category.

Q: Will this make me more productive? A: Probably not. But you'll have more fun being unproductive.

Q: Can I lose real money? A: No. Grass Coins are completely fake. Unlike Chad IDE's Stake integration.

Q: Why "Touch Grass"? A: Irony. You should probably touch grass. But since you won't, at least do it in style.

License

MIT License - Do whatever you want with it. That's what open source means.

Acknowledgments

• Everyone who's ever doom-scrolled during AI generation
• The Claude, Cursor, and Copilot teams for making us wait
• Not Y Combinator

Touch Grass IDE
Because if you're going to rot your brain, at least do it open source.