Coding Session Todos

A VS Code sidebar that mirrors the live TodoWrite task list from active Claude Code sessions and tracks locally running Codex sessions — so you can watch coding work without keeping the terminal in focus.

It works entirely by tailing local transcript JSONL files: Claude Code under ~/.claude/projects/ and Codex CLI/IDE under ~/.codex/sessions/ (or $CODEX_HOME/sessions/). Nothing is sent anywhere; there are no runtime dependencies and no configuration required to get started.

Local coding sessions only. The extension supports Claude Code plus local Codex CLI/IDE sessions. It does not read general ChatGPT chats, Codex Web/cloud sessions, or ChatGPT Desktop sessions.

Features

• Live todo list — the current TodoWrite snapshot for each active session, re-rendered as the transcript changes. The in-progress item is highlighted.
• Running subagents — when a session spawns subagents (via the Agent/Task tool), they appear under a collapsible Subagents · N running group beneath the session, each with its task, a live activity line (agent type, last tool, turns, age), and its own todos on the rare occasion it has them. Rows clear as the subagents finish.
• Every window, one place — sessions are read globally from local Claude Code and Codex transcript stores, so a single panel shows every active coding session across all your open VS Code windows and workspaces — not just this one — sorted most-recent-first.
• Session state at a glance — a spinner while an agent is working, a warning when a session looks like it's waiting on you (e.g. a permission prompt), and a check when it's idle.
• Context usage — the percentage of a session's known effective context window, or its token count when the model/window is unknown, shown per session and in the status bar (matching Claude Code's /context where applicable).
• Status-bar widget — a compact current/total · NN% readout (or token count when the window is unknown) for the session running in your current workspace, with a tooltip listing every active session.

Requirements

Use Claude Code and/or local Codex CLI or IDE sessions at least once, so their transcripts exist under ~/.claude/projects/ and/or ~/.codex/sessions/. The extension reads those files read-only; it does not run or control either agent.

Installation

From the VS Code Marketplace: search for Coding Session Todos in the Extensions view, or install from the command line:

code --install-extension abslabs.coding-session-todos

Or build and install a local .vsix:

npm install
npm run package          # produces coding-session-todos-<version>.vsix
code --install-extension coding-session-todos-<version>.vsix

Settings

How it works

• Lists local Claude Code and Codex transcripts whose modification time is within the active window, and reads only the trailing ~1 MB of each (transcripts routinely exceed 20 MB).
• Scans Claude tails backward for the latest TodoWrite tool call and renders input.todos, plus the session's title, inferred state, and context usage.
• Reads Codex rollout metadata and task lifecycle events for its workspace, indexed title, state, effective context usage, and structured progress updates. Codex has no equivalent stable TodoWrite payload, so the extension intentionally shows an activity view rather than invented todos.
• Reads any subagents a session spawned from the <sessionId>/subagents/ sidecar transcripts Claude Code writes, and shows the ones still running.
• The workspace folder is matched against the cwd recorded inside each transcript, not guessed from the folder name (Claude Code's encoding has shifted across versions).
• Re-reads on file changes (debounced) and re-scans when sessions start, stop, or age out.

Privacy

Everything stays local. The extension only reads transcript files already on your machine and makes no network requests.

Development

npm install      # also wires up the pre-commit hook (typecheck + test)
npm run build    # compile to out/
npm test         # vitest

Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host with the extension loaded. See AGENTS.md for architecture notes.

License

MIT