Bernstein — Multi-Agent Orchestration for VS Code

VS Code extension for monitoring and controlling Bernstein, a multi-agent orchestration system that runs parallel AI coding agents. Gives you real-time visibility into tasks, agents, and costs without leaving your editor.

Features

Sidebar views — dedicated activity bar panel with Agents, Tasks, and Overview views
Agent tree with delegation hierarchy — see active agents, their roles, models, and parent/child relationships
Task grouping — tasks organized by status (open, in progress, done, failed) with inline actions
Dashboard webview — at-a-glance stats: task breakdown, agent count, cost totals, alerts
SSE real-time updates — live streaming from the orchestrator, no manual refresh needed
@bernstein chat participant — query orchestrator status and costs from VS Code Chat
Cost tracking — per-agent and per-model spend, budget warnings when thresholds are exceeded
Status bar — persistent summary of agents, task progress, and total cost

Commands

Command	Description
`Bernstein: Start`	Launch the orchestrator in a terminal
`Bernstein: Refresh`	Force-refresh all tree views
`Bernstein: Show Dashboard`	Open the dashboard in a browser
`Bernstein: Kill Agent`	Terminate a running agent (context menu)
`Bernstein: Show Agent Output`	View an agent's execution logs (context menu)
`Bernstein: Cancel Task`	Cancel an open or in-progress task (context menu)
`Bernstein: Prioritize Task`	Move a task to the top of the queue (context menu)
`Bernstein: Open Task Output`	Open output for a task's assigned agent
`Bernstein: Inspect Agent`	Show agent details: role, model, runtime, cost, tasks

Configuration

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`bernstein.apiUrl`	string	`http://127.0.0.1:8052`	Bernstein orchestrator API URL
`bernstein.apiToken`	string	`""`	Bearer token for API authentication (optional)
`bernstein.refreshInterval`	number	`5`	Tree view polling interval in seconds
`bernstein.showNotifications`	boolean	`true`	Show notification toasts for task completions and failures
`bernstein.costWarningThreshold`	number	`80`	Show a cost warning when budget usage exceeds this percentage
`bernstein.autoStart`	boolean	`false`	Automatically start Bernstein when opening a workspace with a `.sdd` directory

Requirements

VS Code 1.100+ (or compatible forks: Cursor, VSCodium)
Bernstein orchestrator running locally — install from github.com/chernistry/bernstein

Quick Start

Install the extension from the VS Code Marketplace (or Open VSX)
Start the orchestrator: run bernstein run in your project directory
The extension auto-connects to localhost:8052 and starts streaming updates
Click the Bernstein icon in the activity bar to see agents, tasks, and the dashboard

Privacy

The extension only communicates with your local Bernstein server. No telemetry, no external network calls.

License

Apache-2.0

Bernstein — Multi-Agent Orchestration

alex-chernysh