AI Agents Terminal

Launch the AI CLI coding assistants installed on your machine (Claude Code / Codex / Cursor / …) from the VS Code status bar with one click, opening each in a logo'd terminal tab. Supports a YOLO (auto-approve) mode, filters by what's installed, and lets you freely add / remove / configure agents — no code changes required.

Features

• Status-bar launcher: a 🤖 AI Agents button at bottom-right → opens a Quick Pick listing only the agents installed on PATH (with logos); pick one to open it in a new terminal tab.
• YOLO mode: toggle via the Y status-bar button or the Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+Y shortcut; when on, each agent launches with its own auto-approve args (e.g. Claude's --dangerously-skip-permissions).
• Resume mode: toggle via the R status-bar button or the Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+R shortcut; when on, each agent launches with its own resumeFlag (e.g. Claude's -r) to continue the most recent session.
• Data-driven: the supported agents (defined in the root agents.json) are recognized by default; override params, hide, or add custom agents from Settings — no code changes needed.
• Terminal profiles: installed agents are registered as Terminal profiles, surfacing in Terminal: Select Default Profile (filtered by install status, can be set as the default terminal).

Screenshots

Status bar — 🤖 AI Agents, Y, and R buttons in the bottom-right corner:

Quick Pick — click 🤖 AI Agents to choose an installed agent (logos from agents.json):

Install

From the VS Code Marketplace (recommended)

• Open the AI Agents Terminal Marketplace page and click Install.

• Or in VS Code: open the Extensions view, search for AI Agents Terminal, and click Install.

• Or from the command line:

  code --install-extension cnsharp.ai-agents-terminal
  

Run from source (development / trial)

1. Install dependencies: npm install
2. Compile: npm run compile (or npm run watch to rebuild on change)
3. Press F5 to open the Extension Development Host window; the new window's status bar shows 🤖 AI Agents.

Package / install as VSIX

• Package: npx @vscode/vsce package (produces a *.vsix)
• Install: in VS Code run Extensions: Install from VSIX... and pick the generated file.

Usage

Launch an agent

• Click 🤖 AI Agents at bottom-right, choose from the Quick Pick (only installed agents are listed), and it opens in a new terminal tab.
• Or run AI Agents from the Command Palette (command id ai-agents-terminal.openMenu).
• A Settings item is pinned at the bottom of the Quick Pick to open this extension's settings page directly.

YOLO mode (auto-approve)

• Click the Y status-bar button, or use Ctrl+Alt+Y (Cmd+Alt+Y on macOS).
• When on, the button highlights; launching an agent automatically appends that agent's skipFlag.

Resume mode (continue session)

• Click the R status-bar button, or use Ctrl+Alt+R (Cmd+Alt+R on macOS).
• When on, the button highlights; launching an agent automatically appends that agent's resumeFlag from agents.json (e.g. Claude -r, Codex --resume, Cursor --resume), continuing the previous session. Agents without a resumeFlag (e.g. Continue, Kimi, Qoder) append nothing even when on.
• YOLO and Resume can be on together; args are ordered baseArgs → skipFlag → resumeFlag.

Configure agents (no code required)

The aiAgentsTerminal.agents setting is a list of overrides / additions merged with the agent catalog in agents.json: match a supported agent by command to override it (only the fields you set are replaced); set enabled to false to hide a supported agent; use a command not present in agents.json to add a custom agent.

• Edit: the catalog agents live in the root agents.json; to tweak a catalog agent, append an override entry with the same command (only the fields you want to change).

• Override params: change only the fields you want, e.g. set claude's skipFlag to "--new-flag".

• Hide: delete the entry, or keep it and set enabled to false.

• Add a custom agent: append an entry whose command isn't in the catalog, e.g.:

  { "command": "myagent", "displayName": "My Agent", "baseArgs": "run", "iconFile": "myagent.png" }
  

  (omit iconFile to use the default terminal icon.)

• When it takes effect: changes apply the next time the picker opens (read live at runtime, no window reload needed).

Fields: command (required) / displayName / baseArgs / skipFlag / resumeFlag / iconFile / enabled / id.

Uniqueness: command, displayName, and id must each be unique. On duplicates the extension warns and drops the duplicate (keeping the first occurrence).

Supported agent list

id	display name	command (PATH detection)	website
claude	Claude Code	claude
codex	Codex	codex
cursor	Cursor	cursor-agent
copilot	GitHub Copilot	copilot
opencode	OpenCode	opencode
aider	Aider	aider
cline	Cline	cline
continue	Continue	cn
openclaw	OpenClaw	openclaw
kiro	Kiro	kiro-cli
goose	Goose	goose
crush	Charm Crush	crush
amp	Amp	amp
kimi	Kimi	kimi
qwen-code	Qwen Code	qwen
trae	TraeCode	traecli
codebuddy	CodeBuddy	codebuddy
qoder	Qoder	qoder
devin	Devin	devin
grok	Grok	grok
antigravity	Antigravity	agy
mistral-vibe	Mistral Vibe	vibe
kilo	Kilo Code	kilo
hermes	Hermes	hermes
pi	Pi	pi
droid	Droid	droid
aug	Auggie	auggie
rovo	Rovo Dev	rovo
prime-agent	Prime Agent	prime-agent
autohand	Autohand	autohand
command-code	Command Code	command-code
ante	Ante	ante
codebuff	Codebuff	codebuff
omp	OMP	omp

Logos live in media/agents/ (PNG). The picker shows only the display name, not the command / id.

Terminal profiles (Terminal: Select Default Profile)

Each installed agent is registered at runtime as a Terminal profile via registerTerminalProfileProvider, appearing in the Command Palette's Terminal: Select Default Profile where it can be set as the default terminal; the terminal icon is the agent logo.

Platform limitation: in this VS Code build, extension profiles do not appear in the Terminal + caret dropdown or the title-bar menu — only in Select Default Profile (see "Platform limitations" below).

Settings reference

Commands:

Contributing / secondary development

Environment

• Node.js + npm
• VS Code ^1.85.0
• TypeScript ^5.4.0

Build & debug

• npm install to install devDependencies (typescript / @types/node / @types/vscode).
• npm run compile compiles src/*.ts → out/ (plain tsc, no bundling step).
• npm run watch rebuilds on change.
• Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host and set breakpoints in src/extension.ts.

Project structure

ai-agents-vsc/
├── package.json          # manifest: name=ai-agents-terminal, publisher=cnsharpstudio
│                         #   contributes.configuration: yoloMode / agents / installedAgents
│                         #   contributes.commands + keybindings
├── tsconfig.json         # TS config (outDir=out, rootDir=src)
├── src/
│   ├── extension.ts      # entry: registers commands + status-bar buttons; QuickPick lists
│   │                     #   installed agents; dynamically registers Terminal profiles
│   │                     #   (registerTerminalProfileProvider)
│   ├── agents.ts         # loads the built-in catalog from agents.json + resolveAgents()/getAgentConfigWarnings()
│   │                     #   (merges built-ins with the aiAgentsTerminal.agents setting, dedupes)
│   └── agentDetector.ts  # isInstalled(): runs `<command> --version` to probe PATH
│                         #   (login shell -lc, honours nvm/fnm/brew/npm-global; where on win32)
├── media/agents/         # agent logos (PNG)
├── .vscode/              # launch.json (Run Extension) + tasks.json (npm compile)
└── out/                  # build output (tsc)

Architecture notes

1. Launcher (status bar): activate() first refreshes the installed cache (refreshInstalledCache, probing PATH only once across windows), the 🤖 AI Agents button opens a Quick Pick listing only cached installed agents, and selection launches via vscode.window.createTerminal using the agent's command + baseArgs (plus skipFlag in YOLO mode), with the logo icon.
2. Install detection: isInstalled(command) runs <command> --version in a login-interactive shell, treating exit code 0 as installed; results are cached in the global installedAgents setting so PATH isn't re-probed per window. agentDetector.ts uses $SHELL -lc on macOS/Linux and where on Windows, so it honours PATH injected by rc files (nvm / fnm / brew / npm-global, etc.).
3. Terminal profiles (install-filtered): registerInstalledTerminalProfiles() registers a TerminalProfileProvider per installed agent, so Terminal: Select Default Profile lists only what's installed; uninstalled agents never appear. This improves on the static contributes.terminal.profiles declaration, which can't filter by install status.
4. Settings-driven: resolveAgents() merges the agents.json built-in catalog with the aiAgentsTerminal.agents setting by command, and validates command / displayName / id uniqueness (getAgentConfigWarnings emits the warnings).

How to add an agent

Two paths, depending on whether you want to ship code:

Path A: settings only (recommended, user-side, no rebuild)

Append an entry to aiAgentsTerminal.agents in your settings.json:

{ "command": "myagent", "displayName": "My Agent", "baseArgs": "", "skipFlag": "--auto", "iconFile": "myagent.png" }

Drop the logo into media/agents/myagent.png — no recompile needed.

Path B: add as a built-in (code-side)

1. Edit the root agents.json and append an entry (id / command / displayName / baseArgs / skipFlag / iconFile).
2. Put the corresponding PNG into media/agents/.
3. npm run compile, then reload the window.

Note: the runtime setting is authoritative. If a user has overridden aiAgentsTerminal.agents, a newly added built-in only appears once they also add it to their setting (or remove the override to restore the defaults).