RemoteAutoReload

Reloads a Remote-SSH window once its host is reachable again, so you stop clicking Retry after every VPN drop, sleep, and network change.

It presses that button for you, and nothing else: a healthy window shows no status item and no notifications.

Setup

Install the extension locally (not on the remote).
Add this to your user settings.json:
```
"window.dialogStyle": "custom"
```

That is the whole setup. Your ~/.ssh/config needs no changes — the extension runs plain ssh, so whatever Host, Port, ProxyJump and IdentityFile you already use for Remote-SSH apply unchanged.

Why window.dialogStyle matters

When a connection fails, Remote-SSH raises "Could not establish connection …" as a modal. At VS Code's default of native that modal is an operating-system window, so reloading reconnects underneath it and the error stays on screen: fixed, but you still have a dialog to dismiss.

Set to custom the dialog belongs to the window, and the reload takes it away with the failure it described. The extension logs a warning if you leave it native.

Requirements

VS Code 1.75+
ssh on your PATH (macOS, Linux, and Windows 10+ all ship it)
An SSH key that works without a passphrase prompt — the reachability probe runs with BatchMode=yes and cannot answer one. Keep the key in your agent (ssh-add), or set hostProbeCommand to something that works unattended.

Settings

All machine-scoped: a workspace you open cannot change them.

Setting	Default
`pollIntervalMs`	`5000`	How often to check.
`graceTicks`	`12`	Failed checks to wait out before reloading. Counted in checks, not seconds, so sleeping through them does not skip them.
`healthTimeoutMs`	`10000`	A slower check is inconclusive, not failed — a dead channel refuses at once, so a slow one means a busy remote.
`hostProbeTimeoutMs`	`8000`	Cap on the host probe.
`reloadWhenDirty`	`false`	Reload even with unsaved editors. Leave off.
`promptBeforeReload`	`false`	Always ask, even with nothing unsaved.
`hostProbeCommand`	`""`	Replaces the default probe. `${host}` and `${port}` are substituted and shell-quoted. Empty means `ssh -o BatchMode=yes -o ConnectTimeout=5 <host> true`.

Prefix each with remoteAutoReload., e.g. "remoteAutoReload.graceTicks": 20.

Commands

Under RemoteAutoReload in the command palette: Show Log, Check Connection Now, Pause / Resume Watching This Window.

To reload by hand, use VS Code's own Developer: Reload Window.

What you will see

Nothing, while things work.

When the connection drops, a status item appears — Reconnecting to <host> — and its tooltip says the window will reload itself, so the error dialog can be left alone. Once the host answers, the window reloads and both go away.

A measured run, with the host taken away and given back:

00:47:15  Watching myhost
00:47:23  host still unreachable, not spending the one resolve attempt
          ← host comes back at 00:47:32
00:47:42  host reachable, reloading
00:47:53  Watching myhost

Eleven seconds from "the host is back" to a working window, and the error dialog goes with the reload. No clicks.

With unsaved changes it asks instead of reloading, and asks once; dismissing means no until you run Resume Watching This Window.

How it decides

Every few seconds, in Remote-SSH windows only:

Is this window's channel answering? Asked via workspace.fs, which travels the same connection VS Code uses — no process scraping, so several windows on one host never confuse each other.
Has it failed long enough? VS Code retries on its own for up to three hours and is good at it, so a window that was connected waits out graceTicks first. A window whose very first connection failed does not wait: VS Code treats that as fatal and never retries.
Is the host actually up? A reload spends the one connection attempt VS Code will not retry, so it is not spent on a host that cannot answer.
Would a reload cost anything? Unsaved changes turn the reload into a question.

Troubleshooting

Check the log first: RemoteAutoReload: Show Log. It opens with Watching <host>; anything else says why not.

Symptom
`Not a Remote-SSH window` in a remote window	The extension is installed on the remote. It must run locally.
`no remote folder open`	Nothing to probe. Open your folder.
No log lines at all	It never activated — check it is enabled.
Reconnected, but the dialog is still there	`window.dialogStyle` is still `native`. See Setup.
`host still unreachable` but ssh works for you	The probe cannot answer a passphrase prompt. Add the key to your agent, or set `hostProbeCommand`.
Reloads into the same error	The probe proves sshd answers, not that the VS Code server will start. Kill it on the remote (`pkill -f vscode-server`) and let it reinstall.
Waits too long or too little	Roughly `(graceTicks + 1) × pollIntervalMs` — about a minute by default.

Relationship to Remreload

Detection. Remreload finds the ssh -D tunnel by matching lsof and pgrep output and watches whether that pid lives. With several windows on one host the match can land on another window's tunnel, and if the lookup fails at startup — which is exactly what a disconnected window does — it stops for the life of the window. Here the window's own channel is round-tripped instead: per-window by construction, no pid.

When a reload is warranted. Remreload reloads as soon as a connectivity command succeeds, by default ping google.com. This one waits out a grace period, probes the actual host, refuses to discard unsaved work, and asks at most once.

Development

npm install
npm test      # compiles, then runs node:test — no VS Code needed

Everything with a decision in it is a module with no VS Code import, so it is tested directly: supervisor.ts (the reload policy, a pure state machine), authority.ts (reading the host out of a remote authority, including the encoded form), health.ts (what a filesystem error says about the connection), probecommand.ts (the probe command line and its quoting), loop.ts (one tick at a time), statusbar.ts (the wording). probes.ts answers the policy's questions using VS Code and ssh; extension.ts is wiring.

To turn it off, disable the extension the usual way, or Pause Watching This Window for just one window.

RemoteAutoReload

Junyong Lee

RemoteAutoReload

Setup

Requirements

Settings

Commands

What you will see

How it decides

Troubleshooting

Relationship to Remreload

Development

License