Context Engine — Never Lose Your Work Context

Context Engine is a 100% local, privacy-first VS Code extension that tracks your editing sessions, branch switches, and manual breadcrumb notes to instantly restore your mental context when you return to a project — after a break, a meeting, a branch switch, or a weekend.

Why Use Context Engine?

VS Code reopens your tabs when you restart, but it doesn't remember what you were trying to accomplish, what changed across your last session, which files you had open on another Git branch, or what compiler errors were blocking you.

When you return to a workspace, Context Engine gives you:

Pinned Checkpoints & Breadcrumb Notes (Ctrl+Alt+B) — Pin up to 5 developer checkpoints anchored to your exact file, line, and Git branch ("Finish wiring token refresh error handler"), with inline edit, jump, and remove controls.
1-Click AI Context Packet (Ctrl+Alt+A) — Assemble a structured, privacy-safe Markdown context brief for AI coding assistants containing your project tech stack, current focus snippet, imported TypeScript/JavaScript type signatures, bounded & secret-redacted uncommitted Git diff hunks (with user review before inclusion), pinned checkpoints, and optional opt-in terminal failure output.
Branch-Aware Context Memory — Automatically snapshots your active file, cursor position, and open editors per Git branch, offering a 1-click restore when you switch branches.
Diagnostics-Aware Next Actions — Detects active compiler/linter errors in your focus file and gives you a direct jump action to fix them, or prompts you to save dirty changes.
Where You Left Off & What Changed — Exact file, line, column, diff stats (+additions / −deletions), and co-edited related files inferred from your TS/JS/HTML/CSS import & editing graph.
1-Click Standup / Daily Summary (Ctrl+Alt+S) — Generates a clean, sequentially numbered Markdown summary of today's sessions, classified files, time spent, and pinned checkpoints.

No cloud. No AI API keys required. Zero telemetry. Everything is computed deterministically on your machine.

Features

1. Now Tab (Developer Cockpit)

The primary sidebar view showing:

Pinned Note: Your manual breadcrumb note with a 1-click Open Location and Done / Clear button.
Current Focus: Active file, line/column, activity state (Editing, Viewing, Idle), and unsaved status.
What You're Working On: Evidence-backed inferred intent with confidence badges.
What You Changed: Per-file additions, deletions, edit counts, and save states.
Next Action: Smart recommendation (save unsaved edits, fix active compiler/linter errors, or resume your previous session point).
Related Files: Structurally imported and co-edited files you can jump to with one click.
Git Commit Suggestion: Auto-generated conventional commit message based on your touched files and intent.

2. Timeline Tab

A searchable, filterable history of your editing, navigation, file saves, and session pauses/resumes, with 1-click Markdown export.

3. Map Tab & Full-Screen Visual Code Map (`Ctrl+Alt+M`)

Shows your active file's direct Imports and Dependents (Imported by), along with the workspace's Top Connected Hubs and project graph statistics in the sidebar, plus a 1-click button or shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+M) to open the Full-Screen Interactive Visual Code Map with 2D physics simulation, search filtering, zoom/pan, and side-by-side editor opening.

4. Multi-Workspace Switcher

Run Context Engine: Show Recent Workspaces from the Command Palette to see all your tracked projects annotated with what you were last working on (Working on Navbar.tsx · UI Component · 3 files changed).

Keyboard Shortcuts

Context Engine uses conflict-free Ctrl+Alt (Cmd+Alt on macOS) shortcuts so it never interferes with built-in VS Code bindings:

Command	Windows / Linux	macOS	Description
Context Engine: Copy Context for AI	`Ctrl+Alt+A`	`Cmd+Alt+A`	Copy & open a rich AI Context Packet for your current task
Context Engine: Open Visual Code Map	`Ctrl+Alt+M`	`Cmd+Alt+M`	Open full-screen 2D interactive dependency graph
Context Engine: Resume Last Session	`Ctrl+Alt+R`	`Cmd+Alt+R`	Jump to your last saved resume point
Context Engine: Pin Checkpoint / Breadcrumb Note	`Ctrl+Alt+B`	`Cmd+Alt+B`	Pin a checkpoint note at your current file & line (up to 5)
Context Engine: Show Sidebar	`Ctrl+Alt+C`	`Cmd+Alt+C`	Focus the Context Engine sidebar
Context Engine: Quick Switch Recent Files	`Ctrl+Alt+E`	`Cmd+Alt+E`	Browse recently edited files with edit counts
Context Engine: Generate Today's Summary	`Ctrl+Alt+S`	`Cmd+Alt+S`	Generate a Markdown standup/work summary
Context Engine: Show Recent Workspaces	—	—	Switch workspaces with full context preview

Privacy Guarantee

All data stays 100% on your machine.

What is stored: File paths, timestamps, line/column numbers, line addition/deletion counts, Git branch names, and optional user-typed breadcrumb notes.
What is NEVER stored: Source code content, passwords, secrets, clipboard data, or terminal output (strictly stripped by EventNormalizer).
Where it is stored: Inside VS Code's isolated globalStorageUri folder (context-engine.db local JSON transactional store with automatic corruption recovery).

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`contextEngine.showStatusBarItem`	`true`	Show or hide the Context Engine status bar item
`contextEngine.sessionSaveIntervalSeconds`	`60`	Auto-save frequency in seconds (`10`–`300`)
`contextEngine.trackFileTypes`	`["ts", "tsx", "js", "jsx", "html", "htm", "css", "scss", "less", "py", "go", "rs", "java", "cs", "cpp", "c", "h"]`	File extensions to include in project graph and context tracking
`contextEngine.excludePatterns`	`["/node_modules/", "/dist/", "/out/", "/.git/"]`	Glob patterns to exclude from context tracking
`contextEngine.includeGitDiffInAiContext`	`true`	Include bounded, secret-redacted uncommitted Git diff hunks in AI Context Packets
`contextEngine.includeTypeSignaturesInAiContext`	`true`	Include exported interfaces, type aliases, enums, and signatures from directly imported workspace files in AI Context Packets

Installation

Open VS Code → Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X)
Click ⋯ (Views and More Actions) → Install from VSIX...
Select context-extension-0.3.0.vsix

License

Released under the MIT License (see LICENSE).

Context Engine — Developer Memory

Context Engine