Colab Sync Control is a professional VS Code extension that provides a visual dashboard, sidebar interface, and status bar telemetry to manage and synchronize your local workspace folders with Google Colab runtimes.
Demonstration
Features
Interactive Local Shell: Open zero-lag interactive terminals directly inside VS Code or launch external window shells (e.g. Kitty terminal emulator) connected to the remote Colab runtime.
Bi-directional Sync Monitoring: Track incoming/outgoing changes and conflicts directly inside the dashboard and VS Code's bottom status bar.
Resource Utilization Panel: Real-time progress indicators showing CPU, System RAM, Disk space, and GPU VRAM allocations (supporting T4/L4/A100/TPU).
Compute Unit Quota Tracker: View hourly consumption rates and remaining free/paid compute units balance in real time.
Vibrant Custom Themes: Choose between curated minimal design systems, deep space tech backdrops, or animated Neo-Retro Cyberpunk themes.
Download the colab-sync-vscode-0.1.1.vsix release file.
Open VS Code, open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P), and run:
Extensions: Install from VSIX...
Select the downloaded .vsix file to complete the installation.
Getting Started
Usage
Open the Colab Sync sidebar panel in the VS Code Activity Bar.
Click Open Web UI Dashboard to view live metrics and change themes.
Link your workspace folder to the active daemon configuration.
Claim a remote Colab session (Standard CPU, T4/L4/A100 GPU, or TPU).
Open the interactive terminal session to stream commands remotely with zero typing latency.
Extension Commands
Command
Description
Colab Sync: Start Daemon
Starts the local colabd background server on port 8291.
Colab Sync: Stop Daemon
Terminates the background daemon server processes.
Colab Sync: Link Workspace
Links the current workspace folder to a registered path.
Colab Sync: Open Dashboard
Displays the graphical control panel webview.
Colab Sync: Open Colab Terminal
Spawns the zero-lag interactive shell inside VS Code.
Colab Sync: Force Sync
Executes a bi-directional file synchronization pass.
Colab Sync: Kill Session
Terminates the active Google Colab cloud runtime.
In Progress & Known Issues
Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server: A dedicated MCP server wrapper is currently in development to allow AI coding assistants to seamlessly introspect the connected Colab environment.
Git Bulk Push (Unstable): The Git Bulk Sync feature is currently experimental and does not work properly. It struggles with deeply nested submodules and occasionally fails to sync massive files natively. A complete rewrite of the sync daemon for bulk transfers is in progress.
Sync Now Button: The Sync Now (Force Sync) button in the UI is currently disconnected and not functioning. Please rely on the background auto-sync mechanism which continuously synchronizes your files automatically instead.
Sync File Deletion Risk: Because the bi-directional sync is still in early testing phases, edge cases during synchronization may sometimes result in accidental file deletions. Please keep backups of important work.
Terminal Input Limitations: The interactive Colab terminal does not currently support piping stdin inputs to commands that are actively running (e.g., answering interactive [y/N] prompts mid-execution might freeze or fail).
Colab File Observability: Enhancing the VS Code sidebar to directly explore and preview remote Colab files without needing the terminal is planned.
