Azure Boards Inbox
Your Azure DevOps work items, in VS Code's sidebar.
Features
- All your items, one tree — assigned to you across every project, grouped and counted
- Pin what you're actively working on to a section at the top
- Pull Requests and Comments side-bar views that follow your selection
- Copy as Prompt — formatted markdown for Copilot / Claude Code / any AI chat (template is editable)
- Branch-aware status bar — checkout
bug/1234-fix-login and the status bar shows AB#1234 · <title>
- One-click: copy branch /
AB#1234 / URL, or open in Azure DevOps
Quick start
- Click the Azure Boards icon in the activity bar → Sign in.
- Paste your org URL and a Personal Access Token (scopes: Work Items: Read and Project and Team: Read). The PAT is stored encrypted via VS Code's
SecretStorage.
- ⋯ → Manage Subscriptions to pick projects.
That's it.
Inside
Per-item actions — inline: Pin, Copy as Prompt, Open in Azure DevOps. Right-click for Copy Branch Name, Copy ID (AB#1234), Copy URL.
Pull Requests — every PR linked to the selected item, with state pill and repo · source → target. Click to open.
Comments — the discussion thread, refreshed as you change selection.
Editable prompt template — Edit Prompt Template (⋯ overflow) opens it in an editor; save to apply.
Tokens: {preamble} {id} {title} {type} {state} {priority} {assignedTo} {iteration} {tags} {parent} {link} {description} {reproSteps} {acceptanceCriteria} {comments}. A line whose tokens all resolve empty is dropped.
Open by ID or URL — Command Palette → Azure Boards: Open Work Item in Browser… → paste anything containing a work-item id.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
azureBoards.organizationUrl |
"" |
Your Azure DevOps org URL |
azureBoards.showClosed |
false |
Include Closed / Done / Resolved / Removed |
azureBoards.assignedToMeOnly |
true |
Only items assigned to me |
azureBoards.currentIterationOnly |
false |
Only items in the current sprint |
azureBoards.staleAfterDays |
14 |
Show a · Nd hint on items not touched in N days (0 disables) |
azureBoards.autoRefreshMinutes |
0 |
Auto-refresh interval (0 = off) |
azureBoards.branchNamePattern |
{type}/{id}-{title} |
Used by Copy Branch Name and the branch-aware status bar |
azureBoards.chatPromptPreamble |
(default) |
Lead-in line for the prompt |
azureBoards.promptTemplate |
(multiline) |
Edit via Edit Prompt Template |
All commands live under the Azure Boards category in the Command Palette.
Troubleshooting
- No items showing. Subscribe to a project (⋯ → Manage Subscriptions) and check the title-bar filters.
- Sign-in keeps coming back. PAT likely expired — re-run Sign In.
- "Current iteration" filter is empty. It uses each project's default team. Sprints under other teams won't show.
Develop & release
npm install
npm run build # or: npm run watch
npm run screenshots # regenerate README images (needs @vscode/codicons)
Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host.
Tagged releases (v*.*.*) publish to the Marketplace via .github/workflows/publish.yml. Requires a VSCE_PAT repo secret (Azure DevOps PAT, Marketplace → Manage).
npm version patch # bump + tag
git push --follow-tags # CI publishes
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
