Dev Session Canvas

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Dev Session Canvas is a multi-agent AI workbench inside VS Code, and the canvas is its primary interaction surface. It lets you place Agent, Terminal, and Note nodes in the same view so you can manage multiple development execution sessions without bouncing between chat panels, terminal tabs, and editors. The extension is currently in public Preview.

Dev Session Canvas Overview

Core Capabilities

Open the main canvas in either the panel or the editor area
Create Agent, Terminal, and Note nodes
Drive Agent nodes through the codex or claude CLI
Run Terminal nodes through the embedded terminal surface
Let Agent and embedded Terminal nodes inherit a controlled shell environment, with diagnostics showing the current resolution path
Write contextual notes with Markdown syntax inside Note nodes
Associate Note nodes with .md / .markdown files in the workspace, including YAML metadata popovers and safe Markdown image previews
Use built-in and custom templates to restore reusable Agent / Terminal / Note work surfaces, including explicit save modes for associated Markdown Notes
Keep canvas browsing available in Restricted Mode while automatically disabling execution entry points
Provide stronger persistence guarantees through runtimePersistence.enabled when systemd --user is available on Linux local or Remote SSH, and otherwise fall back automatically to best-effort
View sidebar Nodes and Session History lists to jump to current canvas nodes and restore a new Agent node from history

Best Fit

Trusted workspaces on a standard filesystem
Environments where codex or claude CLI is already installed
Developers who want to observe multiple development sessions without switching constantly between terminal tabs
Users who want a canvas-shaped AI workbench rather than a single chat panel

Support Scope And Limits

The Remote SSH main path is validated and usable, and it remains the best-validated recommended environment
Linux and macOS local workspaces now have functional validation for the Preview main path
Windows local workspaces now have functional validation for the Preview main path, with one explicit known limitation: when using Codex, embedded session history still cannot page upward
The sidebar Session History list only shows records that can be explicitly attributed to the current workspace; older sessions without working-directory metadata are skipped conservatively
Restricted Mode allows the canvas to open, but disables execution entry points such as Agent and Terminal
Virtual Workspace is not supported yet
The extension is still in Preview, with no stable-release commitment

Environment Requirements

VS Code 1.80.0 or later
A standard filesystem workspace
Agent nodes require codex or claude CLI to be reachable from the Extension Host
Terminal nodes require a shell available on the workspace side

0.10.7 Highlights

The public 0.10.7 release is a focused 0.10.x Preview hotfix for Terminal TUI input in production builds. It keeps the 0.10.6 Agent abnormal interruption notification patch, the 0.10.5 Note Markdown source-position and recoverable-draft fixes, the 0.10.4 execution-terminal link refresh performance fix, Marketplace metadata, Open VSX mirroring strategy, and support matrix.

Production Webview builds now resolve the bare @xterm/xterm import to the browser CommonJS entry @xterm/xterm/lib/xterm.js
This avoids the xterm ESM entry regression under esbuild production minification where DECRQM / requestMode parsing could throw and interrupt TUI control-sequence handling
Installed Terminal nodes can continue accepting input inside vi-style alternate screens and interactive TUI flows such as Vim or glab auth login
The release adds a minified-bundle xterm probe through test:webview-build-xterm-entry so a debug-only pass cannot hide this production failure mode again
Playwright regression coverage now verifies that Agent / Terminal nodes still accept input after entering a vi-style alternate screen, and that node controls remain usable
The release keeps the same extension ID, Preview positioning, VS Code minimum version, notifier auto-install relationship, Open VSX mirroring strategy, and support matrix

Installation And Upgrades

The extension ID is devsessioncanvas.dev-session-canvas
First-time installs and upgrades from 0.10.6 to 0.10.7 should use the public extension registry configured by the current host: official VS Code uses the Visual Studio Marketplace, while Open VSX-compatible hosts use Open VSX; later 0.10.x updates follow the corresponding registry upgrade path
If you previously set devSessionCanvas.notifications.attentionSignalBridge, devSessionCanvas.notifications.strongTerminalAttentionReminder, or devSessionCanvas.notifications.agentAbnormalOutputTextNotifications, upgrading to 0.10.7 preserves that explicit choice
If your 0.2.0 workspace kept an older view-layout cache, the sidebar Overview and Common Actions views may appear as two separate icons for a while. That does not mean two extensions are installed. Move both views back into the same Dev Session Canvas container, or run View: Reset View Locations
During Preview, cross-version workspace-state compatibility is not guaranteed. If a workspace contains important canvas state, back it up or validate in a non-critical environment before upgrading

Desktop Notification Companion (Auto-Installed)

Installing Dev Session Canvas automatically installs Dev Session Canvas Notifier (devsessioncanvas.dev-session-canvas-notifier)
If a user installs from the notifier page first, VS Code also auto-installs the main extension Dev Session Canvas
Execution-node attention signals now prefer the local desktop by default through devSessionCanvas.notifications.attentionSignalBridge = system; switch the setting if you want workbench or none instead
In system mode, the main extension prefers the local UI-side companion and falls back to VS Code workbench notifications when the companion is missing, unsupported, or delivery fails
The companion is especially useful in Remote SSH, WSL, and Dev Container scenarios where the main extension runs on the workspace side but the notification needs to return to the local desktop

Usage Tips

Unable to Create Terminal and Agent Nodes on Windows

Symptom: The workspace is trusted, but creating a node still shows only Note; Terminal and Agent node types are unexpectedly missing.

Troubleshooting: If this still happens in a trusted workspace, check the Windows PowerShell execution policy first. In some environments, the execution policy may interfere with Node.js-related commands.

Suggested Fix:

Open PowerShell as Administrator
Run the following command to set execution policy to RemoteSigned:
```
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
```
Type Y to confirm the change
Close and reopen VS Code
Try creating a Terminal or Agent node again to confirm whether the issue is resolved

Rollback Guidance

If the current version blocks your workflow, disable or uninstall the extension first
Prefer waiting for a later 0.10.x fix release rather than trying to downgrade manually
If you must roll back, reinstall the target version and verify workspace state again. Compatibility between Preview versions is not guaranteed
For support boundaries, issue reporting, and security guidance, use the links below

Support And Feedback

Preview support boundaries: https://github.com/ZY-WANG-0304/dev-session-canvas/blob/main/docs/support.md
Bugs and feature feedback: https://github.com/ZY-WANG-0304/dev-session-canvas/issues
Security issues: wzy0304@outlook.com

Open Source

License: Apache-2.0
Repository: https://github.com/ZY-WANG-0304/dev-session-canvas

Dev Session Canvas - Multi-Agent Workbench