VS Code Chess
A VS Code extension that monitors a single player's Chess.com
Daily (correspondence) games and calmly signals when it is their turn to move, with a
link to open the most urgent game in the browser.
Status: Active (0.3.0). The extension is on the VS Code Marketplace; this
release makes the signal a true Presence — an always-visible status-bar ♟ that
shows how many Daily games await your move, with one-click open, and stays visible
as a proof of life in every state. The in-sidebar view with rendered boards
described below is part of the later 1.0 design and is not in this release yet.
Features
- Turn awareness — watches the player's ongoing Daily games and surfaces how many
await a move.
- Always-visible signal — a status-bar ♟ stays visible in every state, even when no
game awaits your move or the sidebar is hidden.
- Proof of life — the ♟ appears the moment the extension loads, before you've even set
a username, so you always know it's installed and running.
- One-click to the board — opens the most urgent game (soonest move deadline) on
Chess.com.
- Calm by design — never blanks the UI on a transient network error and never nags; a
blip just shows a quiet "Reconnecting..." while keeping the last-known count.
- No credentials — uses only a Chess.com username against the public, unauthenticated
Chess.com API.
Scope for 1.0 is Daily games only; Live formats (Blitz, Rapid, Bullet) are out of
scope.
Requirements
Installation
Install from the
VS Code Marketplace,
search VS Code Chess in the Extensions view, or run:
code --install-extension eunai.vscode-chess
From source
npm install
npm run build # bundle the extension host into dist/
Then open the repository in VS Code and press F5 to launch an Extension
Development Host with the extension loaded.
Usage
Open VS Code settings and set your Chess.com username:
// settings.json
"vscodeChess.username": "your-chesscom-username"
Once a username is set, the extension begins monitoring automatically. A status-bar ♟
— the Presence — is always visible: it shows ♟ N when N Daily games await your
move (click it to open the most urgent game, soonest move deadline, in your browser),
and a bare ♟ when none await. Before you've configured a username it prompts you with
♟ Set Username, and if Chess.com doesn't recognise the username it shows
♟ Unknown User — both click through to Settings. It never disappears, so you always
have a proof of life that the extension is running.
The in-sidebar view with rendered boards is part of the later 1.0 design and is not in
this release.
♟️ Roadmap
Today, 0.3.0 is the always-visible Presence in the status bar. Coming next:
- A sidebar showing a live board for each of your Daily games.
- An in-sidebar Turn Notice that mirrors the count.
- Calm under failure — polling that never blanks out on a network blip.
Early days, so the order and details may shift. See the changelog for
what's shipped.
Versioning
This project follows Semantic Versioning 2.0.0.
Notable changes are recorded in CHANGELOG.md.
License
Licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later
(GPL-3.0-or-later).
Board rendering uses chessground, the
open-source board UI from Lichess, which is GPL-3.0-or-later; bundling it makes the
combined extension subject to the GPL.
