Background file health monitor — surface stalled work, uncommitted patterns, and TODO hotspots
What It Does
Workspace Watchdog silently watches your files in the background and alerts you when work is going stale. No more forgotten branches or files you opened two weeks ago and never committed.
Features
Feature
Description
Hot Files
Files you open most often — your actual working set
Stalled Files
Files with uncommitted changes sitting >1d/3d/7d
TODO Hotspots
Files with the most TODO/FIXME comments
Health Dashboard
Green/Yellow/Red workspace health at a glance
Passive scan
Runs every 30 minutes in background, no manual action needed
Right-click menus
Right-click any folder in Explorer → Show Dashboard or Scan Now without opening the Palette
Stall Severity Tiers
Tier
Threshold
Action
Warning
>1 day
Listed in dashboard
Alert
>3 days
Visible in sidebar
Critical
>7 days
Toast notification
Commands
Command
Where
Description
Workspace Watchdog: Show Dashboard
Palette · Right-click folder
Open health dashboard in output panel
Workspace Watchdog: Scan Now
Palette · Right-click folder
Force immediate scan
Workspace Watchdog: Hot Files
Palette
QuickPick of most-opened files
Workspace Watchdog: Stalled Files
Palette
QuickPick of stalled files
Workspace Watchdog: Clear History
Palette
Reset all tracking data
Requirements
No external tools required. Works entirely within VS Code using the local file system. No cloud connection, no sign-in.
Data Storage
Observations are stored locally in .github/episodic/peripheral/file-observations.json. No data leaves your machine.
