DeskMates
Ambient teammate presence for VS Code, over your local network.
See who's around, who's heads-down, and ring them with a soft beep.
Features
Auto-assigned identity
On first run, DeskMates gives you a name (Swift Fox), a color, and an emoji avatar. All three are editable in settings.
Presence at a glance
A single status bar item shows your identity, how many teammates are online, and how many are actively typing.
🦊 Swift Fox · 3 online · 1 typing
- 🟢 Online — VS Code is open
- ✏️ Typing — actively writing code right now
- ⚫ Offline — VS Code isn't running
Call a teammate
Click the status bar item, pick a teammate, then pick why — Lunch, Coffee break, Meeting, Turn around, Heading out, Got a sec?, or Just ringing.
🍽️ Bold Otter — Lunch!
The recipient sees confetti fall across their editor for about a second, a highlight in their status bar, and — for named reasons — a small dialog they can dismiss with Close. The plain 🔔 Just ringing option skips the dialog and stays flow-safe.
How it works
DeskMates is LAN-only. No servers, no internet, no accounts. Teammates discover each other via UDP broadcast on port 41234. The trust model is your office WiFi.
If you open multiple VS Code windows, they share a single network identity — peers see exactly one entry for you, no matter how many windows you have open.
Settings
| Setting |
Description |
deskmates.displayName |
Your display name. Auto-assigned on first run if blank. |
deskmates.color |
One of: red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, pink. |
deskmates.avatar |
One of: fox, panda, cat, dog, unicorn, octopus, owl, eagle. |
Edit in Settings → Extensions → DeskMates, or run DeskMates: Regenerate identity to roll a fresh name/color/avatar.
Commands
| Command |
Description |
DeskMates: Call a teammate |
Open the picker: choose a teammate, then a reason. |
DeskMates: Ring a teammate (alias) |
Same command, kept for back-compat. |
DeskMates: Show peers |
Same as Call. |
DeskMates: Regenerate identity |
Clear and re-assign name, color, and avatar. |
Requirements
- VS Code 1.85 or newer.
- All teammates on the same WiFi.
- UDP port 41234 reachable across the LAN. On Windows, the first run prompts for firewall permission — pick Private networks to allow.
Limitations
- If you have multiple VS Code windows open and the first one (the "primary") quits, the others fall back to an empty peer list. Reload any window to recover.
- Uses limited broadcast (
255.255.255.255); some routers may drop it. Subnet-directed broadcast is on the roadmap.
- "Typing" only triggers for file-scheme documents — not virtual or remote-edit buffers.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
