Agent Pivot

Switch, monitor, and resume Codex, Claude, and Kimi sessions across VS Code workspaces.

Agent Pivot is a workspace-level command center for seeing which AI coding sessions are active, switching to them, reviewing user-input conversation outlines, and returning to projects without losing context.

What Agent Pivot does

• Shows the current workspace, other open workspaces, and saved projects in one Activity Bar view.
• Finds active and historical Codex, Claude, and Kimi sessions across every folder in a workspace.
• Discovers Kimi, Claude, and Codex skills in the AI tab's SKILLS subtab, with per-agent effectiveness, shadowing diagnostics, and one-click enable/disable.
• Focuses a running session or resumes an inactive one in a VS Code terminal or a managed tmux runtime.
• Shows bounded user-input conversation outlines and opens provider transcripts in a read-only editor viewer.
• Searches sessions, open workspaces, and saved projects from one place, with a separate library for reusable prompts.
• Organizes projects with groups, favorites, descriptions, colors, and drag-and-drop ordering.

Agent Pivot supports local folders, .code-workspace files, Remote SSH, WSL, and Dev Containers. Other-window navigation falls back to VS Code's native window picker when a direct workspace target cannot be established safely.

Agent sessions

The OPEN tab keeps WINDOWS visible for switching among VS Code windows. Below it, CHATS shows active sessions and ALL shows the complete session history. CHATS defaults to Tree view, which keeps every ready worktree visible for management even when it has no active session; its menu can switch to a recent-activity List view with branch chips. Active rows focus an existing terminal or attach to an existing managed tmux runtime; selecting the already-focused active row opens its AI Conversation at the latest input. Inactive history rows resume the selected provider session. For multi-root workspaces, Agent Pivot uses the provider's native additional-directory option so the session can work with all workspace folders.

The Worktree tab lists the Git worktrees of every repository in the workspace with their live sessions. Use the branch icon beside the tabs to create a dedicated worktree and branch under <repository>/.worktrees/ (configurable via agentPivot.worktreeDirectory), or branch a new worktree from any row's menu. Creating a worktree never starts a session; each row's menu starts a session in that worktree with the remembered or any chosen provider. Set agentPivot.worktreeSetupCommand to an executable-and-arguments array such as ["npm", "ci"] when every new worktree needs setup; Agent Pivot runs it directly without a shell. Provisioning progress survives extension reloads, and an interrupted row can be retried without recreating a completed worktree or rerunning a completed setup step.

Managed worktrees offer removal from their row menu. Removal is confirmed and revalidated against Git immediately before execution; worktrees that are dirty, active, currently open, or still provisioning are refused with the reason. Removing a worktree keeps its local branch.

Direct VS Code terminals are the default. The optional tmux mode keeps a provider process available while its execution host remains awake and running; closing or detaching the VS Code terminal does not stop that tmux process. Agent Pivot does not provide a force-kill action for managed tmux runtimes.

Conversation outlines contain bounded previews of user input. Selecting an outline item opens the matching provider transcript in a read-only editor and navigates to that input. Agent Pivot reads the provider-local session metadata and transcript only when needed for its session and conversation views.

The AI tab's SKILLS subtab splits Global and Project skills into two panes that scroll independently; drag the separator between them (or focus it and use the arrow keys) to resize the Project pane. Skills render as a quiet list — icon, name, one-line summary, per-agent state dots — with actions appearing on hover or in the row's ⋯ menu, and an expandable detail panel per skill. Folder headers stay pinned while their lists scroll, stacking by depth in deep trees. Skills are organized as the on-disk folder tree of the shared stores (~/.skills globally by default, configurable from Settings or the Global section menu; <project>/.skills per project) — folders are real directories you can also manage with shell or git, never extension state. Single-child folder chains collapse into one compact row (google/skills/skills), deeply nested empty folders stay hidden, and skills bundled inside another skill's directory are discovered as their own entries. Scope is positional: skills in the global store are enabled into the user-level agent directories (~/.kimi/skills and friends), skills in a project's store into that project's agent directories. Each skill is enabled per agent (Kimi, Claude, Codex) through iOS-style switches that create top-level symlinks in the agent's skills directory. Folder headers show per-agent state dots and a dropdown of per-agent batch switches that enable or disable every skill inside for that agent (with an indeterminate state for partial folders); folders can be created from the section "+" and empty folders deleted from their "×". Cards can be filed by drag-and-drop or a "Move to folder…" editor — both perform real mv operations and keep existing links pointed at the skill. Skills still living in agent directories appear in a "Not in the shared store" section and can be centralized card by card or in one shot with the "Agent Pivot: Migrate Skills to Central Store" command, and unmanaged rows can also be deleted outright from their ⋯ menu (with confirmation). Centralizing or migrating picks the kimi > claude > codex copy as the winner and deletes the other duplicate copies. Duplicate copies are fingerprinted so drift is visible and resolvable in one click; skills can also be copied between agents, repaired with one-click diagnostic fixes, filed from collection suggestions, and found through the dashboard's global search.

Agent Pivot does not provide, proxy, or resell access to Codex, Claude, or Kimi. Install each provider tool you want to use and authenticate it separately with that provider.

Projects and prompts

The OPEN view shows the current workspace and lightweight navigation cards for other VS Code windows. The PROJECTS view is the saved-project catalog. Save a local or remote project, group related work, mark favorites, and reopen the target in the current or a new window.

The prompt library stores reusable text and can insert a selected prompt into the active terminal without appending Enter. Do not store passwords, tokens, private keys, or other secrets in prompts.

Projects can be kept in VS Code extension state or in user settings for Settings Sync. Prompts use synchronized VS Code extension state.

Notifications

Agent Pivot can push a message to your IM app or phone when an AI session stops and waits for you: completed, needs input, or failed. This is the only outbound network request the extension ever makes, and it is off by default. Nothing leaves the machine until you set agentPivot.notify.enabled to true and configure at least one sink.

The first time notifications are enabled, a modal dialog explains what will be sent and asks for confirmation. Declining it turns agentPivot.notify.enabled back off; accepting is remembered in extension state and never asked again.

A notification contains only:

• the project name (just the folder name by default; agentPivot.notify.projectPathMode can switch to the full path),
• the session name (can be hidden with agentPivot.notify.includeSessionLabel),
• the provider, the stop reason, and how long the session ran,
• the machine hostname and a short # correlation code.

It never contains code, conversation content, or full paths (in the default basename mode).

Channels. Nine channels are supported. Run Agent Pivot: Set Notification Webhook and pick one: the command asks for a sink id and the channel fields, stores the credentials in VS Code SecretStorage, writes the non-secret skeleton into agentPivot.notify.sinks for you, and offers to enable notifications if they are off. Re-running it with an existing id rotates that sink's credentials without touching its skeleton; picking a different channel for an existing id is refused so the two halves cannot drift apart. You never have to hand-edit JSON — except for the custom channel, whose method, headers and bodyTemplate are free-form and therefore completed manually.

Each sink is configured in two halves: the non-secret skeleton in agentPivot.notify.sinks (machine-scoped) and the credentials entered through Agent Pivot: Set Notification Webhook, which stores them in VS Code SecretStorage keyed by the sink id. A sink only becomes active when both halves exist with the same id. The per-channel reference below shows what the command writes (or what to write by hand for custom).

• ntfy — skeleton:

  { "id": "s1", "channel": "ntfy", "baseUrl": "https://ntfy.sh", "priority": 4, "proxy": null }
  

  Webhook fields: topic, token (leave token empty for an unauthenticated public topic). priority is required by the schema; the sent priority is derived from the stop reason. On a public ntfy instance the topic name is the only secret — anyone who guesses it can subscribe — so generate one with openssl rand -hex 16.
• telegram — skeleton:

  { "id": "s2", "channel": "telegram", "proxy": null }
  

  Webhook fields: botToken, chatId.
• bark — skeleton:

  { "id": "s3", "channel": "bark", "proxy": null }
  

  Webhook fields: serverUrl, deviceKey.
• feishu, wecom, slack, discord — skeleton (shown for feishu):

  { "id": "s4", "channel": "feishu", "proxy": null }
  

  Webhook field: url (the bot or app webhook URL).
• dingtalk — skeleton:

  { "id": "s8", "channel": "dingtalk", "proxy": null }
  

  Webhook fields: url, secret (the signing secret of the robot).
• custom — skeleton:

  { "id": "s9", "channel": "custom", "method": "POST", "headers": { "Content-Type": "application/json" }, "bodyTemplate": "{\"text\": \"${title}\\n${body}\"}", "proxy": null }
  

  Webhook field: url. bodyTemplate supports the placeholders ${title}, ${body}, ${project}, ${session}, ${provider}, ${reason}, ${host}, and ${correlationId}.

Some channels could also deliver your reply back to the session in a future release; with several machines running Agent Pivot, replies do not always reach the machine that sent the notification:

Credentials. Webhook secrets live in VS Code SecretStorage, never in settings.json, because settings can be synchronized by Settings Sync or committed to a dotfiles repository. Manage them only through Agent Pivot: Set Notification Webhook.

Proxy. Set agentPivot.notify.proxy (machine-scoped), for example http://127.0.0.1:7890. When it is empty, the HTTPS_PROXY / ALL_PROXY environment variables are used (NO_PROXY is honored). A sink's own proxy field takes precedence over both.

Troubleshooting. Run Agent Pivot: Send Test Notification first — it logs a status=... line per sink — then inspect the delivery log with Agent Pivot: Show Notification Log.

When a notification is sent. Four gates decide:

• the stop reason must be listed in agentPivot.notify.reasons (failed is only produced by Claude sessions),
• sessions shorter than agentPivot.notify.minRunDurationMs (default one minute) never notify,
• agentPivot.notify.debounceMs batches rapid stops, and once more than agentPivot.notify.rateLimitPerMin notifications would go out in a minute, the overflow merges into one summary message,
• dismissing the attention red dot in the Agent Pivot view cancels the pending notification for that event, and an already-sent event never repeats.

Requirements

• A current VS Code release in a trusted workspace is required to start or resume provider processes. Restricted Mode keeps project and session history readable but blocks launches.
• The Agent Pivot Attention UI Bridge is a required local UI-host dependency and companion. It enables bounded other-window/attention coordination for local, SSH, WSL, and Dev Container workspaces.
• Install and authenticate the Codex, Claude, or Kimi command-line tools you intend to use. Provider accounts and access are not included with Agent Pivot.
• tmux is optional. To use it, install tmux on the extension host: locally for a local window, on the SSH host, inside WSL, or inside the Dev Container. Native Windows extension hosts can use Direct Terminal mode; the tmux backend requires a POSIX extension host.

Getting started

1. Install Agent Pivot and confirm its required Agent Pivot Attention UI Bridge dependency is installed on the local UI host.
2. Open the Agent Pivot icon in the Activity Bar.
3. Open a project and run Agent Pivot: Save Project from the Command Palette.
4. Expand the current workspace card to inspect active or historical sessions.
5. Select NEW, choose an installed provider, and start a session.

Useful commands include:

• Agent Pivot: Open
• Agent Pivot: Save Project
• Agent Pivot: Add Project
• Agent Pivot: Add Projects from Folder
• Agent Pivot: Add Group
• Agent Pivot: Edit Projects
• Agent Pivot: Insert Prompt into Active Terminal

Configuration

Configure Agent Pivot in VS Code settings. Common settings include:

• agentPivot.storeProjectsInSettings: store projects in user settings so VS Code Settings Sync can synchronize them.
• agentPivot.aiSessionTerminalMode: use vscode (default) or tmux when creating a runtime.
• agentPivot.aiSessionTmuxLayout: use one managed tmux session per project or one per AI session.
• agentPivot.aiSessionTmuxPath: set one tmux executable name or absolute executable path, without arguments or shell syntax.
• agentPivot.aiSessionYoloMode: opt in to provider approval and sandbox bypass for newly created and resumed provider processes. It is off by default and does not change an already-running process.
• agentPivot.worktreeDirectory: directory that holds isolated worktrees, relative to the repository root. Defaults to .worktrees. Absolute paths and .. segments fall back to the default.
• agentPivot.worktreeSetupCommand: optional executable-and-arguments array run in each newly created worktree. No shell syntax is interpreted; leave it empty to skip setup.
• agentPivot.codexDefaultProfile: default Codex configuration profile (-p <name>, layered from <name>.config.toml in the Codex home) for newly created Codex sessions. When at least one profile file exists, the new-session flow also asks which profile to use. Resuming always reuses the profile recorded at creation; Agent Pivot stores the profile name, not a configuration snapshot, so editing or deleting the profile file changes later resume behavior. Known limitations: a shell rc that overrides CODEX_HOME inside terminals is not supported (the extension discovers profiles in the extension host's CODEX_HOME), and the profile store is last-writer-wins across concurrent VS Code windows.
• agentPivot.aiSessionAttention.enabled: show attention indicators when a managed provider session finishes or may need input.
• agentPivot.maxVisibleProjectsPerGroup: bound the scrollable project list.
• agentPivot.applyProjectColorToWindow: opt in to writing workspace workbench.colorCustomizations values from a saved project color.
• agentPivot.customCss: inject user-supplied CSS into the Agent Pivot Webview. The setting is intentionally not sanitized.

Enabling approval or sandbox bypass can allow provider commands to act without their normal confirmation boundary. Enable it only in workspaces and environments you trust.

Privacy and local data

Agent Pivot has no product telemetry service and does not upload conversation content to an Agent Pivot service.

Agent Pivot uses these local data sources and stores:

• VS Code settings and extension state for project, prompt, view, and workspace preferences. Enabling agentPivot.storeProjectsInSettings writes project data to user settings, where the user's VS Code Settings Sync configuration may synchronize it.
• Provider-local session metadata and transcript reads for session discovery, user-input outlines, and the read-only conversation viewer.
• Local extension state for managed terminal and tmux metadata used to find and reattach known runtimes.
• The local companion bridge directory in the UI host's VS Code extension storage. The bridge records workspace and root URIs locally for bounded attention and open-workspace coordination. Those URIs can include absolute local paths or remote-authority identifiers. It does not record conversation content, prompts, or responses.

Provider tools are installed and authenticated separately and may have their own network, telemetry, retention, and account behavior. VS Code, Settings Sync, GitHub, remote hosts, tmux, and commands or CSS chosen by the user also operate under their own configuration and terms.

Custom running animation artwork

Agent Pivot does not bundle third-party artwork. The custom running animation slots display an image you supply from your own machine: point agentPivot.aiSessionRunningCardCustomImage and/or agentPivot.aiSessionRunningIconCustomImage at a local SVG, PNG, GIF, WebP, or JPEG file (up to 256 KB). The file is read locally and never leaves your machine, and you are responsible for having the rights to use the image you choose.

Support Agent Pivot

Agent Pivot is free and open source, with no telemetry and no paywalled core features. If it saves you time, you can buy the author a coffee — sponsorships fund upcoming Pro features such as one-click phone push and remote session reply.

• Star on GitHub — free, and it helps others discover the project
• Ko-fi — PayPal / card, from anywhere
• 爱发电 (Afdian) — 微信 / 支付宝

Attribution

Agent Pivot began as a fork of Kruemelkatze/vscode-dashboard and retains the upstream MIT attribution.

Agent Pivot is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by OpenAI, Anthropic, Moonshot AI, or Microsoft.

The upstream copyright and MIT license terms remain in LICENSE. Notices for bundled JavaScript libraries are in Third-Party Notices.

License

Agent Pivot source code is available under the MIT License.

• Source repository
• Issue tracker
• Changelog
• Third-Party Notices