Bring transparency to modern development with Tab'd - an IDE extension that tracks and visualizes AI-assisted coding and copy-paste operations in your codebase. Help your team understand code authorship and maintain accountability in an era of AI-powered development, while gaining insights into your own coding patterns.
WARNING: This extension is in active development and is not yet suitable for production use. Detection of AI-generated edits may not be reliable. Please raise an issue if you experience any problems.
Features
Tab'd provides intelligent tracking and visualization of different types of code changes:
- AI-Generated Code Detection - Automatically identifies and highlights code generated by AI assistants like GitHub Copilot, Windsurf and Kiro
- Visual Code Attribution - Color-coded highlighting shows the source of each code section
- Manual Edit Recognition - Distinguishes between user-typed code and other edit types
- Undo/Redo Tracking - Tracks code changes from undo and redo operations
- Paste Operation Tracking - Monitors and marks code that's been pasted from external sources like StackOverflow (requires installation of the browser extension and associated browser helper tool)
- Team Transparency - Optionally share edit attribution with team members when using the "Repository" storage option, allowing others to see where AI-generated or pasted code was used
- Persistent History - Maintains edit history across sessions
Visual Indicators
Tab'd uses color-coded background highlights to show different edit types:
Hovering over a highlight gives further information about the type of change, who performed the change, and when it was performed.
Installation
- Open the IDE
- Go to the Extensions view (
Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X)
- Search for "Tabd" (no apostrophe)
- Click Install
Or install from the VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX Registry.
NOTE: You may need to reload the IDE after installation for the extension to take effect.
To add web-based UI support and/or webpage clipboard support, you must also install the browser extension and its associated browser helper tool. Use the command Tab'd: Install browser helper to install the browser helper tool onto your machine.
Usage
Tab'd works automatically in the background once installed. It will:
- Track all code changes in supported file types
- Classify edit types based on how the code was added
- Store tracking data persistently for later analysis
- Show visual indicators when blame view is enabled
NOTE: Tab'd currently only works for files which have a filename. Untitled / draft files are not yet supported.
Commands
Access these commands via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P):
Tab'd: Toggle Blame - Show/hide the color-coded edit attributionTab'd: Toggle Enabled - Enable/disable all Tab'd trackingTab'd: Clear tracking data for current file - Clears tracking data for the currently open fileTab'd: Clear tracking data for current workspace or repository - Clears all tracking dataTab'd: Install browser helper - Installs the browser helper to the machine (allows for web browser clipboard context)
Configuration
Tab'd uses safe, local-only defaults. You can configure Tab'd through settings:
Settings
| Setting |
Description |
Default |
tabd.disabled |
Disable all Tab'd features |
false |
tabd.storage |
Where to store tracking data |
homeDirectory |
tabd.showBlame |
Show blame/attribution in the editor |
false |
tabd.enableIDEClipboardMonitoring |
Track clipboard copies from the IDE (VS Code only) |
true |
Storage Options
- Home Directory (default) - Store data in your personal
~/.tabd directory (private)
- Repository - Store data in your project's
.tabd directory (shared with team/repo)
- Git Notes - Store and push data automatically using custom-namespaced Git Notes (shared with team/repo)
Example Settings
{
"tabd.showBlame": true,
"tabd.storage": "repository",
"tabd.disabled": false,
"tabd.enableIDEClipboardMonitoring": true
}
Supported IDE's and Extensions
The following IDE's and extensions are known to be supported (though bugs will likely still exist):
- GitHub Copilot / GitHub Copilot Chat (inline suggestions and edit/agent mode)
- Windsurf (inline suggestions and edit/agent mode)
- Kiro (inline suggestions and edit/agent mode)
- Other AI assistants - (inline suggestions, unreliably)
Privacy & Data
Tab'd respects your privacy:
- Safe Defaults - No data is sent to external servers by default
- Configurable Storage - Choose between tracking data storage options
- Full Control - Quick commands to clean up your Tab'd data if needed
Support
If you find Tab'd useful, consider:
