Developer Tools

A productivity toolkit for Visual Studio Code developers. All features live in the Developer Tools sidebar — accessible from the Activity Bar.

Features

• UUID / GUID Generation
• Password Generator
• Code Notes
• Session Tracker
• Port Manager
• Code Complexity Analysis

UUID / GUID Generation

Insert UUIDs and GUIDs at the cursor position from the Command Palette.

Direct insert commands support four formats; the Generate & Insert UUID/GUID or Password flow also includes brace-wrapped UUID/GUID variants.

Multiple cursors — each cursor gets a unique identifier. Selection replacement — selecting text across multiple lines replaces each line with one UUID/GUID.

Password Generator

Generate cryptographically secure passwords in the sidebar. Uses Node.js crypto with rejection sampling to eliminate modulo bias.

Options:

• Length: 5–128 characters (default 14)
• Character sets: Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers, Special (!@#$%^&*)
• Minimum counts for numbers and special characters
• Avoid ambiguous characters (0, O, I, l, 1)

Actions: Copy to clipboard or insert directly into the active document.

Usage:

1. Click the Developer Tools icon in the Activity Bar
2. Expand Password Generator
3. Adjust options — the password regenerates automatically
4. Click Copy or Insert

Code Notes

Attach persistent notes to specific lines in your code. Notes are stored in .vscode/notes/notes.json and track the code as you edit.

Features:

• Four categories: Note, ToDo, FixMe, Question — each with a distinct gutter icon
• Inline Note Editor — sidebar panel that shows notes for the current cursor line; auto-updates as you move the cursor
• Works across trackable editors — notes context tracks workspace files, files outside the workspace, untitled files, and user settings documents (vscode-userdata)
• Notes Table — searchable, filterable list of all notes across the workspace with a preview of each note's text
• Line tracking — notes shift automatically when lines are inserted or deleted above them
• Content-hash detection — notes are orphaned when their anchored line changes significantly, preventing stale references
• Surrounding context — fuzzy re-anchoring using neighboring lines to find a moved note's new location
• File rename/delete tracking — notes follow files when they are renamed or moved inside the workspace
• Gutter decorations — SVG icons in the editor gutter show which lines have notes; orphaned notes display with a distinct icon
• Search & filter — filter by category, status (active/orphaned), or free-text search
• Grouping — group the Notes Table by file, category, or status
• Bulk operations — multi-select notes for bulk delete or category change
• Import/Export — export notes to JSON and import them back
• Add Another Note accordion — when notes already exist on a line, the add form is collapsible and collapsed by default

Commands:

Adding a note:

1. Place your cursor on the target line
2. Press Ctrl+Alt+N (or right-click → Add Note to Line)
3. Type your note and pick a category in the Note Editor panel
4. Click Add Note

Viewing notes:

• Gutter icons — colored SVG icons appear on lines that have notes
• Note Editor — expands automatically when your cursor lands on a noted line; shows all notes for that line and lets you edit or delete them
• Notes Table — full searchable/filterable list in the Developer Tools sidebar; click a row to navigate to the line, double-click to open the Note Editor

Storage: Notes are saved to .vscode/notes/notes.json in your workspace. This file can be committed to version control if you want notes to be shared with your team, or added to .gitignore to keep them private (see developer-tools.notes.gitignore setting).

Session Tracker

Track how long you spend coding and which files you edit during a session. Must be enabled in settings first.

Features:

• Start, stop, and reset sessions from the sidebar or Command Palette
• Live timer showing elapsed session time
• File-level breakdown: edits, lines added/removed, estimated time
• Configurable idle timeout (inactive time is excluded from estimates)
• Session recovery — if VS Code closes unexpectedly, the previous session is recovered on next launch
• Session history with per-session Markdown or JSON export
• Auto-start on workspace open (optional)

Enable Session Tracker:

Run Start Session Tracking from the Command Palette — it enables the feature automatically. Or enable it manually:

1. Open Settings (Ctrl+, / Cmd+,)
2. Search for developer-tools.session.enabled
3. Enable the toggle — the Session Tracker panel appears in the sidebar

Commands:

Tip: If Session Tracker is not enabled and you run any session command, you will be prompted to enable it first.

Port Manager

View all listening TCP ports in your system, see the process behind each port, and kill processes without leaving VS Code. Must be enabled in settings first.

Features:

• Auto-refreshes the port list on a configurable interval
• Shows port number, PID, process name, and command
• Filter by port number or process name
• Two-step kill confirmation to prevent accidents
• Manual refresh button
• Toggle auto-refresh on/off

Enable Port Manager:

Run Show Port Manager from the Command Palette — it enables the feature automatically. Or enable it manually:

1. Open Settings (Ctrl+, / Cmd+,)
2. Search for developer-tools.ports.enabled
3. Enable the toggle — the Port Manager panel appears in the sidebar

Commands:

Tip: If Port Manager is not enabled and you run a port command, you will be prompted to enable it first.

Note: The Port Manager uses netstat (Linux/macOS/Windows) or lsof (macOS/Linux) to scan ports. It may require elevated permissions to kill some processes.

Code Complexity Analysis

Display inline complexity hints on function definitions. Supports TypeScript, JavaScript (including JSX/TSX), Python, Go, Java, C#, and Rust.

Metrics:

• Cyclomatic Complexity (CC) — counts independent control-flow paths
• Cognitive Complexity (COG) — measures how hard the code is to understand, weighting nested structures more heavily

Severity levels:

Hints appear inline after the function signature, e.g.:

async function processData(items) {   ⊘ CC:14 COG:18

Commands:

Note: Analysis uses regex-based heuristics (not an AST), so accuracy may vary for unusual code patterns. Files over 10,000 lines are skipped for performance.

Extension Settings

Custom Keyboard Shortcuts

The extension ships with default keybindings for Generate & Insert and notes. You can add more via VS Code's keyboard shortcuts.

Method 1: Keyboard Shortcuts UI

1. Open Keyboard Shortcuts: Ctrl+K Ctrl+S (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+K Cmd+S (macOS)
2. Search for Developer Tools
3. Click + next to any command and press your key combination

Method 2: keybindings.json

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P)
2. Run Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)
3. Add entries like:

[
  { "key": "ctrl+alt+g",       "command": "developer-tools.generateAndInsert" },
  { "key": "ctrl+shift+u",     "command": "developer-tools.insertUuid" },
  { "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+u", "command": "developer-tools.insertUuidCompact" },
  { "key": "ctrl+shift+g",     "command": "developer-tools.insertGuid" },
  { "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+g", "command": "developer-tools.insertGuidCompact" },
  { "key": "ctrl+alt+p",       "command": "developer-tools.generatePassword" },
  { "key": "ctrl+alt+c",       "command": "developer-tools.toggleComplexityHints" }
]

All command IDs:

Requirements

No external dependencies required. This extension uses only Node.js built-in modules (crypto) and VS Code's built-in APIs.

Enjoy!