Kagan for VS Code

AI-powered Kanban board for orchestrating coding agents on your codebase

Manage tasks, stream live agent output, send follow-ups to a watched task, review diffs, and merge -- all through native VS Code APIs. Works with 14 agent backends including Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and more.

Features

Feature	VS Code Surface	How to access
Orchestrator chat	Chat Participant	`@kagan <message>` in Chat panel
Watch task output	Chat Participant	`@kagan /watch` or click chat icon on task
Board status	Chat Participant	`@kagan /status`
Kanban board	Sidebar TreeView	Click the Kagan icon in the Activity Bar
Task diffs	SCM diff editor	Right-click task > View Diff
Review verdicts	Comments panel	Open a task in Review status
Agent terminal	Terminal	Right-click running task > Attach Terminal
Diagnostic log	Output Channel	Command: Show Agent Output
Settings commands	Command Palette	Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P → type "Kagan"

Install

Visual Studio Marketplace

Browser: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=kagan.kagan-vscode

CLI:

code --install-extension kagan.kagan-vscode

Open VSX

Browser: https://open-vsx.org/extension/kagan/kagan-vscode

Use the Marketplace build for standard VS Code. Use Open VSX for VSCodium and other Open VSX-compatible editors.

Quick start

Install Kagan locally:
```
uv tool install kagan
```
Install the extension from the Marketplace or Open VSX.
Open a repository in VS Code.
Open the Chat panel and run @kagan /status.
Open the Kagan icon in the Activity Bar to access the board.

The extension connects to http://localhost:8765 by default and auto-starts kagan serve when kagan is available on your PATH.

Important: You do not need a .vscode/mcp.json file just to use the Kagan extension. MCP setup is a separate integration path for generic MCP clients.

Full docs: https://docs.kagan.sh/guides/vscode-extension/

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`kagan.serverUrl`	`localhost:8765`	Server host:port
`kagan.protocol`	`http`	Connection protocol (http/https)
`kagan.authToken`		Bearer token for authentication
`kagan.autoConnect`	`true`	Connect on activation
`kagan.autoStartServer`	`true`	Auto-start local server
`kagan.serverCommand`	`kagan`	CLI command for auto-start
`kagan.autoWatchOnAttach`	`true`	Auto-stream output on IDE attach

Commands

Access settings commands via the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P) and type "Kagan":

Command	Description	When to use
`kagan.settings.agentBackend`	Set the default agent backend (claude-code, codex, etc.)	Switch between agent backends without editing config files
`kagan.settings.reviewStrictness`	Configure review strictness level	Adjust how thorough code reviews should be
`kagan.settings.planningDepth`	Adjust planning depth for orchestrator sessions	Control how deeply the orchestrator plans before execution

Requirements

Kagan server running locally or remotely
VS Code 1.96.0+

Kagan