Claude Auto Responder for VS Code

A VS Code extension that automates interactions with Claude CLI by automatically responding to confirmation dialogs, streamlining your development workflow. Now you can safely take a nap or do the dishes while your code finishes itself.*

*Auto-diaper-change feature not yet implemented.

🚀 Features

🤖 Automatic Response

• Automatically detects dialogs enclosed in ╭─ boxes
• "Do you want to" pattern → Sends 1 (Yes) automatically
• "Yes, and don't ask again this session" pattern → Sends 2 automatically
• ⚠️ Important: Wait time may vary (not exactly 5 seconds) depending on system performance

🛡️ Safety Features

• Destructive Command Detection: Detects rm -rf, fork bombs, database operations, etc. and cancels auto-response
• VS Code Notification: Shows warning notification (not modal popup) when dangerous commands are detected
• ⚠️ Experimental: This extension is in early development and may be unstable

🎨 User Interface

• Animated Status Bar:
  • [⇉ ] Claude Auto (normal operation)
  • [⇉ ] Wait to Proceed! (5-second wait period)
• One-Click Toggle: Click status bar to enable/disable Auto Mode

⚡ System Integration

• Sleep Prevention: Prevents automatic sleep during Auto Mode
  • macOS: caffeinate
  • Windows: powercfg
  • Linux: systemd-inhibit / xset
• Node Version Management: Ignores local nodenv, nvm, etc. and uses global Node.js version

📦 Installation

From VS Code Marketplace

Install directly from the VS Code Marketplace:

Install from VS Code Marketplace

Prerequisites

• VS Code 1.74.0 or higher
• Claude CLI (claude command available)
• ✨ Smart Startup: Automatically tries claude --continue first, falls back to claude if no conversation exists
• ⚠️ Important: Claude CLI must be started via script command for terminal monitoring to work

Development Installation

1. Clone this repository
2. Open in VS Code
3. Press F5 to launch debug mode
4. Test the extension in the new window

🎯 Usage

Basic Usage

1. Enable Auto Mode

   • Click [✽] in the status bar
   • Or Ctrl+Shift+P → Claude Auto Mode: Toggle
   • Or Option+Shift+Tab (macOS)

2. Start Claude CLI

   • Auto-start option appears when Auto Mode is enabled
   • Or manually start via Ctrl+Shift+P → Claude Auto Responder: Start Claude Terminal
   • ⚠️ Requirement: Must use the extension's command to start Claude for monitoring to work

3. Automatic Response

   • When a dialog appears, automatically waits 5 seconds
   • Status bar changes to Wait to Proceed! animation
   • Automatically sends appropriate response

Manual Trigger

If automatic detection doesn't work:

• Ctrl+Shift+P → Claude Auto Responder: Trigger Auto-Response
• Copy dialog text for analysis

🎛️ Command Reference

⚙️ Configuration

VS Code Settings

Access via Ctrl+, → Search "Claude Auto Responder":

• enableTerminalBufferRefresh (default: ON): Periodically refresh terminal buffer with arrow down key every 60 seconds to ensure script -q log updates work properly

Debug Mode

For detailed log output:

• Ctrl+Shift+P → Claude Auto Responder: Toggle Debug Mode
• Check logs in VS Code's "Output" → "Extension Host"

Log Files

Terminal output is recorded in:

• Workspace: .claude-output.log (auto-rotates at 100 lines)
• Fallback: /tmp/claude-output-[timestamp].log
• Note: Files are automatically cleaned up when extension deactivates

🔧 Technical Specifications

Architecture

• File-based Monitoring: Uses script command to log terminal output to file
• Real-time Detection: Monitors file changes for immediate pattern analysis
• Low-level Input: Sends characters individually to handle dialog boxes

OS Support

• macOS: script -q [file] bash -c "claude --continue || claude" + caffeinate
• Linux: script -q -c "claude --continue || claude" [file] + systemd-inhibit
• Windows: (claude --continue; if (!$?) { claude }) | Tee-Object + powercfg

Destructive Command Detection Patterns

/rm\s+-rf/i
/:\(\)\s*\{\s*:\s*\|\s*:\s*&\s*\}\s*;?\s*:/i  // fork bomb
/dd\s+if=\/dev\/zero\s+of=\/dev\/sda/i
/mv\s+\/\s/i
/>\s*\/etc\/passwd/i
/mkfs\./i
/drop\s+database\s+/i  // database operations
/delete\s+from\s+\w+\s*;?\s*$/i  // DELETE without WHERE

🐛 Troubleshooting

Claude CLI Won't Start

1. Check if Claude CLI is installed: claude --version
2. Verify claude command is in PATH

Auto-detection Not Working

1. Enable Debug Mode and check logs
2. Verify .claude-output.log file is created
3. Try manual trigger (Claude Auto Responder: Trigger Auto-Response)
4. Important: Ensure Claude was started via extension command, not manually

Dialog Not Recognized

1. Copy dialog text
2. Use Claude Auto Responder: Trigger Auto-Response → Analyze for manual analysis

🔒 Security

Destructive Command Protection

• Cancels auto-response for proposals containing dangerous commands
• Shows VS Code warning notification (not modal popup)
• Requires manual confirmation for safety

Privacy

• Terminal output saved only to local files
• Automatically deleted when extension deactivates
• No external server communication

📄 License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details