Engineering Team Launcher

Engineering Team Launcher is a VS Code extension for setting up a local, workspace-scoped engineering team dashboard.

It initializes role files, assigns local ports, creates handoff documents, and opens a VS Code dashboard that shows each role and its current port status.

Quick Start

1. Install the extension from the VS Code Marketplace.
2. Open the project folder you want to configure in VS Code.
3. Open the Command Palette.
4. Run Engineering Team: Initialize Current Workspace.
5. Run Engineering Team: Open Dashboard.

After installation, all commands run directly in the project window you already have open.

What It Creates

The extension writes team configuration files into the current workspace:

• .engineering-team/team.json
• .engineering-team/ports.json
• .engineering-team/status.json
• .engineering-team/roles/architect.md
• .engineering-team/roles/dev.md
• .engineering-team/roles/test.md
• .engineering-team/roles/integration.md
• .engineering-team/handoff/*.md
• .engineering-team/agent-requests/init-team.md
• .vscode/tasks.json

If the workspace does not already include them, the extension also creates:

• AGENTS.md
• CLAUDE.md
• ENGINEERING_TEAM_SETUP.md

The .engineering-team and .vscode folders are hidden by Finder because their names start with a dot. Coding agents can still read these files when they have filesystem access to the workspace.

Commands

• Engineering Team: Initialize Current Workspace
• Engineering Team: Open Dashboard
• Engineering Team: Show Status
• Engineering Team: Start Mock Role Ports
• Engineering Team: Stop Mock Role Ports
• Engineering Team: Open Role Request in Codex
• Engineering Team: Open Role Request in Claude Code
• Engineering Team: Set Model API Key

Dashboard And Ports

Engineering Team: Open Dashboard opens a VS Code webview for the current workspace. The dashboard shows:

• generated team id
• workspace path
• role names
• assigned ports
• active or idle port state

Engineering Team: Start Mock Role Ports starts empty local TCP listeners for the generated role ports. This command is useful when you want to verify that the dashboard can detect active ports.

The mock ports do not run project code, do not start agents, and do not send data to a remote service.

Use Engineering Team: Stop Mock Role Ports when validation is finished.

Coding Agent Bridge

Use Engineering Team: Open Role Request in Codex or Engineering Team: Open Role Request in Claude Code to pick a role and generate a provider-specific request file under .engineering-team/agent-requests/.

For Codex, the extension opens the Codex sidebar and asks the Codex extension to add the role request file to the current thread. For Claude Code, the extension opens a Claude Code panel with an initial prompt that points at the role request file.

These commands use the public VS Code commands exposed by the installed Codex and Claude Code extensions. They do not silently control or send messages inside an already-running chat unless that extension exposes a stable API for doing so.

Settings

• engineeringTeamLauncher.portStart
• engineeringTeamLauncher.portEnd
• engineeringTeamLauncher.modelProvider
• engineeringTeamLauncher.modelBaseUrl
• engineeringTeamLauncher.modelName
• engineeringTeamLauncher.enableModelPlanner

Model planner calls are disabled by default. Engineering Team: Set Model API Key stores the key in VS Code SecretStorage.

Notes

This extension is designed for local workspace orchestration. It does not publish your project files, generated team files, API keys, or local port information.

The dashboard reflects the workspace you currently have open in VS Code. Different users will see their own local workspace paths inside their local dashboard and generated local files.