Go Touch Grass

Go Touch Grass

Your editor knows you haven't moved in 3 hours. So do we.

A fun, streak-tracking, ASCII-art-powered reminder to step away from your screen and go touch some actual grass. Born as a CLI — npx go-touch-grass — now living rent-free inside VS Code and Cursor.

✨ What it does

🌿	Status bar streak counter `start to touch 🌿` → `🌿 1 day streak` → `🌿 7 day streak`. Hover for a tooltip with your full stats and quick-action links. Click to open the panel.
🖼️	Compact side panel Opens beside your code without stealing focus. Shows a random ASCII art scene (meadow, park, or mountain), a fun developer wellness message, and your streak data — all instantly, no slow reveals.
⏱️	Configurable outdoor timer Pick your duration right in the panel: `5m · 10m · 15m · 20m · 30m` or any custom value. The selection is saved globally so it sticks across sessions.
🔔	Periodic reminders A notification appears every N minutes (default 60, configurable) with a random message and a one-click "Touch Grass Now" button.
📊	Persistent streak tracking Daily streak · longest streak ever · total touches · last date. Stored in VS Code global state — survives restarts, syncs with Settings Sync.
📢	Social sharing Share to Twitter / X or LinkedIn in one click. Instagram copies the caption to your clipboard. 14 unique post templates that use your real streak numbers.

🚀 Commands

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) and type Touch Grass:

Command	What it does
`Touch Grass: Go Outside Now`	Opens the panel, increments your streak
`Touch Grass: Show Streak Stats`	Shows a stats notification with panel / share shortcuts
`Touch Grass: Share Achievement`	Platform picker → opens share URL or copies to clipboard
`Touch Grass: Reset Streak`	Wipes streak data (requires confirmation)

⚙️ Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`touchGrass.enableReminders`	`true`	Toggle periodic reminders on / off
`touchGrass.reminderIntervalMinutes`	`60`	Minutes between reminders (min 5)
`touchGrass.outdoorMinutes`	`10`	Default outdoor timer duration (1–120 min)

// .vscode/settings.json
{
  "touchGrass.enableReminders": true,
  "touchGrass.reminderIntervalMinutes": 45,
  "touchGrass.outdoorMinutes": 10,
}

Duration can also be changed live from the panel — no settings file needed.

🌿 ASCII art scenes

  v        v           v        .  *       .    *       .    *    .  *
                                        /\
        \   .   /      *               /  \      .    *
     *   \ _ /     *                  / go \  .          *
         /| |\           .           /      \       .      *
        / | | \    *                /outside!\          .    *
      /   | |   \      .    *      /___________\   .    *
    /_____|_|_____\       .   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

31 fun messages. 3 scenes. Zero mercy.

📦 Install

From the VS Code Marketplace: Search Go Touch Grass in the Extensions view or run:

ext install lexCoder.gotouchgrass

From a .vsix file:

code --install-extension go-touch-grass-*.vsix

🌱 Also available as a CLI

Prefer the terminal? The same art, messages, and streak tracking are available as a zero-install CLI:

npx go-touch-grass

Supports --streak, --share, --noTimer, --noShare, and --time <minutes> flags. See the CLI README for full details.

🤝 Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome at github.com/lexCoder2/touch-grass-js.

Got a terminal ASCII art scene or a fun developer phrase? We want it.

🎨 New scenes → src/art.js — plain string arrays, one per line, ~80 cols wide
💬 New messages → src/messages.js — keep it under ~100 chars, keep it fun

Open a PR on GitHub — no setup required beyond node >= 20.

_{GPL-3.0 License · Made with too much screen time and not enough grass}

lexcoder

Go Touch Grass

✨ What it does

🚀 Commands

⚙️ Settings

🌿 ASCII art scenes

📦 Install

🌱 Also available as a CLI

🤝 Contributing