Project Central

Browse, organize, and quickly open your projects — all from the VSCode sidebar.

Project Central scans one or more root directories, detects project types automatically, and presents them in a clean tree view with favorites, sorting, filtering, and usage tracking.

Features

• Activity Bar Icon — A dedicated entry in the Activity Bar (left sidebar) with a hexagonal hub icon
• Project Detection — Automatically detects 7 project types based on marker files (see table below)
• Favorites — Star projects as favorites; they appear in a dedicated section at the top
• Sorting — 4 modes: Alphabetical (A-Z / Z-A), Most Opened, Recently Opened
• Filtering — Show only specific project types
• Quick Open — Keyboard shortcut Cmd+Alt+P (Mac) / Ctrl+Alt+P (Windows/Linux) to quickly open a project via fuzzy search
• Multi-Root — Multiple scan directories with individual labels and settings
• Usage Tracking — Counts how often each project is opened, persisted across sessions
• Context Menu — Right-click on a project for: Open in New/Current Window, Terminal, Copy Path, Reveal in Finder

Detected Project Types

Getting Started

1. Add a Root Folder

After installation, the sidebar is empty. There are three ways to add root folders:

Option A: Via the Sidebar (recommended)

1. Click the Project Central icon in the Activity Bar (left sidebar)
2. In the empty view, click the "Add Root Folder" button
3. Select the folder containing your projects (e.g. ~/Projects)

Option B: Via the Command Palette

1. Cmd+Shift+P (Mac) / Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux)
2. Type: Project Central: Add Root Folder
3. Select the folder

Option C: Directly in settings.json

1. Cmd+Shift+P → Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)
2. Add the following block:

{
  "projectCentral.rootFolders": [
    {
      "path": "~/Projects",
      "maxDepth": 1
    }
  ]
}

Configuration — All Settings in Detail

All settings are stored in VSCode's settings.json and are also accessible via the Settings UI.

Where Can I Edit Settings?

User Settings apply globally to all VSCode windows. Workspace Settings apply only to the current workspace and override User Settings.

projectCentral.rootFolders

Type: Array of objects Default: [] (empty)

The central setting. Defines which directories are scanned for projects. Each entry has the following properties:

Examples

Simple — one folder:

"projectCentral.rootFolders": [
  {
    "path": "~/Projects"
  }
]

Multiple folders with labels:

"projectCentral.rootFolders": [
  {
    "path": "~/Projects/work",
    "label": "Work",
    "maxDepth": 2,
    "projectTypes": ["git", "node"]
  },
  {
    "path": "~/Projects/personal",
    "label": "Personal"
  },
  {
    "path": "~/go/src",
    "label": "Go Workspace",
    "projectTypes": ["go"]
  }
]

XAMPP/Laragon users:

"projectCentral.rootFolders": [
  {
    "path": "C:\\laragon\\www",
    "label": "Laragon Sites"
  }
]

Note: When multiple root folders are configured, they are displayed as collapsible groups in the sidebar. With a single root folder, projects are shown directly without grouping.

projectCentral.sortBy

Type: string Default: "alphabet-asc"

Determines the sort order of projects in the sidebar.

How to Change

Via Settings UI: Cmd+, → Search "Project Central Sort" → Select from dropdown

Via settings.json:

"projectCentral.sortBy": "usage"

Via Sidebar button: Click the Sort icon in the Projects view toolbar → A QuickPick menu appears.

Via Command Palette: Cmd+Shift+P → Project Central: Sort Projects By...

projectCentral.filterByType

Type: string[] Default: [] (empty = show all)

Filters the displayed projects by type. Only projects that have at least one of the specified types are shown.

Possible values: "git", "vscode", "idea", "node", "rust", "python", "go"

Filter Examples

Show only Git and Node projects:

"projectCentral.filterByType": ["git", "node"]

Show all (default):

"projectCentral.filterByType": []

How to Change the Filter

Via Sidebar button: Click the Filter icon (funnel) in the toolbar → A multi-select QuickPick appears, select the desired types.

Via Command Palette: Cmd+Shift+P → Project Central: Filter by Project Type...

Via settings.json:

"projectCentral.filterByType": ["python", "rust"]

Tip: A project can have multiple types simultaneously. A Node.js project with Git has the types ["git", "node"]. It will be shown as long as any of its types match the filter.

projectCentral.showFavorites

Type: boolean Default: true

Controls whether the Favorites section is displayed in the sidebar. The section only appears when at least one project is marked as a favorite AND this setting is true.

"projectCentral.showFavorites": true

Set to false to completely hide the Favorites section — favorite markings are preserved and will reappear when the setting is changed back to true.

projectCentral.confirmOpenInCurrentWindow

Type: boolean Default: true

When true, a confirmation dialog appears before opening a project in the current window (since unsaved changes could be lost).

"projectCentral.confirmOpenInCurrentWindow": true

Set to false if you don't need the confirmation and want to open projects directly in the current window.

Note: This setting only affects "Open in Current Window". "Open in New Window" (the default click action) always opens a new window without prompting.

Commands

All commands are accessible via the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P). Type "Project Central" to find them.

Keyboard Shortcuts

To customize the shortcut: Cmd+K Cmd+S → Search for "Project Central Quick Open" → Assign a new shortcut.

Data Storage

globalState is VSCode's internal key-value store per extension. The data lives in your VSCode profile and is not written to files you can edit directly.

Full Settings Example

A typical settings.json configuration:

{
  // ── Project Central ──────────────────────────────────────

  // Three project folders with different settings
  "projectCentral.rootFolders": [
    {
      "path": "~/Projects/work",
      "label": "Work",
      "maxDepth": 2,
      "projectTypes": ["git"]
    },
    {
      "path": "~/Projects/personal",
      "label": "Personal"
    },
    {
      "path": "~/go/src/github.com/myuser",
      "label": "Go",
      "projectTypes": ["go"]
    }
  ],

  // Most frequently used projects first
  "projectCentral.sortBy": "usage",

  // Show only Git and Node projects (empty = all)
  "projectCentral.filterByType": [],

  // Show the Favorites section
  "projectCentral.showFavorites": true,

  // Confirmation dialog for "Open in Current Window"
  "projectCentral.confirmOpenInCurrentWindow": true
}

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Compile the extension
npm run compile

# Watch mode (auto-compile on changes)
npm run watch

# Type check
npm run typecheck

# Test the extension: Press F5 in VSCode
# → Launches the Extension Development Host

Commit Convention

This project uses Conventional Commits. Commit messages are validated automatically via commitlint + husky.

Example:

feat: add project type detection for Dart
fix: scanner ignoring symlinked directories
chore: update esbuild to v0.21

Release Workflow

Releases are fully automated via GitHub Actions:

1. Push to main with conventional commits
2. Release Please automatically creates/updates a Release PR with:
   • Version bump in package.json (based on commit types)
   • Updated CHANGELOG.md
3. Merge the Release PR → GitHub Release is created
4. Publish workflow triggers and publishes to the VS Code Marketplace

VS-Code Publisher Setup

1. Create a Publisher at marketplace.visualstudio.com/manage — the Publisher ID must match "publisher" in package.json (currently "moers")
2. Create a PAT at Azure DevOps → User Settings → Personal Access Tokens:
   • Organization: All accessible organizations (important!)
   • Scopes: Custom defined → Marketplace → Manage
3. Add GitHub Secrets in the repo → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions:

Credits

Inspired by:

• Projects Browser by Matteo Morlack
• Project Hub by mrmryb

License

MIT