Bee Heard: Code Memos

Bee Heard: Code Memos is a Visual Studio Code extension that allows you to record voice memos directly within VSCode. The recorded memos are saved as audio files in a specified directory.

It's a great tool to record todos, issues, or mental notes in a voice format to revisit later.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Installation
  • Install SoX on macOS
  • Install SoX on Windows
  • Install SoX on Linux
• Grant Microphone Access
  • Grant Microphone Access on macOS
  • Grant Microphone Access on Windows
  • Grant Microphone Access on Linux
• Usage
• Commands
  • Functional Commands
  • Configuration Commands
• Disclaimer
• Local Install
• Changelog
• Credits
• References
• License

Features

• Record voice memos directly within VSCode.
• Configure save path for voice memos.
• Set maximum recording duration.
• Automatically organize memos by date.

Installation

1. Install the extension:

   • You can install the extension from the VSCode Marketplace.

2. Install SoX:

   • SoX (Sound eXchange) is required to record audio using the node-record-lpcm16 library.
   • You need to install SoX on your system for the extension to work correctly.
     • You'll get an error if SoX is not installed.

3. Grant Microphone Access to VSCode:

   • You'll need to ensure that VSCode has microphone access for the extension to work correctly.
   • Read below for more details.

Install SoX on macOS

To install SoX on macOS, use the Homebrew package manager:

brew install sox

Install SoX on Windows

To install SoX on Windows, download the installer for Sox on SourceForge and follow the installation instructions.

Install SoX on Linux

To install SoX on Linux, use your distribution's package manager (or Homebrew). For example, on Debian-based systems:

sudo apt-get install sox

Grant Microphone Access

• You'll need to ensure that VSCode has microphone access for the extension to work.
• When you run the extension, after installing SoX, you should get prompted for VSCode microphone access.
• If you're not prompted, you might already have VSCode in your microphone permissions, in that case, you'll need to ensure its enabled:

Grant Microphone Access on macOS

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Go to Security & Privacy.
3. Select the Privacy tab.
4. Select Microphone in the left sidebar.
5. Ensure that Visual Studio Code (or code) is listed and checked in the list of applications allowed to access the microphone.

Grant Microphone Access on Windows

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Privacy.
3. Select Microphone in the left sidebar.
4. Ensure that the toggle for "Allow apps to access your microphone" is turned on.
5. Scroll down and ensure that Visual Studio Code is listed and has access to the microphone.

Grant Microphone Access on Linux

1. Open a terminal window.
2. Use the appropriate command for your Linux distribution to open the privacy settings. For example, on Ubuntu, you can use the command gnome-control-center privacy to open the privacy settings.
3. Ensure that the microphone access is granted to applications as needed.

Usage

• After installing the extension and SoX, open a folder in VSCode.
  • If you do not open a folder, or have a set directory set, you'll receive an error stating you need to be in a project/folder/workspace.
• Use the >Bee Heard: New Code Memo command from the command palette or click the New Code Memo button in the status bar (bottom right hand corner) to start recording.
• Use the >Bee Heard: End Code Memo command from the command palette or click the End Code Memo button in the status bar (bottom right hand corner) to stop recording.
• The recorded memos will be saved in the configured directory (your current open project/directory by default):
  • A copy of the ABOUT.md file will be placed in the code_memos directory when it is created. If you use your code memos in your projects, please attach the ABOUT.md as a reference in the directory.
  • The code_memos folder will create new sub-folders with today's date each time a code memo is generated.
  • The audio files will be in Waveform Audio File Format (wav) format, with a naming convention of memo_[today's date]_[sequence].wav.
  • Each time a new memo is created for the same day, the sequence will increment by 1.

Commands

Functional Commands

You can run these commands, or use the button in the status bar (bottom right hand corner) of VSCode, the choice is yours:

• >Bee Heard: New Code Memo (beeHeard.newCodeMemo): Start recording a new code memo.
• >Bee Heard: End Code Memo (beeHeard.endCodeMemo): Stop the ongoing code memo recording.

Configuration Commands

The configuration is set so the extension works out of the box, these are optional:

• >Bee Heard: Configure Save Path (beeHeard.configureSavePath): Set a custom directory where code memos will be saved.
• >Bee Heard: Reset Save Path (beeHeard.resetSavePath): Reset the save path to the default directory.
  • Default: ${workspaceFolder}/code_memos.
• >Bee Heard: Set Max Duration (beeHeard.setMaxDuration): Set the maximum duration for recordings in seconds.
  • Default: 300 seconds (5 minutes). Set to 0 for unlimited recording.

Disclaimer

No data is collected with this application, it is entirely local to your machine.

Local Install

To install the application locally run the following command to install the package dependencies:

npm install

Changelog

Please refer to the Changelog file in this repository for updates, changes, and more detailed information about the project.

Credits

View our Credits file for a list of acknowledgements for this project.

References

• Download this Extension on the VSCode Marketplace: Download this extension for VSCode.
• Main GitHub Repository: Main GitHub repository for this project.
• Bee Heard Website: Visit the family of applications under our Bee Heard product.
• Night Owl Labs: We're passionate about software! Visit our site and see our offerings.

License

MIT License