VS Code extension for managing Beads issues via the br (beads_rust) CLI.
This extension is a fork of jdillon/vscode-beads adapted to call the Rust port of the Beads CLI. It does not work against the upstream Go bd CLI; install br and call br init in your project.
Features
Issues Panel — Sortable, filterable table; kanban board toggle; column visibility, order, sort preferences persist across reloads; filter presets for Open / Blocked / Epics / Not Closed.
Details Panel — View & edit title, description, status, priority, type, labels, assignee; markdown rendering in description and notes; timezone-aware timestamps; dependency management grouped by relationship type.
Multi-Project — Auto-detects .beads/ directories in the workspace; project switcher in the dashboard.
Direct CLI Reads — Spawns br with --json; issues.jsonl mtime polling for near-real-time updates.
br CLI on your PATH (or set beads.cliPath to an explicit path/binary name). Minimum br version: 0.2.10.
A project initialized with br init (creates the .beads/ directory the extension reads from).
Installation
VS Code Marketplace: install via the Extensions panel → search "Beads Rust" or use the marketplace badge above.
Open VSX: install via the Extensions panel in Cursor / VSCodium / Project IDX, or via the Open VSX badge above.
Manual VSIX:
bun run package # builds vscode-beads-rust-X.Y.Z.vsix
code --install-extension vscode-beads-rust-*.vsix
Usage
Initialize: br init (in your project root).
Open VS Code; click the Beads icon in the Activity Bar.
The extension detects .beads/ directories; switch projects from the Dashboard.
Commands
Command
Description
Beads: Switch Project
Switch the active Beads project
Beads: Open Issues Panel
Open the Issues webview
Beads: Open Issue Details
Open the Details webview
Beads: Refresh
Refresh all views
Beads: Copy Issue ID
Copy the selected issue id
Settings
Setting
Default
Description
beads.cliPath
"br"
Path or name of the br CLI binary; supports ${env:VAR} placeholders; override with BEADS_CLI.
beads.refreshInterval
3000
Polling interval in ms for change detection (0 disables polling).
beads.renderMarkdown
true
Render markdown in description, notes, and other text fields.
beads.userId
""
User ID for "Assign to me"; ${env:VAR} placeholders; falls back to $USER.
beads.tooltipHoverDelay
1000
Delay in ms before showing hover tooltips (0 disables).
Troubleshooting
"No Beads projects found" — Run br init in the project root, then reload the window.
br not found / spawn fails — Install per beads_rust docs (brew install beads-rs/tap/beads-rust or cargo install beads_rust) and verify br --version. Set beads.cliPath to an explicit binary path if br is not on PATH.
Commands fail with a br error — Open the "Beads" output channel to see stderr; many errors include an exit code and short error body.
Stale issue list — Trigger Beads: Refresh from the command palette.
Credits
Forked from jdillon/vscode-beads (Apache-2.0). The original UI, status/priority normalization, multi-project discovery, and webview plumbing all originate from that project.
