TaskPing

TaskPing sends mobile push notifications when long-running development work starts, finishes, or needs attention.

Use it when you want to leave your desk while a build, test run, deployment, debug session, terminal command, or AI coding agent continues working in VS Code.

TaskPing is designed to stay quiet until there is useful development activity to report.

TaskPing can be tuned per workspace so each project gets the notification behavior it needs.

What TaskPing Notifies You About

• Terminal commands starting and finishing
• VS Code tasks starting and finishing
• Debug sessions starting and finishing
• Common test commands such as pytest, jest, vitest, mocha, playwright, and cypress
• AI-agent-style activity inferred from terminal commands and workspace file changes
• Codex/Copilot-style activity inferred from configured agent metadata paths
• Experimental Copilot Chat log detection for agent completion markers
• Success, failure, duration, workspace name, and optional Git branch details

Setup

TaskPing uses ntfy for push notifications.

1. Install the ntfy app on your phone, or open the ntfy web app.
2. Create or choose a private topic name that is hard to guess.
3. Subscribe to that topic in ntfy.
4. In VS Code, run:

TaskPing: Configure Notification Topic

You can enter either a topic name or a full ntfy URL.

Examples:

my-private-task-topic

https://ntfy.sh/my-private-task-topic

Public ntfy.sh topics are not password protected. Anyone who knows your topic can subscribe to it, so use a private, hard-to-guess topic.

First Test

After configuring your topic, run:

TaskPing: Test Notification

If your phone receives the notification, TaskPing is ready.

Commands

• TaskPing: Test Notification
• TaskPing: Configure Notification Topic
• TaskPing: Enable Notifications
• TaskPing: Disable Notifications
• TaskPing: Show Status
• TaskPing: Show Logs
• TaskPing: Simulate Agent Activity

Useful Settings

• taskping.topic
• taskping.enableTerminal
• taskping.enableTasks
• taskping.enableDebug
• taskping.enableTests
• taskping.enableAgentMode
• taskping.notifyOnStart
• taskping.notifyOnSuccess
• taskping.notifyOnFailure
• taskping.idleTimeout
• taskping.agentWatchGlobs
• taskping.enableCopilotLogMonitor
• taskping.quietHours.enabled

AI Agent Notes

TaskPing can detect AI-agent-style work when VS Code exposes observable activity, such as:

• terminal commands
• VS Code tasks
• debug sessions
• configured agent metadata paths changing, such as Codex turn-diff files

Some chat extensions do not expose private chat start/finish events to other extensions. If an AI assistant only replies inside its chat panel and does not edit files or run terminal/task/debug activity, TaskPing may not be able to detect that session.

TaskPing does not treat every manual file edit as AI activity by default. Agent file inference is limited to configured metadata globs like .git/refs/codex/turn-diffs/**, .codex/**, .copilot/**, and related configured paths to reduce false positives.

For GitHub Copilot Chat, TaskPing also includes an experimental local log monitor. Enable taskping.enableCopilotLogMonitor to watch VS Code's local Copilot Chat log for agent completion markers such as [panel/editAgent].

Troubleshooting

If notifications do not arrive:

1. Run TaskPing: Test Notification.
2. Confirm your phone or browser is subscribed to the same ntfy topic.
3. Run TaskPing: Show Logs and check the TaskPing output.
4. Make sure notifications are enabled with TaskPing: Enable Notifications.

If terminal commands are not detected, run them in the VS Code integrated terminal. Terminal completion detection depends on VS Code terminal shell integration.

If AI agent completion is not detected, ask the agent to edit files or run work through the integrated terminal. Pure private chat messages may not be visible to TaskPing.

Privacy

TaskPing sends notification content to the ntfy server configured by your topic or URL. Notifications may include command names, workspace name, duration, status, and optional Git branch information depending on your settings.

You control the notification topic. TaskPing does not include a shared default topic.

Roadmap

• More notification providers
• Richer test summaries
• Git change summaries
• Actionable notifications
• AI-generated completion summaries