Workbench Closer

Automatically closes selected VS Code workbench parts after enough editor activity.

The extension can close these areas independently:

• Primary Side Bar
• Secondary Side Bar
• Bottom Panel

How it works

VS Code's public extension API does not expose a general workbench focus-lost event for these areas. Workbench Closer therefore uses these editor-side signals as practical proxies:

• the active editor's selection changes

Terminal activation and focus are intentionally ignored. VS Code's public extension API does not provide a reliable mapping between an active terminal and its editor-area or bottom-panel representation, so terminal events are not used as automatic-closing triggers.

An active-editor change is not a closing signal. It starts a new activity session by clearing the previous editor's selection-change history and any pending close delay, but it does not close anything by itself.

Editor activity detection

Each workbench part has its own enabled and selectionChangeWindow setting. The extension also has a common selectionChangeThreshold setting. By default, three selection changes within three seconds start the closing delay:

1. Each selection change adds a timestamp to the part's sliding activity window.
2. Timestamps older than selectionChangeWindow are discarded.
3. When the number of remaining timestamps first reaches selectionChangeThreshold, the timestamp of the first event in that group is saved. The part does not close yet.
4. After selectionChangeWindow has elapsed from that saved timestamp, the first later selection change closes the part.
5. Closing the part clears the saved timestamp and all previous selection change history.

There is no timer running in the background. The check happens only when a selection change is reported.

There is no quiet-period re-arm requirement. After a part closes, a new selection-change history can immediately start building.

This is an activity heuristic, not a general focus event. For example, merely reading an editor without changing its selection may not produce enough events to close a workbench part.

Commands

• Workbench Closer: Close Configured Parts
• Workbench Closer: Toggle Automatic Closing

The toggle command enables or disables all three targets together. Individual target settings remain available in Settings.

Settings

All targets are enabled by default. The default threshold is three selection changes in a three-second activity window and closing delay:

{
  "vscode-workbench-closer.selectionChangeThreshold": 3,
  "vscode-workbench-closer.primarySidebar.enabled": true,
  "vscode-workbench-closer.primarySidebar.selectionChangeWindow": 3000,
  "vscode-workbench-closer.secondarySidebar.enabled": true,
  "vscode-workbench-closer.secondarySidebar.selectionChangeWindow": 3000,
  "vscode-workbench-closer.panel.enabled": true,
  "vscode-workbench-closer.panel.selectionChangeWindow": 3000
}

For example, to start closing the primary sidebar after three selection changes within one second, then close it on the first later selection change after one second from the first of those changes:

{
  "vscode-workbench-closer.primarySidebar.selectionChangeWindow": 1000,
  "vscode-workbench-closer.selectionChangeThreshold": 3
}

Development

npm install
npm run compile
npm test

Open the project in VS Code and press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host window with Workbench Closer loaded. The Run Extension configuration is provided in .vscode/launch.json. Extension Tests can be used to debug the test suite.

Packaging and publishing

Create a VSIX package locally:

npm run package

Publish to the Visual Studio Marketplace after authenticating vsce as the statiolake publisher:

npm run publish

The optional Open VSX command is also available:

npm run publish:ovsx

License

MIT