Faaaaaahhh

What is this

A Visual Studio Code extension that plays the FAAAH meme sound every time an error appears in your editor. Warnings get a softer AA instead.

Every error source VS Code exposes is covered: red squiggly underlines, failed build tasks, crashed debug sessions. If your code is broken, you will hear about it.

The sounds overlap by default. Five errors at once means five simultaneous FAAAH sounds layered on top of each other. This is intentional.

How it works

Architecture diagram

The extension registers listeners on three VS Code event channels:

Source	API	Trigger
Diagnostic errors	`onDidChangeDiagnostics`	New error count exceeds previous count for a given URI
Task failures	`onDidEndTaskProcess`	Task exits with non-zero code
Debug crashes	`onDidTerminateDebugSession`	Debug session terminates
Warnings	`onDidChangeDiagnostics`	New warning count exceeds previous for a given URI

When an event fires, the sound player spawns an independent OS-level process to play the .wav file. Each sound runs in its own process — no queue, no cancellation, no mercy.

error 1:  FAAAAAAHHH---------------------
error 2:    FAAAAAAHHH-------------------
error 3:      FAAAAAAHHH-----------------
error 4:        FAAAAAAHHH---------------
error 5:          FAAAAAAHHH-------------

Install

Marketplace

Open the Extensions panel (Ctrl+Shift+X)
Search Faaaaaahhh
Install

Manual

code --install-extension faaaaaahhh-0.0.1.vsix

Usage

Write code. If the code is bad, you will hear it.

Commands

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P):

Command	Description
`Faaaaaahhh: Toggle Sound On/Off`	Enable or disable all sounds
`Faaaaaahhh: Test Error Sound (FAAAH)`	Play the error sound once
`Faaaaaahhh: Test Warning Sound (AA)`	Play the warning sound once

Status Bar

A FAAAH button sits in the bottom-right status bar. Click it to toggle on/off. The icon switches between unmute and mute to reflect the current state.

Configuration

All settings live under faaaaaahhh.* in your VS Code settings.

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`faaaaaahhh.enabled`	`boolean`	`true`	Master switch for all sounds
`faaaaaahhh.warningsEnabled`	`boolean`	`true`	Play AA on warnings
`faaaaaahhh.cooldownMs`	`number`	`0`	Minimum ms between sounds. `0` = no cooldown, full overlap
`faaaaaahhh.customSoundPath`	`string`	`""`	Absolute path to a custom `.wav` for errors
`faaaaaahhh.customWarningSoundPath`	`string`	`""`	Absolute path to a custom `.wav` for warnings

Overlap behavior: With cooldownMs set to 0 (default), every new error spawns its own audio process immediately. Set it to 3000 or higher if you want a grace period between sounds.

Custom sounds: Point customSoundPath to any .wav file on your system. The extension does not transcode — the file must be a valid WAV.

Platform support

Platform	Audio backend	Notes
Windows	`powershell -File play.ps1`	Uses `System.Media.SoundPlayer`. Each sound is a separate PowerShell process.
macOS	`afplay`	Native. No dependencies.
Linux	`paplay` / `aplay`	Falls back to `aplay` if PulseAudio is unavailable.

Project structure

faaaaaahhh/
  src/
    extension.ts               Entry point. Registers watchers, commands, status bar.
    config.ts                  Reads workspace configuration.
    player/
      soundPlayer.ts           Cross-platform audio playback. Process-per-sound.
    watchers/
      diagnosticWatcher.ts     Tracks error/warning counts per URI. Fires on increase.
      taskWatcher.ts           Listens for non-zero task exit codes.
      debugWatcher.ts          Listens for debug session termination.
  media/
    faah.wav                   Default error sound.
    aa.wav                     Default warning sound.
    play.ps1                   Windows helper script for PowerShell playback.
  assets/
    hero-banner.svg            Repository banner.
    architecture.svg           Architecture diagram.
  dist/
    extension.js               Bundled output (esbuild).

Development

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+
VS Code 1.85+

Build

npm install
npm run build

Test locally

Open the project in VS Code
Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host
In the new window, open any project and introduce errors
Check the Output panel (channel: Faaaaaahhh) for debug logs

Package

npx @vscode/vsce package

This produces faaaaaahhh-0.0.1.vsix in the project root.

How the diff engine works

The diagnostic watcher does not simply react to "errors exist." It tracks the error count and warning count per file URI across events. A sound only plays when the count for a URI increases compared to the last known state.

This means:

Opening a file with 10 existing errors does not trigger 10 sounds
Adding one new error to that file triggers exactly one sound
Fixing errors triggers nothing
Saving a file that re-evaluates and produces the same errors triggers nothing

const errorCount = diagnostics.filter(
  (d) => d.severity === vscode.DiagnosticSeverity.Error
).length;
const prevErrors = previousErrorCounts.get(key) ?? 0;

if (errorCount > prevErrors) {
  playFaaah(context);
}

FAQ

Does this work with Python / Rust / Go / Java / C++? If VS Code can produce diagnostics for it, this extension will react to it. Language-agnostic by design.

Can I use my own sounds? Yes. Set faaaaaahhh.customSoundPath to any .wav file. The built-in sounds are only used when the custom path is empty.

The overlapping is too much. Set faaaaaahhh.cooldownMs to 3000 or higher. Or toggle off entirely from the status bar.

Does this use AI? No. It is an event listener and a WAV file.

License

MIT

_{Built at 3 AM by someone who should have been fixing bugs instead of adding sound effects to them.}

Tanmoy Debnath