Permission Guard is a security-focused extension for Visual Studio Code that actively monitors your workspace for sensitive actions, such as file creation and extension installation. It acts as a safety layer, prompting you for permission before allowing potentially unwanted changes to your environment.
Features
File Creation Guard: Get a real-time prompt whenever a new file is about to be created in your workspace, giving you the power to allow or block it instantly.
Extension Blocklist: Maintain a personal blocklist of extensions you consider harmful or unwanted. Permission Guard will automatically block and uninstall them if they ever get installed.
Interactive Modal Prompts: All security alerts appear as blocking modal dialogs, ensuring you see them and make a conscious decision.
Whitelist Configuration: Easily whitelist trusted file creation patterns (e.g., *.test.js) to reduce prompts for routine tasks.
Central Activity Log: A dedicated view in the Activity Bar shows a complete history of all monitored actions—allowed, blocked, and whitelisted.
How It Works
Monitoring File Creation
When any process or extension attempts to create a file in your workspace, Permission Guard will intercept the action and show you a prompt:
Allow: The file is created as intended.
Block: The file creation is cancelled, and the file is deleted from your disk. The editor tab for the "ghost file" is also automatically closed.
You can add file path patterns to the settings to prevent prompts for files you trust.
Monitoring Extension Installations
Add the unique ID of any extension you don't trust to the Extension Blocklist in the settings.
If a blocked extension is ever installed, Permission Guard will perform the following actions automatically:
The extension is immediately uninstalled to prevent it from running.
A modal dialog appears, informing you that the extension was blocked.
You are given two choices:
Keep it Blocked: The default action. The extension remains uninstalled.
Trust and Re-install: The extension's ID is removed from your blocklist, and the extension is safely re-installed.
Extension Settings
You can configure Permission Guard's behavior by going to File > Preferences > Settings and searching for "Permission Guard".
permissionGuard.blockedExtensionIds: An array of extension IDs (e.g., publisher.extension-name) that will be blocked upon installation.
permissionGuard.allowedCreationPatterns: An array of file path patterns (using regular expressions) that will be automatically allowed during file creation, without a prompt.
