A lightweight VS Code sidebar that reads your workspace's TODO.md and renders its checkbox list as a native tree view. Click to jump, click to check, click to uncheck. Built for "vibe coding" — quick task capture without leaving the editor.
Features
- Zero-config — drop a
TODO.md in your workspace root and the tree appears in the Activity Bar
- GFM checkbox parsing —
- [ ] / - [x], */+ bullets, nested items, code-fence-safe
- Two-level grouping —
## Section and ### Subsection become collapsible tree nodes
- Progress at a glance — group icon reflects state: outline circle (none done) → filled circle (partial) → check (all done)
- Click to jump — click any item to reveal it in the open editor at the exact line
- Click to toggle — inline button flips
[ ] ↔ [x] and saves immediately (safe: hash-verified so external edits never get clobbered)
- Live refresh — edits to
TODO.md update the tree in 150 ms
- Bilingual UI — zh-CN / en, follows your VS Code display language
- Hide empty groups — configurable: never / hide when no items / hide when no pending
Quick start
Install the extension
Open any folder in VS Code
Click the ✓ icon in the Activity Bar
If no TODO.md exists, click Create TODO.md — a minimal template will be generated
Start writing:
## 🔥 In Progress
- [ ] Refactor auth service
- [ ] Wire up error reporting
## 📅 Planned
### Frontend
- [ ] Dark mode toggle
- [ ] Empty-state illustrations
The tree updates as you type. Click a - [ ] item in the sidebar → editor jumps to its line. Click the ✓ button on hover → file saved with the new state.
Configuration
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
todoMd.file |
TODO.md |
Relative path from workspace folder. Supports ${workspaceFolder} and ${workspaceFolder:name} |
todoMd.collapsedSections |
["Decided against", "Recently done", "Completed"] (case-insensitive substring match) |
Section titles collapsed by default |
todoMd.maxFileSizeKb |
1024 |
Skip parsing if TODO.md exceeds this size |
todoMd.showDoneDescription |
true |
Show "done" suffix next to completed items |
todoMd.hideEmptyGroups |
noItems |
never / noItems / noPending |
Click the ⚙ button in the sidebar title bar to jump straight to the filtered Settings UI.
Commands
| Command |
Purpose |
Todo: Refresh |
Re-parse TODO.md |
Todo: Open TODO.md |
Open the source file |
Todo: Create TODO.md |
Create from template if missing |
Todo: Open Settings |
Jump to todoMd.* settings |
Philosophy
This is an opinionated tool for personal / small-team workflows. It intentionally does not do:
- Task assignment, priorities, due dates — use GitHub Issues / Linear
- Real-time collaboration — your
TODO.md is already in git
- Custom markdown flavors — GFM checkbox syntax only
- Editing task text from the sidebar — use the editor
If you want those, try Todo Tree, Markdown Checkbox, or Todo Sidebar MD.
Development
pnpm install
pnpm build # or pnpm watch
# In VS Code, open this directory and press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host
pnpm test # unit tests (vitest, parser logic)
pnpm test:integration # integration tests (@vscode/test-cli, spawns VS Code)
pnpm package # build todo-markdown-<version>.vsix
License
MIT — see LICENSE in this repo.
