VS Code Projects Dock (Companion)

Makes your open VS Code windows show up as live buttons in the PowerToys Command Palette Dock, so you can jump between projects without alt-tabbing.

This is a silent reporter — it has no UI of its own. Each window writes a small state file that the dock reads to render the band and focus or launch projects.

⚠️ Requires the dock. This extension does nothing on its own. You also need the VS Code Projects Dock extension for the PowerToys Command Palette. See the project README for the dock and how the two fit together.

What it does

• Reports each window's folder, remote kind (local / WSL / container / SSH), and liveness to a shared state directory.
• Runs on the UI host, so a single runtime on Windows sees every window — local and WSL remote alike — and writes natively to %LOCALAPPDATA%.
• Cheap heartbeat: it just touches a file's mtime each interval; it only rewrites the full state when you switch folders. The dock treats files that stop updating as closed windows.

Settings

Search "VS Code Projects Dock" in Settings. Both apply live (no reload):

There's also a VS Code Projects Dock: Show companion status command that dumps the current state and file path for troubleshooting.

Privacy

It writes only your open folder's URI, its display name, the window/process id, and a timestamp — to a local directory on your machine. Nothing leaves your computer.

Development

git clone https://github.com/mbolli/dock-vscode-projects
cd dock-vscode-projects/companion
npm install
npm run compile   # F5 to debug, npm run package for a VSIX

License

MIT © zwei und eins gmbh