Beads - VS Code Extension

VS Code extension for managing Beads issues. Communicates with the Beads daemon via bd CLI.

Features

Issues Panel

• Sortable, filterable table with global search
• Filter by status, priority, type, assignee, and labels
• Multi-column sorting (shift+click for secondary sort)
• Persistent column visibility, order, and sort preferences
• Filter presets: Not Closed, Blocked, Epics
• Click-to-copy bead IDs

Details Panel

• View/edit title, description, status, priority, type, labels, assignee
• Colored inline dropdowns for quick field editing
• Markdown rendering in description/notes with timezone-aware timestamps
• Dependency management with grouped relationship types (blocks, related, parent-child)

Multi-Project & Daemon

• Auto-detects .beads directories in workspace
• Status bar indicator with daemon health
• Auto-start daemon, auto-recover from stale sockets
• Windows TCP socket support

Development

See docs/development.md for build commands, architecture, and beads setup.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.85.0+
• Beads CLI (bd) in PATH
• Initialized project (bd init)

Installation

Install from VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX, or search "Beads" in VS Code/Cursor/VSCodium Extensions.

Usage

1. Initialize: bd init
2. Start daemon: bd daemon start
3. Click Beads icon in Activity Bar

Issues Panel

• Click column headers to sort (shift+click for multi-column)
• Search by title, description, or bead ID
• Filter by status, priority, type, assignee, labels
• Use filter presets or create custom filter combinations
• Show/hide and reorder columns via ⋮ menu
• Click row to view details, click bead ID to copy

Details Panel

• Click badges to edit type/status/priority inline
• "Assign to me" quick action for assignee
• Add/remove labels with auto-generated colors
• Markdown rendering in description/notes
• View dependencies grouped by relationship type

Commands

Command	Description
Beads: Switch Project	Select active project
Beads: Refresh	Refresh all views
Beads: Create New Issue	Create issue via quick input
Beads: Start Daemon	Start daemon for active project
Beads: Stop Daemon	Stop daemon
Beads: Restart Daemon	Restart daemon

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
beads.pathToBd	"bd"	Path to bd CLI
beads.autoStartDaemon	true	Auto-start daemon on project switch
beads.refreshInterval	30000	Auto-refresh interval in ms (0 = disable)
beads.renderMarkdown	true	Render markdown in text fields
beads.userId	""	Your user ID for "Assign to me" (defaults to $USER)

Troubleshooting

"No Beads projects found" - Run bd init in project root

"Daemon not running" - Click "Start Daemon" or run bd daemon start

Commands fail - Check "Beads" output channel, verify bd in PATH

Credits

Built with ❤️ using Claude Code

Icon inspired by Beads icons created by imaginationlol - Flaticon

Issue type icons from Font Awesome Free (CC BY 4.0)

License

Apache License 2.0