Don't drift off while AI writes your code
AI Watchdog monitors Copilot Chat, Cline, terminal and other AI coding agents in real time. When the AI finishes or needs you to take over, you get a sound and desktop notification instantly; one click jumps you back to the latest changes.
Features
Make AI-assisted coding observable and handoff-ready
Real-time Monitoring
Simultaneously monitors Copilot Chat, Cline / Roo Code, and terminal output, so you know what your AI agents are doing.
Smart State Detection
Sliding-window + silence-timeout mechanism accurately distinguishes "AI working" from "done": no more blind waiting.
Multi-channel Alerts
Sound + desktop notification + status bar icon, so you get notified even when VS Code is not in the foreground.
One-click Takeover
Click the notification to jump to the latest file changes and the AI chat panel, and resume work seamlessly.
Activity History
The sidebar activity panel records the AI work timeline, and trace back what happened at any time.
Configurable Thresholds
Adjust silence timeout, activity threshold, and window size to match your workflow pace.
How It Works
The full pipeline from file changes to takeover notification
File Change Watch
AI Watchdog listens to workspace file changes, with configurable watchPatterns and ignorePatterns for precise scope control.
Sliding Window Detection
Counts file changes within a time window; reaching the threshold marks "AI working". The status bar icon reflects state in real time.
Silence Timeout
When AI activity stops beyond the silence timeout (default 8s), the task is judged complete and a notification fires.
Notify & Take Over
Sound and desktop notifications bring you back. Click to jump to the latest changes and the AI chat panel.
Why AI Watchdog
Stop switching back to check if the AI is done
| AI Watchdog | Manual Check | Generic Notify Plugin | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto-detect AI working state | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Proactive notification on completion | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Desktop notification (editor in background) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Sound alert | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| One-click jump to latest changes | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Activity history timeline | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Fully local, no data upload | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Configurable scope and thresholds | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Install
Three options, pick one
Marketplace
- Open VS Code
- Go to Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X)
- Search "AI Watchdog"
- Click Install
Command Line
- Open terminal
- Run the following command:
code --install-extension ai-watchdog.ai-watchdog
.vsix Manual
- Download .vsix from GitHub Releases
- Extensions panel → ... → Install from VSIX
- Select the downloaded .vsix file
Frequently Asked Questions
Key questions about scope, privacy and performance
Which AI coding tools does AI Watchdog monitor?+
It currently monitors GitHub Copilot Chat, Cline / Roo Code, and terminal output. Each monitor can be toggled independently, and you can customize file watch patterns and ignore rules.
Does it collect or upload my data?+
No. AI Watchdog runs entirely locally. All file-change monitoring, state detection, and notifications happen on your machine; nothing is collected or uploaded.
How does it detect whether the AI is working or done?+
Via a sliding-window mechanism: if file changes reach a threshold (default 3) within a time window (default 3 seconds), the AI is judged "working". When activity stops beyond a silence timeout (default 8 seconds), it is judged "done" and a notification fires.
What notification channels are available?+
Three channels: sound alert (with adjustable volume), desktop system notification (triggered when VS Code is not in the foreground), and status bar icon. Each channel can be toggled independently.
Which file types are monitored?+
By default it monitors TS/JS/Python/Go/Rust/Java/Vue/CSS/HTML/JSON/Markdown/YAML/TOML and other popular code files. You can customize the scope via aiWatchdog.watchPatterns.
How do I install it?+
Three options: 1) Search "AI Watchdog" in the VS Code Extensions marketplace; 2) Install via command line: code --install-extension ai-watchdog.ai-watchdog; 3) Download the .vsix from GitHub Releases and install manually. Monitoring starts automatically after install.
Will it impact editor performance?+
No. AI Watchdog uses lightweight filesystem watchers and sliding-window counting with minimal memory and CPU usage. ignorePatterns excludes node_modules, dist, .git and similar directories by default to avoid unnecessary overhead.
What is "one-click takeover"?+
When you receive a notification, clicking it or running the "AI Watchdog: Take Over" command automatically locates the most recently modified file and position, and jumps to the AI chat panel so you can resume work quickly.
Take AI coding out of the blind spot
Free, open-source, fully local: no data ever leaves your machine