ActivityWatch VS Code Enhanced

An enhanced VS Code extension for ActivityWatch — tracks files, terminals, git state, debugging sessions, and more.

Fork Notice

This is an enhanced fork of ActivityWatch/aw-watcher-vscode, which has been inactive since May 2023. We forked to:

• Merge community contributions that had been waiting for review (PRs #36, #39, #40)
• Add rich terminal context — cwd resolution, terminal enumeration, switch detection
• Fix multi-window issues — only the focused window sends heartbeats, preventing broken pulse merge
• Modernize the codebase — TypeScript 5.x, ESLint, updated dependencies, proper VS Code types
• Cross-platform terminal cwd — macOS/Linux via lsof, Windows via PowerShell

Full credit to the original ActivityWatch team and contributors. Licensed under the same MPL-2.0 license.

Features

Feature	Original	Enhanced
File tracking (language, path)	Yes	Yes
Git branch	Yes	Yes
Git dirty count, remote URL	-	Yes
Cursor position (line/col)	-	Yes
Debug session tracking	-	Yes
Terminal name & cwd	-	Yes
Terminal switch detection	-	Yes
All terminal enumeration	-	Yes
Editor identification	-	Yes (Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)
Workspace name	-	Yes
Multi-window focus safety	-	Yes
Untrusted workspace support	-	Yes
Relative file paths	-	Yes
Open editor tabs	-	Yes

Heartbeat Data

Each heartbeat includes:

{
  "language": "typescript",
  "project": "my-project",
  "file": "/path/to/file.ts",
  "relative_path": "src/file.ts",
  "branch": "main",
  "editor": "Visual Studio Code",
  "workspace": "My Workspace",
  "cursor_line": 42,
  "cursor_col": 10,
  "lines_in_file": 200,
  "git_dirty_count": 3,
  "git_remote": "github.com/org/repo",
  "is_debugging": false,
  "debug_type": "node",
  "active_terminal": "zsh",
  "terminal_cwd": "/home/user/project",
  "terminal_description": "project",
  "terminal_count": 3,
  "terminal_names": "zsh project;node server;bash deploy",
  "is_focused": true,
  "open_files": "file.ts;index.ts",
  "open_file_count": 2
}

Installation

From Source

git clone https://github.com/kepptic/aw-watcher-vscode-enhanced.git
cd aw-watcher-vscode-enhanced
npm install
npm run compile

Then copy the extension to your VS Code extensions directory or use vsce package to create a .vsix.

Configuration

In VS Code settings:

{
  "aw-watcher-vscode.maxHeartbeatsPerSec": 1
}

Requirements

• VS Code 1.75+
• ActivityWatch running on localhost:5600

Multi-Window Behavior

When multiple VS Code windows are open, only the focused window sends heartbeats. This prevents different projects from interleaving in the same bucket, which would break ActivityWatch's pulse merge and produce 0-duration events.

When a window loses focus, one final heartbeat is sent to properly close the current event with correct duration.

Community Contributions Merged

• PR #36 (@Thopiax) — workspace name field
• PR #39 (@fooman) — editor identification (enhanced to be dynamic)
• PR #40 (@ishanarora) — untrusted workspace support

License

Mozilla Public License 2.0 — same as the original project.