Chroma Workspace - VS Code Extension

A comprehensive workspace management extension for Visual Studio Code that combines rich note-taking with Natural Language Highlighting, visual Kanban boards, task scheduling, and productivity analytics. Designed for professionals who need powerful project management capabilities directly in their development environment - all data stored locally on your device.

Extension Overview

Chroma Workspace brings together the best features of modern project management into VS Code:

• ** Notes with Natural Language Highlighting** - Intelligent syntax highlighting for natural language based on parts of speech
• ** Notes View** - Centralized panel to browse and create all your .notesnlh notes
• ** Dashboard View** - Open workspace data in the editor area with flexible layout options
• ** Kanban Boards** - Visual task management with customizable columns and cards
• ** Task Scheduling** - Schedule tasks with recurrence patterns and time-based automation
• ** Tag System** - Organize cards and tasks with flexible tagging
• ** Accomplishments Export** - Export completed tasks for performance reviews
• ** Global Search** - Search across all notes, cards, and projects instantly
• ** 100% Local Storage** - All data stored on device using SQLite - no cloud dependencies

Perfect for professionals working in secured environments where cloud-based tools are restricted.

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Key Features

Notes with Natural Language Highlighting (NLH)

Built on the proven notesnlh extension foundation with enhanced workspace integration:

• Real-time Part-of-Speech Highlighting: Automatically colorizes text based on grammar:

  • Nouns - Entities and types
  • Verbs - Actions and functions
  • Adjectives - Descriptive words
  • Adverbs - Modifiers
  • Numbers - Numeric values
  • Proper Nouns - Names and places

• Customizable Colors: Configure highlighting colors per part of speech

• Per-Note Toggle: Enable/disable NLH for individual notes

• Rich Text Support: Format notes with TODO lists, links, and cross-references

• File Format: Uses .notesnlh files for seamless compatibility

NLP Engine: Uses the Compromise NLP library for intelligent text analysis.

Notes View

Centralized panel for managing all your notes in one place:

• Dedicated Notes Panel: Browse all .notesnlh files from the sidebar view
• Quick Access: Click any note to open it instantly in the editor
• Add Note Button: Create new notes directly from the view with the "+" button
  • Validates note names and prevents duplicates
  • Auto-creates notes folder if it doesn't exist
  • Opens newly created notes immediately
• Live Updates: Notes view refreshes automatically when files are created, modified, or deleted
• Smart Location: Notes stored in .chroma/notes/ folder (or custom path based on database location)
• Flexible Sorting: Notes displayed by last modified date (default) or alphabetically

Note: The notes folder location follows your chroma.database.path setting. If you use a shared database, notes will be in the same parent directory.

Kanban Board Management

Visual task tracking with full VS Code integration:

• Custom Columns: Create workflow stages (To Do, In Progress, Done, etc.)
• Two Card Types:
  • Simple Cards: Standalone tasks with rich descriptions
  • Linked Cards: Cards connected to existing notes
• Interactive Card Positioning: Choose exactly where new or moved cards appear in columns
  • Select position during card creation and movement
  • Visual position picker with pagination for large columns
  • Auto-positioning for completion columns
  • Position numbers displayed in card labels
• Command-Based Movement: Move cards with VS Code commands
• Tag Support: Organize cards with flexible tagging and colored icons for visual identification

Task Scheduling & Automation

Advanced scheduling capabilities for recurring and time-based tasks:

• Scheduled Tasks View: Dedicated TreeView showing overdue, today, this week, and all tasks
• Enhanced Recurrence Patterns:
  • Daily, weekdays only, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly
  • Custom weekly patterns (select specific days of the week)
  • Human-readable recurrence labels in tooltips
• Time-Based Activation: Set specific times for tasks to appear on your board
• Vacation Mode: Temporarily pause scheduled task-to-card conversion when away
• Status Bar Integration: Quick view of upcoming tasks
• Notifications: Reminders for due tasks
• Board Assignment: Tasks can be targeted to a specific board; you'll be prompted to pick a board when multiple boards exist, one board is auto-selected, and a default board+column is created if none exist.
• Tag Inheritance: Tags from scheduled tasks are automatically copied to created cards
• Manual Early Conversion: Convert scheduled tasks to cards before their scheduled time by hovering over a task in the Scheduled Tasks View and clicking the 'Convert to Card' button.

Accomplishments Export (FUTURE FEATURE)

Performance review made easy with intelligent task aggregation:

• CSV Export: Download completed tasks in spreadsheet format
• Date Range Selection: Last 3/6/12 months or custom range
• Smart Grouping: Recurring tasks automatically grouped together
• LLM-Ready Format: CSV output optimized for AI summarization

See full documentation below for detailed feature descriptions.

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Installation

Option 1: From Pre-built VSIX (Recommended)

If you have the .vsix file:

1. Open VS Code
2. Go to Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X)
3. Click ... menu > Install from VSIX...
4. Select chroma-workspace-0.0.1.vsix
5. Reload VS Code when prompted

Or via command line:

code --install-extension chroma-workspace-0.0.1.vsix

Option 2: Build from Source

For the complete build process, see BUILD.md.

Quick steps:

# 1. Install dependencies
npm install

# 2. Compile TypeScript
npm run compile

# 3. Bundle with esbuild
node esbuild.js

# 4. Package as VSIX (requires vsce)
npm install -g @vscode/vsce
vsce package

# 5. Install the generated .vsix file (see Option 1 above)

Option 3: Development Mode

Run without installing (for development/testing):

1. Open this folder in VS Code
2. Press F5 to launch Extension Development Host
3. Test the extension in the new window

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Quick Start

1. Open a workspace folder in VS Code
2. Extension auto-creates .chroma/chroma.db
3. Open Chroma Workspace panel from the sidebar
4. Click the Notes view and use the "+" button to create your first note
5. Set up Kanban boards, scheduled tasks, and tags as needed

Opening the Dashboard

For a full-screen workspace view, open the Chroma Workspace Dashboard:

• Open Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P)
• Run command: Chroma: Open Dashboard
• The dashboard opens in the editor area as a tab
• Move it to a separate editor group or window by dragging the tab

Dashboard Features:

• Tabbed Interface: Switch between Notes, Kanban, Tasks, and Tags views
• All Boards at Once: View all your Kanban boards with their columns and cards
• Task Overview: See all scheduled tasks in one place
• Tag Management: Browse all tags with color indicators
• Flexible Layout: Resize, move to split view, or drag to a separate window

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Configuration

Chroma Workspace can be extensively customized through VS Code settings. Access settings via:

• File > Preferences > Settings (Windows/Linux)
• Code > Preferences > Settings (macOS)
• Or search for "Chroma" in the settings

Natural Language Highlighting Settings

Control how notes are highlighted:

{
  "chroma.nlh.enabled": true,
  "chroma.nlh.colors.nouns": "#569CD6",
  "chroma.nlh.colors.verbs": "#4EC9B0",
  "chroma.nlh.colors.adjectives": "#C586C0",
  "chroma.nlh.colors.adverbs": "#DCDCAA",
  "chroma.nlh.colors.numbers": "#B5CEA8",
  "chroma.nlh.colors.properNouns": "#4FC1FF"
}

• chroma.nlh.enabled: Enable/disable Natural Language Highlighting (default: true)
• chroma.nlh.colors.*: Customize colors for each part of speech (hex format)

Task & Notification Settings

Control task notifications and status bar display:

{
  "chroma.tasks.enableNotifications": true,
  "chroma.tasks.notificationFrequency": "once",
  "chroma.tasks.showInStatusBar": true
}

• chroma.tasks.enableNotifications: Show notifications for due tasks (default: true)
• chroma.tasks.notificationFrequency: How often to notify about overdue tasks
  • "once": Show notification only once per task (default)
  • "hourly": Remind every hour
  • "daily": Remind once per day
• chroma.tasks.showInStatusBar: Display task count in status bar (default: true)

Export Settings

Configure accomplishments export defaults:

{
  "chroma.export.defaultDateRangeMonths": 6,
  "chroma.export.includeDescriptions": true,
  "chroma.export.groupRecurringTasks": true
}

• chroma.export.defaultDateRangeMonths: Default time range for exports (default: 6, range: 1-60)
• chroma.export.includeDescriptions: Include task descriptions in CSV export (default: true)
• chroma.export.groupRecurringTasks: Group multiple completions of recurring tasks (default: true)

Kanban Settings

Customize Kanban board behavior:

{
  "chroma.kanban.taskCreationColumn": "To Do",
  "chroma.kanban.completionColumn": "Done"
}

• chroma.kanban.taskCreationColumn: Name of the column where new tasks are created (default: "To Do").
• chroma.kanban.completionColumn: Name of the column that marks tasks as complete (default: "Done").
  • Cards moved to this column are timestamped and sorted by completion date
  • Position selection is skipped for completion columns (cards auto-placed at top)

Database Settings

Configure where your data is stored:

{
  "chroma.database.path": ".chroma/chroma.db"
}

• chroma.database.path: Relative path to SQLite database within workspace (default: ".chroma/chroma.db")
  • Must be a path ending in .db. You can use a relative path (default) for per-workspace databases or an absolute path (e.g. C:\\Users\\You\\shared-chroma.db or /home/you/chroma-shared.db) to share a database across multiple workspaces.
  • After changing this setting, reload the VS Code window (Developer: Reload Window) or restart VS Code for the new database location to take effect.

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Local-First Architecture

• SQLite Database: All data in .chroma/chroma.db
• No Cloud Dependencies: Works completely offline
• Git-Friendly: Commit .chroma/ for version control
• Portable: Copy folder to sync manually across machines

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Debugging & Troubleshooting

Debug Logging

Chroma Workspace includes comprehensive debug logging for troubleshooting:

• Output Panel: View logs in VS Code's Output panel (select "Chroma Workspace Debug")
• SQL-Level Debugging: Track database queries and operations
• Operation Logging: Monitor tag operations, card movements, and task scheduling
• Automatic Logging: Debug logs stored in .chroma/debug.log within your workspace

To view debug output:

1. Open VS Code's Output panel (Ctrl+Shift+U or Cmd+Shift+U)
2. Select "Chroma Workspace Debug" from the dropdown
3. Monitor real-time operations as you use the extension

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Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

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License

MIT License

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Acknowledgments

• notesnlh Extension: Foundation by canadaduane
• Chroma Parse Notes: Feature inspiration lilfetz22
• Compromise.js: NLP library by Spencer Kelly

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Your workspace. Your data. Your device.

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Releasing and Versioning

This repo uses semantic-release to automate versioning, changelog generation, GitHub releases, and VSIX packaging/publishing based on Conventional Commits.

Commit Message Format

Use the format: type(scope): subject

Common types:

• feat: New feature (triggers minor version bump: 1.0.0 → 1.1.0)
• fix: Bug fix (triggers patch version bump: 1.0.0 → 1.0.1)
• docs: Documentation changes (no version bump)
• refactor: Code refactoring (no version bump)
• perf: Performance improvements (triggers patch bump)
• test: Test additions/changes (no version bump)
• chore: Build process or auxiliary tool changes (no version bump)

Breaking changes (triggers major version bump: 1.0.0 → 2.0.0):

• Add ! after type/scope: feat(api)!: remove deprecated methods
• OR include footer: BREAKING CHANGE: description

Examples:

feat(kanban): add swimlanes to board
fix(tasks): correct timezone logic for daily schedule
fix(build): externalize bindings module in esbuild config
chore: update dependencies
feat(search)!: change search API to async

Development Workflow

1. Make changes to code
2. Build and test: npm run build && npm test
3. Stage changes: git add <files>
4. Commit with conventional format:

   git commit -m "fix(build): externalize native module dependencies"

5. Push to main:

   git push origin master

Automated Release Process (CI/CD)

When you push to master, GitHub Actions automatically:

1. Analyzes commits since the last release
2. Determines version bump (major/minor/patch) based on commit types
3. Updates package.json version
4. Generates CHANGELOG.md with all changes
5. Creates GitHub release with release notes
6. Packages VSIX file
7. Publishes to VS Code Marketplace (if VSCE_PAT repository secret is configured)

Manual Release (Optional)

For local testing or manual releases:

npm run build
npm run release

Requirements:

• GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable (for GitHub release)
• VSCE_PAT environment variable (optional, for marketplace publishing)

Note: Normally releases are performed automatically via GitHub Actions. Manual releases are only needed for testing the release process locally.

Marketplace Publishing Setup

To enable automatic publishing to the VS Code Marketplace:

1. Create a Personal Access Token (PAT) at https://dev.azure.com/
   • Organization: All accessible organizations
   • Scopes: Marketplace (Acquire, Manage)
2. Add the PAT as a repository secret named VSCE_PAT in GitHub Settings → Secrets
3. Push commits to master - extension will auto-publish on release