Capture notes and ideas without leaving the IDE.
Mindstash is a lightweight VS Code extension that lets you quickly jot down thoughts, snippets, and ideas while coding—without switching apps or breaking flow. All data stays in your workspace as plain JSON.
- Browse all ideas – View your captured notes with timestamps in a dedicated sidebar
- Search – Filter ideas by text
- Edit & delete – Update or remove ideas inline
- Chronological view – Ideas ordered by creation time
- Multiple ideas – Open a popup with a keyboard shortcut to type multiple ideas
- Markdown support – Use italic, bold, and
codeformatting - Append mode – Add multiple ideas in one session; Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter appends and keeps the popup open
- Fast capture – Open a input with a keyboard shortcut to type an idea instantly
- Workspace-based – Notes live in
.vscode/mindstash.jsoninside your project - Plain JSON – Human-readable, version-control friendly, easy to script or migrate
- No cloud – Your data never leaves your machine
- Open VS Code
- Go to Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X)
- Search for Mindstash
- Click Install
- Download the
.vsixfile from the Releases page - Run:
code --install-extension mindstash-X.X.X.vsix
git clone https://github.com/CodebyAhad/mindstash.git
cd mindstash
npm install
npm run compile
# Then: Run > Run Extension (F5) or package with vsce- Open a workspace folder – Mindstash requires a workspace to store ideas
- Open the sidebar – Click the Mindstash icon in the Activity Bar or use the shortcut
- Capture an idea – Use the capture shortcut to open the popup, type, then Enter to save
| Keybinding | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+Shift+I (Win/Linux) / Cmd+Shift+I (Mac) |
Open Mindstash sidebar |
Ctrl+Shift+A (Win/Linux) / Cmd+Shift+A (Mac) |
Open Capture popup |
Ctrl+Shift+R (Win/Linux) / Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) |
Open Quick input |
In the capture popup:
- Enter – Save the idea and close the popup
- Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter – Save the idea and keep the popup open for another
- Ctrl+Shift / Cmd+Enter – To go down to next line
In the quick input:
- Enter – Save the idea and close the quick input.
- Escape – Close the quick input.
Ideas are stored in <workspaceFolder>/.vscode/mindstash.json:
[
{
"id": "abc123",
"text": "Remember to refactor the auth module",
"createdAt": 1709827200000
}
]- id – Unique identifier (UUID)
- text – Idea content (supports markdown)
- createdAt – Unix timestamp in milliseconds
You can edit this file directly or use scripts to import/export data.
- VS Code 1.75.0 or newer
- A workspace folder must be open
MIT – see LICENSE.md for details.