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VS Code extension

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Auto-name Claude Code sessions with the terminal tab name you started them in.

Terminalopensin VS CodeTab nameregisteredPOST 127.0.0.1Claude writesJSONL~/.claude/projects/Daemoncorrelateslsof + shell PIDAuto-aliasappliedsession named

What it watches

  • +onDidOpenTerminal, rename, and close events
  • +POSTs shell_pid, tab_name, and cwd to 127.0.0.1
  • +Daemon correlates via lsof when JSONL appears

What it never does

  • −Read your clipboard
  • −Read editor buffers or your project files
  • −Make any outbound network call (loopback only)

What it reads from a terminal

Auto-alias also captures terminal output. When you run a command in a shell-integrated terminal, the extension reads that command's output into a rolling 4 KB tail per terminal and POSTs it to the daemon at 127.0.0.1. The daemon matches that tail verbatim against indexed transcripts, which is how a session whose shell PID is already gone still gets named after the tab it is running in.

  • +Recognisable secrets are redacted before the tail leaves the extension: provider API keys, AWS keys, Slack and GitHub tokens, JWTs, Authorization: Bearer headers, and PASSWORD=-style assignments.
  • +The tail goes only to your local daemon. It is held in daemon memory, not written to disk unless you turn that on.
  • +On by default whenever auto-alias is on. Switch it off with claude-recall.captureScrollback = false and correlation falls back to shell PID alone.

Status bar in VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf

Recall·3

Number of currently registered terminals.

VS Code extension

The extension registers each terminal you open so a session can be named after the tab it ran in. Install paths:

Search Claude Recall in Extensions. Direct: clauderecallhq.clauderecall-vscode.

#CLI sideload

bash
recall install-extension                  # auto-detects every editor on PATH
recall install-extension --editor cursor  # one editor only

#Local build

bash
cd extensions/vscode
npm install && npm run build && npm run package
code --install-extension clauderecall-vscode-*.vsix

#Enable

VS Code settings: claude-recall.autoAlias: true. It is off until you turn it on. Status bar shows ⟳ Recall · N (N = registered terminals).

#What the extension does and does not gate

Tab naming is the only thing behind autoAlias, and it works the same for a Claude Code tab and a Codex tab. Binding a live Codex tab to the conversation it is holding is separate: it needs lsof, so it runs on macOS and Linux and not on Windows, and recall doctor says which of the two you have. Indexing, titles, search, pricing, threads and the Source filter depend on neither, and work with the extension uninstalled.

#Troubleshooting

  • Status bar shows ⊘ Recall: autoAlias is off. Turn it on.
  • No status bar at all: daemon isn't running. recall start.
  • Tab named X but session aliased differently: stale correlation. Run "Re-register all open terminals" from the palette.
  • Session titles show the first sentence instead of your tab name: extension can't reach the daemon. Run recall doctor and read the Pipeline health section. Most common cause is a daemon update that the Marketplace extension hasn't caught up to yet. Reinstall the extension, then run "Developer: Restart Extension Host" from the palette.

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