Making VS Code 'Read My Mind': Building Smart Context Awareness

Source: Dev.to

The Problem

We’ve all been there. You open a project, and for a split second you freeze: “Wait, is this npm run dev, yarn start, or docker-compose up?”

Context switching is a productivity killer. As developers we spend too much time remembering how to run a project instead of actually running it.

Smart Context Awareness 🛠️

I’ve been building a VS Code extension called DotCommand, and today I finally cracked the code on its biggest feature yet: Smart Context Awareness.

The goal is simple: don’t make me search for commands. Show me what I need based on the files I have.

• Detect package.json → show NPM commands (install, run script).
• Detect Dockerfile → show Docker commands (build, run).
• Detect .git → show Git workflow.

Behind the Scenes 🐛

It sounds simple, but the implementation was tricky.

I initially built a ContextDetector class that scanned the workspace. It worked, but it was slow, so I added a caching layer (30 seconds).

The bug – creating a package.json didn’t update the UI until the cache expired, making the experience feel laggy and “dumb.”

The fix – rewired the FileSystemWatcher events to aggressively invalidate the cache and force a UI refresh the instant a critical file (like package.json) is created or deleted.

Now it feels instant. ⚡

See It in Action 🎥

Bonus: Dynamic Git Branches

I didn’t stop at just file detection. I also hated typing branch names manually, so I added a Dynamic Input system. When you run a command like git checkout, it spawns a native VS Code dropdown populated with your actual local branches.

Try It Out

I’m building this in public and would love your feedback. Does this solve a real pain point for you?

DotCommand on the VS Code Marketplace

Happy coding! 🚀