VSCode Extension: Dashboard & AT Firehose #

Vision #

Replace the current "Source Changes" welcome panel with a live dashboard that acts as a firehose for all Aesthetic Computer platform activity — git changes, AT Protocol events, and Tangled knot repo activity — all in one view.

Current State #

The welcome panel (extension.ts:966-1100) is a simple git status viewer:

• Runs git status --porcelain + git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD for the main repo + vault
• Displays file list with status badges (M/A/D/?)
• Click-to-open files in editor
• Debounced refresh on file changes (300ms)

Known bug: git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD fails on repos with no commits (e.g. freshly cloned submodules), showing a raw error in the UI instead of a graceful fallback.

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Phase 1: Fix the Git Error + Improve Layout #

Goal: Make the existing git status panel work correctly and look better.

• Handle rev-parse failure gracefully — show (no commits) or (init) instead of the raw error
• Improve the visual layout: tighter spacing, better typography, cleaner status badges
• Add a collapsible section header for "Source Changes" (so it can coexist with new sections)
• Add timestamp showing last refresh time

Phase 2: Dashboard Shell #

Goal: Transform the panel from a single-purpose git viewer into a multi-section dashboard.

• Redesign the HTML structure with distinct dashboard sections:
  1. Source Changes — the existing git status (cleaned up from Phase 1)
  2. AT Firehose — live AT Protocol events (Phase 3)
  3. Tangled — knot/repo activity (Phase 4)
• Add a sticky nav/header with section toggles (show/hide each section)
• Support auto-scroll vs. paused mode (like a terminal — new events stream in, but scrolling up pauses the feed)
• Add theme-aware styling for all new sections (dark/light support already exists)
• Consider making this a sidebar webview instead of (or in addition to) an editor panel

Phase 3: AT Protocol Firehose #

Goal: Show live AT Protocol activity happening on the Aesthetic Computer PDS.

The AC platform already has deep atproto integration:

• PDS at at.aesthetic.computer
• Lexicons: computer.aesthetic.tape, computer.aesthetic.mood, computer.aesthetic.painting, etc.
• Existing scripts in at/scripts/atproto/
• News posted to atproto via system/backend/news-atproto.mjs
• Tapes synced to atproto via system/backend/tape-atproto.mjs

What to show in the firehose: #

• New tapes — when users record/publish tapes (video content)
• Moods — mood updates from users (computer.aesthetic.mood)
• Paintings — shared paintings (computer.aesthetic.painting)
• News posts — new news articles published
• Handle registrations/updates — new users or handle changes
• Standard site updates — page edits, new pages

Implementation options: #

• Option A: WebSocket relay — Add a firehose WebSocket endpoint to the session server or a new lightweight service that subscribes to the PDS com.atproto.sync.subscribeRepos firehose and relays events to the extension.
• Option B: Polling — Periodically query com.atproto.repo.listRecords for each collection on the PDS. Simpler but less real-time.
• Option C: Direct firehose — Connect the extension directly to wss://at.aesthetic.computer/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.subscribeRepos and decode the CBOR/CAR stream in the extension itself. Most direct but complex.

Recommended: Option A (WebSocket relay) #

The extension already has a WebSocket connection to the session server (extension.ts:2132). We can add a firehose:event message type that the session server relays from the PDS subscription. This keeps the extension lightweight and reuses existing infrastructure.

Event display format: #

Each event in the feed should show:

• Timestamp
• Event type icon/badge (tape, mood, painting, news, etc.)
• Actor handle (clickable — opens their AC profile)
• Brief content preview (tape thumbnail, mood text, painting preview, etc.)
• Link to view the full content on aesthetic.computer

Phase 4: Tangled Knot Activity #

Goal: Show activity from the Tangled knot (AT Protocol-native git hosting).

The AC repo is mirrored on Tangled at tangled.org/aesthetic.computer/core. The knot server runs on the same PDS droplet (knot.aesthetic.computer).

What to show: #

• Commits — recent commits pushed to the Tangled knot
• Issues/PRs — if Tangled supports these (check API)
• Stars/forks — social activity on the repo
• Cross-reference with GitHub — show if a commit exists on both GitHub and Tangled

Implementation: #

• Research Tangled API (likely atproto-based — check tangled.org for API docs)
• The knot server is at knot.aesthetic.computer — check what XRPC endpoints it exposes
• Display as a feed of events similar to the AT firehose section
• Include both the main aesthetic-computer repo and any other knot-hosted repos

Phase 5: Polish & Interaction #

• Add filtering — filter firehose by event type, user, time range
• Add notification badges on the sidebar icon when new events arrive
• Keyboard shortcuts for navigating the dashboard
• Click-through actions: clicking a tape opens it, clicking a commit shows the diff, etc.
• Sound/visual ping option for specific event types (e.g., new user signups)
• Consider a compact "ticker" mode that shows a single scrolling line of recent events in the status bar

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Architecture Notes #

Data flow #

PDS (at.aesthetic.computer)
  └─ com.atproto.sync.subscribeRepos (firehose)
       └─ Session Server (relay)
            └─ WebSocket → VSCode Extension
                 └─ Dashboard Webview

Knot Server (knot.aesthetic.computer)
  └─ XRPC / atproto API
       └─ Session Server or direct polling
            └─ WebSocket → VSCode Extension
                 └─ Dashboard Webview

Local Git Repos
  └─ git status --porcelain (child_process)
       └─ Extension host
            └─ postMessage → Dashboard Webview

Key files to modify #

• vscode-extension/extension.ts — welcome panel HTML + git status logic
• session-server/session.mjs — add firehose relay endpoint
• vscode-extension/embedded.js — may need message bridging updates
• vscode-extension/package.json — new commands, settings

Dependencies to consider #

• @atproto/api — already in system/package.json
• CBOR decoding for firehose (if doing direct connection)
• The extension currently bundles with esbuild — any new deps need to be bundleable