A working-memory tree for in-flight work — your second brain for the stuff you can't fit in your head.
Push when you side-quest. Add when you want to remember something without diving in. Pop when you're done. The active spine is always in front of you.
See it in action: live CLI demo — every verb side-by-side, human vs JSON output.
[1📍] ship v1 of noggin
[1✅] build a demo script
[2✅] create a documentation file
[3] perform final testing
[4] create a PR
[5] complete the PR
What you get
- Sidebar tree — every item with its full dotted path
(e.g.
1.2.3.), the active item highlighted, a click-to-toggle done icon per row, and drag-and-drop reordering that supports dropping on a parent (becomes child) or between siblings (with a labeled insertion line so you can see exactly where the drop will land). - Details pane — focused item with state-toggle icon, full dotted path, inline-editable title, notes (Markdown-rendered) with a quick-add affordance, and view-title icons for Add Child / Move Up / Move Down / Delete.
- Status bar item — left side, showing the active item's title and the open file's friendly label. Hover for the full path. Click to reveal the active item in the tree.
- Commands — full set under
Noggin: …in the Command Palette (Push…,Add…,Show Active,Go To,Mark Done,Pop,Add Note…,Retitle…,Open YAML,Refresh, …). - Copilot Chat skill — loaded automatically. The agent knows
when to push / add / note / etc. without configuration. The agent
can drive noggin in-process via the
#nogginPush,#nogginAdd,#nogginShow… language model tools, so it never has to spawn a CLI.
Getting started
- Install the extension from the Marketplace.
- Open the Noggin activity-bar container in the sidebar.
- Run
Noggin: New…to create a noggin file, orNoggin: Open Workspace Nogginto use a.noggin.yamlat your workspace root. - Push an item: click
Push…in the tree's view-title, or run the command from the palette.
The noggin file is a small human-readable YAML file. Open it
anytime via Noggin: Open YAML to inspect or edit by hand.
Settings
| Setting | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
noggin.statusBar.enabled |
true |
Show the active item in the status bar. |
The noggin file path is tracked per-workspace (in workspace state),
set via Noggin: New…, Noggin: Open File…, or
Noggin: Open Workspace Noggin.
Learn more
- Full user reference — mental model, path syntax, command reference, file schema.
- What the agent sees — the skill behavioural protocol.
- Repo on GitHub — source, issues, contributions.
License
MIT.