Features

4 sound themes — Mechanical, Typewriter, Bubble, Soft
Per-event sounds — distinct sounds for typing, Enter, Backspace/Delete, Save (Ctrl+S), and Paste
Terminal sounds — plays a sound when you execute a command in the integrated terminal (shell integration)
Live equalizer — animated waveform reacts to every keystroke in real time
Session stats — tracks keys typed, lines added, deletes, and saves
Works everywhere in VS Code — code editors, rename inputs, search boxes, git commit messages

Getting Started

Install the extension from a .vsix file:
- Open the Extensions sidebar (Ctrl+Shift+X)
- Click ··· → Install from VSIX…
- Select key-sound-1.0.0.vsix
The Key Sound panel opens automatically in the Activity Bar on first launch.
Click "🎹 Key Sound" in the Activity Bar any time to open the settings panel.

Audio activation: On first open, the panel audio engine starts automatically. If you see the yellow "audio inactive" warning, click the pill once to activate.

Settings Panel

Click the 🎹 icon in the Activity Bar to access:

Control	Description
Status pill	Green = audio active, Yellow = click to activate
Sounds enabled toggle	Master on/off switch
Live Activity waveform	Animated equaliser showing real-time activity
Sound Theme cards	Mechanical / Typewriter / Bubble / Soft
Volume slider	0–100%
Save sound toggle	Chime on Ctrl+S
Paste sound toggle	Burst of clicks on paste / AI completion
Terminal sound toggle	Sound on command execution in the integrated terminal (requires shell integration)
Session Stats	Keys / Lines / Deletes / Saves counter

Commands

Open with Ctrl+Shift+P:

Command	Action
`Key Sound: Toggle On/Off`	Enable / disable all sounds
`Key Sound: Change Sound Theme`	Pick a theme via quick pick

The status bar item (🔊 Keys / 🔇 Keys) also toggles sounds on click.

Sound Themes

Theme	Icon	Feel
Mechanical	⌨️	Crisp, punchy clicks like a mechanical keyboard
Typewriter	📜	Classic clack-clack with carriage return swoosh
Bubble	🫧	Soft bubbly pops — easy on the ears
Soft	🌙	Barely-there gentle taps for quiet environments

Settings (`settings.json`)

{
  "keySound.enabled": true,
  "keySound.theme": "mechanical",
  "keySound.volume": 0.5,
  "keySound.playSaveSound": true,
  "keySound.playPasteSound": true,
  "keySound.playTerminalSound": true
}

How It Works

All audio synthesis happens inside a VS Code Webview using the built-in Web Audio API — no sound files, no native binaries. This means it works seamlessly across:

WSL / Remote SSH / Dev Containers
Windows, Linux, and macOS

The extension hooks into:

The VS Code type command (one event per keystroke in editors)
onDidChangeTextDocument (deletions, pastes, AI completions)
onDidSaveTextDocument (save chime)
window.onDidStartTerminalShellExecution (fires on Enter/command execution in the terminal)

Terminal note: VS Code's onDidWriteTerminalData is a permanently-proposed API and cannot be used by installed extensions. Terminal sounds therefore fire on command execution rather than per-keystroke. Shell integration must be active in the terminal (enabled by default for bash, zsh, fish, PowerShell).

General note: Copilot Chat and other webview panels (browser preview, etc.) are sandboxed by VS Code and cannot be intercepted by any extension.

Key Sound Pro