Getting started

Requirements

VS Code 1.134.0 or newer.
An open folder or workspace containing Markdown notes.

Deckard scans every *.md file in each workspace folder by default. Set a notes folder to restrict the index.

Install

Search for Deckard in the Extensions view and select Install, or install it from its Visual Studio Marketplace page. VS Code keeps it up to date from there.

Each GitHub release also carries the VSIX, for Extensions: Install from VSIX... where the Marketplace is out of reach.

Get started

Sample: Deckard: Create a Work Sample writes a week of a team lead’s notes: standups, two 1:1s, a project hub, a team, and two decision records, with Try it in its README. Its Types folder makes the people, the team, its areas, and the decisions types, so Find answers checkout lead. It opens in this window when no folder is open, and otherwise in a new window or this one, as you choose; its notes are dated from the day you make it, and running the command again offers a fresh copy.

Walkthrough: Deckard: Get Started, or Walkthrough in Home’s ⋯, opens six steps: write a note, tag it and mention a person, link two notes, find anything, add a task, and see the workspace. Each is checked off as you do it. It is the place to start: the work sample is offered from its first step.

In your own notes:

Open a folder or workspace in VS Code.
Open any Markdown note in the workspace, or restrict indexing to a folder.
Run Deckard: Open Home from the Command Palette.
Select the Deckard icon in the Activity Bar. The Context view shows Deckard’s pages as icons in its title bar; under them, it shows what links to the note you are editing and its related notes.

Finding your way

Every page Deckard opens is an icon in the title bar of the sidebar’s Context view: Home, the Task Board, the Calendar, today’s note, the Notes Graph, Find, Stats, and Help. Point at one for its name. Choose Pages… in the title bar’s ⋯ picks which pages Context keeps, and List Pages in Context draws them instead as labeled rows at the top of the view, each with a word on what is there now, such as 3 tasks due today beside Home; the page in front is shown pressed, and the rows are one Tab stop the arrow keys move along. The same list is Go to…: Deckard: Go to…, Cmd+Shift+Alt+P on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+P elsewhere, which also lists Open questions, the search for the questions no line answers yet. On any page, DECKARD ▾ at the top drops the other pages as a menu, with Go to… at its foot; arrows move through it and Escape closes it. Hover over any button, or Tab to it, to see what it does.

Deckard reads only saved files, so save a note to see it in the index; it refreshes when saved notes are added, edited, or deleted. The first time, it says what it found, such as Deckard read 412 notes: 1,204 open tasks (17 overdue) and 185 tags. A workspace of 3,000 notes or more is also told how the “Exclude” setting leaves folders out. Deckard says one such thing each time VS Code starts it: an offer about status tags comes first, then what it read, then tasks whose status it doesn’t know, so the rest wait for a later start.

In a code repository, Deckard’s editor features apply only to notes: a README outside deckard.notesFolder, or under node_modules, is left alone.

A code repository with no notes folder. With deckard.notesFolder empty, Deckard reads every Markdown file in the workspace and writes today’s note at its top level. When the folder looks like a code repository (it has .git, package.json, go.mod, or the like at its top):

The status bar says Deckard: whole workspace. Select it to choose a notes folder, leave folders out, pause Deckard here, or keep reading everything, which hides it.
Before the first note Deckard makes there, it asks once: Write Here, Choose a Folder…, which sets the notes folder, or Pause Deckard Here. Dismissing it writes nothing.
The first scan’s summary offers Not a Notes Workspace, which pauses Deckard.
Add Task says where it wrote, such as Added it to notes/2026-10-07.md in deckard-work.

Paused, Deckard reads and writes nothing in the workspace, and the status bar says Deckard paused; select it, or run Deckard: Resume in This Workspace, to start again. Deckard: Pause in This Workspace pauses any workspace. Both answers are kept in VS Code’s storage for the workspace, not in a file in the repository.

Deckard: Reindex Workspace reads and parses every note again. A rescan after a settings change rereads only the notes whose size or saved time changed.

Reading this guide

This guide is Deckard’s Help. Deckard: Open Help, Help at the top of the Context view, or Help on this page in any Deckard page’s ⋯ opens it inside VS Code, at the page about where you were. Its pages are down the side, in the order the contents give them, with the page you are reading marked, and Changelog at the end lists what is new in recent releases. Read inside VS Code, a command the guide names, such as Deckard: Find in Notes, is a button that runs it; one that acts on a note, such as Deckard: Edit Task, is run from that note. VS Code’s find (Cmd+F on macOS, Ctrl+F elsewhere) searches the page shown.

All topics · Writing notes: tags, people, and links →