6. A status bar item

The status bar is the strip at the bottom of VS Code. A status bar item is a tiny button there — it has no UI of its own; it binds to a command, a panel, or a popup menu, reusing the same id-reference model from the previous step.

Add it

We’ll add a Todos button that opens the list panel:

vsceasy statusBar add --name todoCount \
  --text '$(checklist) Todos' \
  --bindTo panel --panel todosList \
  --alignment left --priority 100 \
  --tooltip "Open the todo list"

✓ Status bar "todoCount" added.

  Created:
    + src/statusBars/todoCount.ts

The $(checklist) in --text is a codicon — status bar text supports inline $(icon) syntax.

What got generated

src/statusBars/todoCount.ts

import { defineStatusBar } from '../shared/vsceasy';

export default defineStatusBar({
  text: '$(checklist) Todos',
  tooltip: 'Open the todo list',
  alignment: 'left',
  priority: 100,
  panel: 'todosList',
});

The binding model

A status bar item picks one click target. When more than one is set, this is the precedence:

Field	Click behavior	Precedence
menu: [ … ]	Opens a QuickPick popup of items	highest
panel: 'id'	Opens that panel	middle
command: 'id'	Runs that command	lowest

--bindTo chooses which one the CLI writes:

# run a command
vsceasy statusBar add --name sync --text '$(sync) Sync' \
  --bindTo command --command doSync

# open a popup menu of choices
vsceasy statusBar add --name todoMenu --text '$(list-unordered) Todo' \
  --bindTo menu
# (then it prompts for the menu items: label + kind + target)

# create a brand-new command and bind to it in one shot
vsceasy statusBar add --name refresh --text '$(refresh)' \
  --bindTo "create new command" --newCommandTitle "Refresh Todos"

alignment (left/right) and priority (higher = further toward the center) position it. No package.json contribution is needed — status bar items are pure runtime, registered by bootstrap from the registry.

See it run

After a reload the item sits at the bottom-left. Clicking it opens the Todos list — the same todosList panel the menu links to:

Next: add sidebar views — a subpanel and a tree view →