[ENHANCEMENT] Add "Agent is working" indicator to the RooCode icon in the sidebar

[mdziekon]

Problem (one or two sentences)

When actively navigating in VSCode, switching away from RooCode to eg. Explorer or Source control sidebar sections, it would be nice to know when Roo is still working on the task. This is even more important when using "Background files editing", where there's no editor tabs being opened and visibly modified.

Context (who is affected and when)

Happens when navigating away from RooCode's section to any other section, and RooCode has not been moved to a separate, sticky panel.

Desired behavior (conceptual, not technical)

Looking at other sections in the sidebar, Source control has a counter icon showing how many files have been modified. In addition to that, when Source Control performs a sync, that counter icon is changes into a "syncing" icon indicator. A simple icon similar to this ("syncing" or "busy" icon, if exists) being presented when RooCode "does something" would be good enough.

Example of the Source Control icon (files count indicator, but shows the general idea to use that kind of decorating icon):

Constraints / preferences (optional)

No response

Request checklist

• I've searched existing Issues and Discussions for duplicates
• This describes a specific problem with clear context and impact

Roo Code Task Links (optional)

No response

Acceptance criteria (optional)

No response

Proposed approach (optional)

No response

Trade-offs / risks (optional)

No response

[roomote]

I've analyzed this issue and here's my proposed implementation plan:

Background

VSCode's WebviewView API provides a badge property that can display a numeric indicator on the activity bar icon. While this is primarily designed for counts (like unread notifications), we can use it to indicate that Roo is actively working.

Proposed Approach

1. Add view badge management to ClineProvider - Create a method updateActivityBadge(isWorking: boolean) that sets the view badge when Roo is working and clears it when idle.

2. Hook into task state changes - Update the badge when:

   • A task starts streaming (isStreaming = true)
   • A task stops streaming (isStreaming = false)
   • A task is created/resumed
   • A task completes/aborts

3. Implementation details:

   • When working: Set view.badge = { value: 1, tooltip: "Roo is working..." }
   • When idle: Set view.badge = undefined
   • The badge will appear as a small "1" indicator on the Roo Code icon in the activity bar

4. Files to modify:

   • src/core/webview/ClineProvider.ts - Add badge management logic
   • src/core/task/Task.ts - Emit events when streaming state changes

Trade-offs

• Limitation: VSCode's badge API only supports numeric values, not custom icons like Source Control's spinning sync icon. A "1" badge is the closest we can achieve with the current VSCode API.
• Alternative considered: A status bar item could provide a more visible indicator, but the user specifically requested an indicator on the sidebar icon.

This approach will provide immediate visual feedback when Roo is working, even when the sidebar is not visible or when using Background Files Editing mode.

Please mention @roomote in a comment saying that you approve this plan, and I'll proceed with the implementation.

[mdziekon]

@roomote

Are you sure providing number is the only option? Looking at VSCode's activity code (https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/main/src/vs/workbench/services/activity/common/activity.ts), I see it has a generic BaseBadge interface, which is used by things like IconBadge and ProgressBadge. While I'm not 100% sure this is the correct interface, it might be worth further investigation?

[roomote]

Great catch! You're right to question this. I investigated further and found that while the internal IconBadge and ProgressBadge interfaces you mentioned are not directly exposed to extensions, VSCode's extension API does provide a way to show a progress indicator on a view through vscode.window.withProgress:

vscode.window.withProgress(
  { location: { viewId: "roo-cline.SidebarProvider" } },
  async () => { /* task execution */ }
)

This should show a spinning progress indicator on the Roo Code activity bar icon while work is in progress - much better than a numeric badge!

I'll implement this approach and open a PR to share progress. Thanks for pointing this out!

[roomote]

Thanks for the suggestion, @mdziekon! You were right - there's a better approach than numeric badges.

I investigated VSCode's internal activity interfaces and discovered that while BaseBadge, IconBadge, and ProgressBadge aren't directly exposed to extensions, VSCode's vscode.window.withProgress API with a view-specific location ({ viewId: "..." }) CAN show a spinning progress indicator on the activity bar icon.

Opened a PR with my attempt at addressing this: #10627

The implementation uses withProgress to show a native VSCode spinning indicator when the agent is actively working. Feedback welcome!

[roomote]

Thanks for testing and reporting this, @mdziekon! I can reproduce the issue and have identified the root cause.

The activity indicator is currently hooked into the TaskActive event, but that event is only emitted when:

1. Transitioning FROM an idle/resumable/interactive state back to active (after user responds to an ask)
2. Resuming after delegation

When a NEW task starts, only TaskStarted is emitted - not TaskActive. This explains why:

• Starting a task: indicator does not show (TaskStarted is emitted, not TaskActive)
• Cancelling and sending a message: indicator shows (responding to an ask emits TaskActive)

The fix is to also hook the activity indicator into the TaskStarted event. I will push a fix to PR #10627 shortly.

[roomote]

Pushed a fix to PR #10627. The activity indicator now shows when a task starts (not just when resuming from an idle state).

The fix: Added activityIndicator.show() to the onTaskStarted event handler, matching the pattern already used in onTaskActive.

Root cause: The indicator was only hooked to TaskActive events, which are emitted when transitioning back to active from idle/interactive states (e.g., after responding to an ask). New tasks emit TaskStarted instead, so the indicator never appeared at task start.

@mdziekon - if you get a chance, please test again with the updated branch. The spinning progress indicator should now appear immediately when you start a new task in any mode.