Open recent file

Open recent file in Visual Studio Code — with the four heights of help laid out: do it now, make it easier for the next person to accept, work out the right move when you are stuck, and learn the pattern so it stops coming back.

4prompt heights
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The four heights

The same task, four distances: today's deadline, the next reviewer, the stuck moment, the pattern.

Execute — do the immediate task

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I need the file I was editing yesterday. Open the recent files list and open the most recently…
I need the file I was editing yesterday. Open the recent files list and open the most recently edited file named shoppingCart.test.js so I can resume working on the failing test.

Improve — make it easier to accept

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Before I hunt for a file, make recent files more useful: surface recently opened files sorted by…
Before I hunt for a file, make recent files more useful: surface recently opened files sorted by last edited time and show the containing path, and let me pin the test files I’m actively debugging so they stay at the top of recent files until I unpin them.

Decide — diagnose the stuck moment

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I had a test open yesterday that was failing, but recent files shows a long list and I can’t…

I can’t find the test I was fixing yesterday

I had a test open yesterday that was failing, but recent files shows a long list and I can’t quickly find shoppingCart.test.js. The QA lead expects a fix today and I’m losing time. I don’t know if the file was opened from another workspace or renamed. Tell me how to filter recent files by name or path and how to find the file if it was opened in another window.

Become — change the pattern

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Across projects I spend minutes reopening the same files because I rely on a short recent list that…

I keep losing track of where I last edited files

Across projects I spend minutes reopening the same files because I rely on a short recent list that gets crowded. I want a small change that saves that time—what habit or simple organizer can I adopt so the dozen files I’m actively working on are always one keystroke away?

Next to this one

Other code editor work people do in Visual Studio Code.

Every task here came from the work, not from a feature list — which is why the prompts name what you want done and never the button that does it. The tool changes; the work does not.
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The rest of the map

Same library, five ways in.