February 22, 2026
Dev toy or security time bomb?
Fresh File Explorer – VS Code extension for navigating recent work
New VS Code file tool thrills devs… then sparks a security panic
TLDR: A flashy new VS Code add-on helps programmers quickly find and color‑code their recent work, and many say it looks genuinely useful and innovative. But the top reactions are split between excitement and fear, as developers worry that installing yet another unsandboxed extension could be a serious security risk.
A new Visual Studio Code add-on called “Fresh File Explorer” just dropped, promising to show programmers their most recently edited files in a colorful, easy-to-browse panel. Think: a heatmap of what you actually touched today, deleted files you can magically “resurrect,” and a handy “pinned” zone for all the stuff you swear you’ll get back to. Some developers are loving it: one gushes about the color heatmap making it “very easy” to see what’s active, another cheers it as the kind of “innovation” they wish their coding tools did more often. It’s like productivity crack for people who live inside their code editor.
But the lovefest hits a wall fast: the top comments turn into a full-on security anxiety support group. Multiple users say they’re scared to install yet another extension because the editor still doesn’t properly “sandbox” them—meaning every cute new feature could, in theory, rummage through your entire computer. One commenter basically shrugs and says, if the industry is happy to let AI bots roam free with just a pinky promise to behave, why would the company fix this? Others try to stay positive, offering feature requests while quietly admitting they’re uneasy trusting an extension that isn’t backed by a big-name company. So the vibe is: “This rules… and I’m terrified to use it.”
Key Points
- •Fresh File Explorer is a VS Code extension that surfaces files based on pending (uncommitted) changes and configurable time windows derived from Git history.
- •The Smart File Tree groups files by directory with counts and auto-expansion, and explicitly supports deleted files with options to open them in read-only form (Exhume) or restore them (Resurrect).
- •Heatmap Coloring visually encodes how recently files were edited and can be applied both in the Fresh Files view and the standard VS Code File Explorer.
- •The extension provides a pinned section for frequently accessed items, per-workspace pin storage, sync status notifications for remote and base branches, and filtering by author or commit based on the most recent commit per file.
- •Additional tools include grouping by file structure, author, or commit hash, playful blame-based grouping modes, and a “Fresh Files: Quick Open” command that offers quick navigation within the current fresh file set with specialized filtering and search options.