aws / aws/aws-toolkit-vscode

Show session expiry warning notification before IAM Identity Center session times out

Open
#8,690 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
feature-request
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
2k
Forks
807
Avg merge
10h 12m
Merged PRs (30d)
7

Description

When using Amazon Q Developer with IAM Identity Center (SSO) authentication, the session expires silently (typically after 8 hours). There's no indication that the session is about to end — the plugin simply stops working and requires re-authentication.

Now that the chat history has been fixed (so I can now reopen it from where I left off before auth disconnect) this is less problematic, but it would just be good to know before I start some work that I won't get disconnected part way through.

Feature Request:

Display a notification in the IDE (e.g. 5-10 minutes before expiry) warning that the session is about to expire. Something like:

"Your Amazon Q session will expire in 5 minutes. Re-authenticate now to avoid interruption."

Ideally with a button to re-authenticate directly from the notification.

Why this would be useful:

During long coding sessions with Amazon Q chat, an unexpected session timeout can interrupt workflow mid-conversation

A warning would give users time to wrap up their current task, save any important context, or re-authenticate proactively

This is especially impactful for users on the default 8-hour session duration who may not be tracking the time

Current workaround:

Manually tracking when you last authenticated, not always accurate.

Environment:

IDE: VS Code (also applicable to JetBrains)

Auth: IAM Identity Center / AWS Builder ID

OS: macOS (but applies to all platforms)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No repository files or tests are named. Start by tracing IAM Identity Center/AWS Builder ID authentication and session-expiry handling in the VS Code extension, then identify the re-authentication entry point and notification mechanism. Done means a warning appears before expiry and offers re-authentication without interrupting the session.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
aws, typescript, vscode
Domain
authentication
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
52/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.