Visual Studio Code Extension Creator

Create and package your own Visual Studio Code extensions that can be published to the Visual Studio Marketplace for others to install and use

📦 Requirements

• Visual Studio Marketplace account: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/manage
• Visual Studio Code: https://code.visualstudio.com/download
• Node.js: https://nodejs.org/en/download/
• Visual Studio Code Extensions (vsce) command-line tool: Run npm install -g @vscode/vsce

🎬 Getting Started

Install this extension: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=spencerjames.extension-creator

Create Extension Project

1. Use the Create Visual Studio Code Extension... command or [Create VS Code Extension] button on Explorer Side Bar (visible when no folder is open).
2. Complete the form and click [Create Project].
3. Open new extension directory in Visual Studio Code.
4. Modify the ./package.json file with appropriate values.
   • See https://code.visualstudio.com/api/references/extension-manifest and https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v11/configuring-npm/package-json for more information.
5. Address all TODOs in source files (Find in Files: TODO) as appropriate.

Package Extension

1. Use the Package Visual Studio Code Extension... command.
2. Complete the form and click [Package Extension].
3. The .vsix file will be created in the ./releases/ directory (by default).
4. Upload the .vsix file to the Visual Studio Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/manage

See more information about publishing below.

📂 Project Structure

Dir/File	Description
.vscode/	VS Code settings and configurations
dist/	Compiled TypeScript files
node_modules/	NPM package dependencies
releases/	.vsix files for release
src/	Source files
src/test/	Test files
.vscode-test.mjs	Configuration for vscode-test
.vscodeignore	Files/directories to ignore when creating .vsix files
CHANGELOG.md	Changelog for the extension
eslint.config.mjs	ESLint configuration
LICENSE.md	License file
npmx.sh	Command-line tool for NPM tasks
package.json	Extension manifest and NPM package dependencies
README.md	Extension page on the Visual Studio Marketplace
SUPPORT.md	Extension support file
tsconfig.json	TypeScript configuration
tsconfig.publish.json	TypeScript configuration used for publishing
vscx.sh	Command-line tool for creating .vsix files

🧑🏼‍💻 Debugging, Testing and Watching

🐛 Debugging

There is a Debug Extension launch configuration in the ./.vscode/launch.json file. This configuration will launch a new instance of Visual Studio Code with the extension loaded.

🧪 Testing

There is a sample ./src/test/extension.test.ts file that contains a simple test. You can add tests to this file or create new test files in the ./src/test/ directory with a .test.ts extension. You can include addition test file naming conventions by modifying the files property in the ./vscode-test.mjs file.

There is three ways to run the tests:

1. The Testing Side Bar. *
2. Use the Run All Tests command in the Command Palette. *
3. The Run Tests launch configuration in the ./.vscode/launch.json file.

*: The first two ways to run tests will download a copy of Visual Studio Code (saved to ./.vscode-test/ directory) and runs the tests in that instance.

This uses vscode-test and test-cli. See https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-test, https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-test-cli and https://code.visualstudio.com/api/working-with-extensions/testing-extension for more information.

👀 Watching

There is a task in the ./.vscode/tasks.json file that will run automatically when the project is opened. This runs the package's watch script which runs tsc -watch. Its output is viewable in the Terminal panel.

🛠️ Included Command-Line Tools

A couple of tools are included in this repository to help with development, testing and publishing.

Tool	Description
./npmx.sh	Helper for NPM tasks
./vscx.sh	Helper for creating, testing and releasing .vsix files

Use the -h switch to view help information for each tool.

npmx.sh

• Cleans, installs and updates dependencies.
• Compiles package for publishing — omits dev dependencies; uses publish TypeScript configuration.
• Used by ./package.json scripts.

vscx.sh

• Creates .vsix files for local testing and release.
• Versions .vsix files using the ./package.json version.
• Installs and uninstalls .vsix files for local testing.
• Uses global vsce NPM tool to create .vsix files.
• Note: vsce calls ./package.json vscode:prepublish script during its process which in turn calls ./npmx.sh.

📝 Before Publishing

Brand your extension.

1. Add an icon in ./icon/ directory and modify the ./package.json file to match the icon's path. An icon size of 512x512 seems to render well.
2. Modify this ./README.md file to match your extension. This is what is displayed on the extension's Visual Studio Marketplace page.
3. Modify the ./CHANGELOG.md file to match your extension. This is what is displayed on the extension's Visual Studio Marketplace page.
4. Install the extension locally and try to break it. See below ./vscx.sh pub-install command for more information.

🚀 Publishing

There are two ways to package your extension for the Visual Studio Marketplace.

Using VS Code Command

Use the Package Visual Studio Code Extension... command to create a .vsix file for distribution. This will create a .vsix file in the ./releases/ directory (by default) that can be uploaded to the Visual Studio Marketplace.

Using Command-Line Tool

You can use ./vscx.sh (included in this repository; not to be confused with vsce) to create a .vsix file for distribution. Unless the -d: option is used, it will output a .vsix file in a ./releases/ directory that can be uploaded to the Visual Studio Marketplace.

./vscx.sh uses ./npmx.sh to install dependencies and compile the extension for release. ./npmx.sh will omit dev dependencies and use a publish TypeScript configuration to compile the extension.

Example commands

Command	Description
./vscx.sh publish	Create .vsix file for release.
./vscx.sh pub-install	Create .vsix file for release and install it. Use this to test your extension locally installed.
./vscx.sh -h	View help information.

A command you'll probably end up using a lot is ./vscx.sh -oxy pi which will:

1. Confirm yes to run.
2. Create a .vsix file for release, overwriting existing .vsix file of the same version (if exists).
3. Uninstalling extension (if installed).
4. Install the extension using the new .vsix file.

Note: If you install a .vsix file locally for testing, you'll want to uninstall it after to later install the new version from the Visual Studio Code Extensions Side Bar once published to the Visual Studio Marketplace.

Publishing .vsix file to the Visual Studio Marketplace

Log into to the Visual Studio Marketplace and go to https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/manage to upload the .vsix file.

See https://code.visualstudio.com/api/working-with-extensions/publishing-extension#publishing-extensions and https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/extension-marketplace for more information.