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Workshop: Build your First VS Code Extension

☕ 1 min read

This is a workshop / live-coding talk I gave at Node+JS Interactive 2019 with my friend Florent Vilmart.

Visual Studio Code is a text editor that has become very popular. A reason for such fame is Extensions. You can pick and install just the ones that fit your needs. You can customize VS Code to be super-productive. That’s cool.

But have you ever considered going further, and build your own VS Code Extension?

In this hands-on, we show you how to create, configure, package and publish a VS Code Extension. You will understand how you can manipulate the structure of your code, using the Abstract Syntax Tree (AST). With this, you’ll build your first VS Code Extension that will perform your own, custom, automated refactorings.

You can follow the workshop using this repository: nicoespeon/talk-build-your-first-vscode-extension.

Following up this workshop, I’d advise you to try Abracadabra. It’s an open-source VS Code extension I’m building to perform intuitive, automated refactorings for you, in JS and TS.

I recommend you to install it, use it and maybe help me by contributing 😉

Published 19 Dec 2019Discuss this article on Twitter

Did you know?

I’m the author of understandlegacycode.com and I’m building an interactive course to teach you to refactor any JavaScript application: refactoringjavascript.dev.

Every week, I share practical tips to help people work with Legacy Code.


I write about VS Code, web development and life in general.