The Visual Studio Code Extension Manager

• Node.js at least 14.x.x

Or simply Docker.

In order to save credentials safely, this project uses keytar which uses libsecret, which you may need to install before publishing extensions. Setting the VSCE_STORE=file environment variable will revert back to the file credential store. Using the VSCE_PAT environment variable will also avoid using keytar.

Depending on your distribution, you will need to run the following command:

• Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install libsecret-1-dev
• Alpine: apk add libsecret
• Red Hat-based: sudo yum install libsecret-devel
• Arch Linux: sudo pacman -S libsecret

Install vsce globally:

npm install --global @vscode/vsce

Verify the installation:

vsce --version

vsce is meant to be mainly used as a command line tool. It can also be used a library since it exposes a small API. When using vsce as a library be sure to sanitize any user input used in API calls, as a security measurement.

You can also build a container for running vsce:

$ DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build --tag vsce "https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-vsce.git#main"

Validate the container:

docker run --rm -it vsce --version

Publish your local extension:

docker run --rm -it -v "$(pwd)":/workspace vsce publish

You can configure the behavior of vsce by using CLI flags (run vsce --help to list them all). Example:

vsce publish --baseImagesUrl https://my.custom/base/images/url

Or you can also set them in the package.json, so that you avoid having to retype the common options again. Example:

// package.json
{
  "vsce": {
    "baseImagesUrl": "https://my.custom/base/images/url"
    "dependencies": true,
    "yarn": false
  }
}

First clone this repository, then:

$ npm install

$ npm run watch:build # or `watch:test` to also build tests

Once the watcher is up and running, you can run out of sources with:

node vsce

This tool assists in packaging and publishing Visual Studio Code extensions.

Read the Documentation on the VS Code website.