Visual Studio Code Extensions

Last updated March 27, 2019, 7:42 p.m. by Author

Tags: software productivity programming python

As you might have already noticed, VSCode (in a form of a FLOSS VSCodium build) is my favourite IDE. Some may argue that it is not a real IDE, but merely an advanced text editor. But in my opinion, after installing a number of extensions, it becomes almost a full fledged IDE with a very rich functionality. Additionally, despite being an Electron based application, it is quite lightweight and responsive (in contrast to for example Atom, which is very slow and resource intensive).

Below you can find a extensive and regularly updated list of the recommended Visual Studio Code extensions. It is heavily skewed towards Python and web development, because I use it to code in Python, plus I have written this website using Django in my spare time.

As usual, if you have any suggestions or would like to let me know about an interesting extension that is not present here, or maybe some of the extensions listed below are deprecated because their functionality has been already implemented into VSCode, please let me know.

Because the list is periodically updated, if you want to stay up to date with the latest additions and deletions, you can use the Web Pages Scanner extension to be notified about any changes made here.

Python

A Visual Studio Code extension with rich support for the Python language (for all actively supported versions of the language: 2.7, >=3.4), including features such as linting, debugging, IntelliSense, code navigation, code formatting, refactoring, unit tests, snippets, and more!

An essential extension when coding in Python.

Python Extended

Python Extended is a vscode snippet that makes it easy to write codes in python by providing completion options along with all arguments.

autoDocstring

Visual Studio Code extension to quickly generate docstrings for python functions.

Importmagic

This Visual Studio Code extension allows to find unresolved symbols in your Python code and helps to import them.

Visual Studio IntelliCode

The Visual Studio IntelliCode extension provides AI-assisted productivity features for Python, TypeScript/JavaScript and Java developers in Visual Studio Code, with insights based on understanding your code context combined with machine learning.

Web Development

Django

Beautiful syntax and scoped snippets for perfectionists with deadlines.

Improved syntax:

Adds the filetype django-html
Adds the filetype django-txt for email templates.
Better syntax with more operators and default keywords:
- Known default tags and filters
- Known templatetags namespace from contrib in the {% load %} tag
- Known keywords in tags, like: as, asvar, with, trimmed…
Syntax highlighting everywhere in your HTML document:
- In the HTML tag itself"
- In the id, class or any attribute
- In inline CSS or Javascript code

Note that according to the reviews:

Breaks auto-indent, auto complete html tags, auto-closing html tags. All the nice things about this extension are greatly overshadowed by all the essential functionality that it breaks.

I really love the snippets provided for templates, it really makes easy to write Django-specific syntax; but the fact the HTML tags themselves are not recognized for auto-closing and auto-indent is a huge letdown, th productivity I gain from the django templates is basically nullified by having to open, write and close every HTML tag I need to use.

Djaneiro

A collection of snippets for django templates, models, views, fields & forms. Ported from Djaneiro for SublimeText.

HTML CSS Support

Missing CSS support for HTML documents.

Features:

Class attribute completion.
Id attribute completion.
Supports Zen Coding completion for class and id attributes.
Scans workspace folder for css and scss files.
Supports remote css files.
Uses vscode-css-languageservice.

Supported Languages:

html
laravel-blade
razor
vue
pug
jade
handlebars
php
twig
md
nunjucks
javascript
javascriptreact

Auto Rename Tag

Automatically rename paired HTML/XML tag, same as Visual Studio IDE does.

Auto Close Tag

Automatically add HTML/XML close tag, same as Visual Studio IDE or Sublime Text does.

Note:

From VS Code 1.16, it has built-in close tag support for HTML, Handlebars and Razor files. This extension is enabled for other languages like XML, PHP, Vue, JavaScript, TypeScript, JSX, TSX and so on. It is configurable.

Features:

Automatically add closing tag when you type in the closing bracket of the opening tag
After closing tag is inserted, the cursor is between the opening and closing tag
Set the tag list that would not be auto closed
Automatically close self-closing tag
Support auto close tag as Sublime Text 3
Use Keyboard Shortcut or Command Palette to add close tag manually

Live HTML Previewer

This extension allows you to preview your html files in VS Code itself. Use it to quickly set the html and css right for your webpages.

Note: Javascript is not supported in preview.

IntelliSense for CSS class names in HTML

A Visual Studio Code extension that provides CSS class name completion for the HTML class attribute based on the definitions found in your workspace or external files referenced through the link element.

Features:

Gives you autocompletion for CSS class definitions that can be found in your workspace (defined in CSS files or the in the file types listed in the Supported Language Modes section)
Supports external stylesheets referenced through link elements in HTML files
Command to manually re-cache the class definitions used in the autocompletion
User Settings to override which folders and files should be considered or excluded from the caching process

Supported Language Modes:

HTML
Razor
PHP
Laravel (Blade)
JavaScript
JavaScript React (.jsx)
TypeScript React (.tsx)
Vue (.vue) [requires octref.vetur]
Twig
Markdown (.md)
Embedded Ruby (.html.erb) [requires rebornix.Ruby]
Handlebars
EJS (.ejs)
Django template (django-html)

CSS Peak

This extension extends HTML and ejs code editing with Go To Definition and Go To Symbol in Workspace support for css/scss/less (classes and IDs) found in strings within the source code.

This was heavily inspired by a similar feature in Brackets called CSS Inline Editors.

Productivity

Code Runner

Run code snippet or code file for multiple languages: C, C++, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Perl, Perl 6, Ruby, Go, Lua, Groovy, PowerShell, BAT/CMD, BASH/SH, F# Script, F# (.NET Core), C# Script, C# (.NET Core), VBScript, TypeScript, CoffeeScript, Scala, Swift, Julia, Crystal, OCaml Script, R, AppleScript, Elixir, Visual Basic .NET, Clojure, Haxe, Objective-C, Rust, Racket, AutoHotkey, AutoIt, Kotlin, Dart, Free Pascal, Haskell, Nim, D, Lisp, and custom command.

Features:

Run code file of current active Text Editor
Run code file through context menu of file explorer
Run selected code snippet in Text Editor
Run code per Shebang
Run code per filename glob
Run custom command
Stop code running
View output in Output Window
Set default language to run
Select language to run
Support REPL by running code in Integrated Terminal

Rewrap

Reformats code comments and other text to a given line length.

Features:

Re-wrap single & multiline comment blocks in many languages. Also configure settings per language.
Smart handling of contents, including java/js/xmldoc tags and code examples.
Can select lines to wrap or multiple comments/paragraphs at once (even the whole document).
Also works with Markdown documents, LaTeX or any kind of plain text file.

Bookmarks

It helps you to navigate in your code, moving between important positions easily and quickly. No more need to search for code. It also supports a set of selection commands, which allows you to select bookmarked lines and regions between bookmarked lines. It's really useful for log file analysis.

Since version 9 you can also define Labels for you bookmarks!

Here are some of the features that Bookmarks provides:

Mark/unmark positions in your code
Mark positions in your code and give it name
Jump forward and backward between bookmarks
Icons in gutter and overview ruler
See a list of all Bookmarks in one file
See a list of all Bookmarks in your project
A dedicated Activity Bar
Select lines with bookmarks
Select regions between bookmarks

Settings Sync

Synchronize Settings, Snippets, Themes, File Icons, Launch, Keybindings, Workspaces and Extensions Across Multiple Machines Using GitHub Gist.

Key Features

Use your GitHub account token and Gist.
Easy to Upload and Download on one click.
Show a summary page at the end with details about config and extensions effected.
Auto download Latest Settings on Startup.
Auto upload Settings on file change.
Share the Gist with other users and let them download your settings.
Supports GitHub Enterprise
Support pragmas with @sync keywords: host, os and env are supported.

It Syncs

All extensions and complete User Folder that Contains:
- Settings File
- Keybinding File
- Launch File
- Snippets Folder
- VSCode Extensions & Extensions Configurations
- Workspaces Folder

Bracket Pair Colorizer

This extension allows matching brackets to be identified with colours. The user can define which characters to match, and which colours to use.

Guides

Guides is simply an extension that add various indentation guide lines

How Guides different from built-in indentation guides?

Stack and Active indentation guides
Indentation backgrounds
Color and style customizations
Hide on selection

If you just want simple indentation guides, Guides kindly recommended that you use built-in indentation guides instead.

Output Colorizer

Language extension for VSCode/Bluemix Code that adds syntax colorization for both the output/debug/extensions panel and *.log files.

Note: If you are using other extensions that colorize the output panel, it could override and disable this extension.

Colorization should work with most themes because it uses common theme token style names. It also works with most instances of the output panel. Initially attempts to match common literals (strings, dates, numbers, guids) and warning|info|error|server|local messages.

Path Intellisense

Visual Studio Code plugin that autocompletes filenames.

Path Autocomplete

Provides path completion for visual studio code.

Features:

it supports relative paths (starting with ./)
it supports absolute path to the workspace (starting with /)
it supports absolute path to the file system (starts with: C:)
it supports paths relative to the user folder (starts with ~)
it supports items exclusions via the path-autocomplete.excludedItems option
it supports npm packages (starting with a-z and not relative to disk)
it supports automatic suggestion after selecting a folder
it supports custom mappings via the path-autocomplete.pathMappings option
it supports custom transformations to the inserted text via the path-autocomplete.transformations
it supports windows paths with the path-autocomplete.useBackslash

Spell Right

Features:

Spells plain text/markdown/LaTeX documents, comments/strings parts of most source code (C++, C, Python, JavaScript, Batch, ..., D, Julia etc.) documents and text/comment nodes on XML/HTML class documents.
Supports every language that can be used with either of the below mentioned native spelling engines (e.g. all languages that are available in Microsoft Office, see here, multiple languages in Windows Single Language editions, like here etc.)
Supports use of multiple workspace plaintext file dictionaries which may be used for specialized vocabularies like medical terms, trademark names etc.
Spelling documents' syntactic elements e.g. comments/strings in different languages (e.g. strings spelled in English and comments spelled in French).
Spelling of multiple languages in one document either by selecting more than one language for spelling or using In-Document commands to switch between languages.
Case sensitive which means that it will distinguish between english and English, french and French and which is critical in some western languages like e.g. German.
Spells, among others, short words, abbreviations, contractions (I, I'm, I'll, i.e., doesn't, etc.) and parenthetical plurals (word(s), process(es), etc.)
Spells CamelCase, snake_case and digit2inside compound phrases respecting Unicode capital/small letters distinction (e.g.: SuperŚlimak is spelled as Super Ślimak) and capital letter adhesion (e.g.: HTMLTest is spelled as HTML Test).
Unobtrusive GUI/command interface for switching spelling dictionary (language) and turning spelling ON/OFF for particular document class.
In-Document commands allow to switch spelling ON or OFF despite global settings and change spelling language multiple times within the document.
Small memory & CPU usage footprint - uses offline, OS native spell checking backends: Windows Spell Checking API (windows 8/10), NSSpellChecker (macOS) and Hunspell (Linux, Windows 7).
Extension uses background processing (on idle) and differential edit notifications to minimize area spelled during editing only to lines touched by changes.

Better Comments

The Better Comments extension will help you create more human-friendly comments in your code.
With this extension, you will be able to categorise your annotations into:

Alerts
Queries
TODOs
Highlights
Commented out code can also be styled to make it clear the code shouldn't be there
Any other comment styles you'd like can be specified in the settings

Trailing Spaces

An extension that allows you to highlight trailing spaces and delete them in a flash.

This extension is a port of the popular Sublime Text plugin Trailing Spaces.

VS Live Share

Real-time collaborative development from the comfort of your favorite tools.

Visual Studio Live Share enables you to collaboratively edit and debug with others in real time, regardless what programming languages you're using or app types you're building. It allows you to instantly (and securely) share your current project, and then as needed, share debugging sessions, terminal instances, localhost web apps, voice calls, and more! Developers that join your sessions recieve all of their editor context from your environment (e.g. language services, debugging), which ensures they can start productively collaborating immediately, without needing to clone any repos or install any SDKs.

Additionally, unlike traditional pair programming, Visual Studio Live Share allows developers to work together, while retaining their personal editor preferences (e.g. theme, keybindings), as well as having their own cursor. This allows you to seamlessly transition between following one another, and being able to explore ideas/tasks on your own. In practice, this ability to work together and independently provides a collaboration experience that is potentiallty more natural for many common use cases.

VS Live Audio Share

Adds audio calling capabilities to Visual Studio Live Share.

Visual Studio Live Share Audio enhances the existing Visual Studio Live Share experience, by enabling you to quickly spin up an audio call directly from within Visual Studio Code, without needing to use a separate tool or service. Participants within a Live Share session can automatically join the call, and chat amongst each other, without needing to first coordinate which voice communication tool to use. For certain use cases (e.g. online training/mentoring, hack-a-thons), this can dramatically help reduce the barriers for collaboration.

VS Live Share Extension Pack

Collection of extensions that enable real-time collaborative development with VS Live Share.

This extension pack includes everything you need to start collaboratively editing and debugging in real time, including integrated audio and text chat. This provides you and your team/class with a one-click installation, in order to begin pair programming, performing remote code reviews, driving interactive lectures, and more, without needing to leave Visual Studio Code.

Data Analysis

neuron

An Interactive Programming Experience for Data Scientists

neuron is a robust application that seamlessly combines the power of Visual Studio Code with the interactivity of Jupyter Notebook.

Rainbow CSV

Main features:

Highlight columns in comma (.csv), tab (.tsv), semicolon and pipe - separated files in different colors.
Provide info about column on mouse hover.
Automatic consistency check for csv files (CSVLint).
Multi-cursor column edit
Run queries in SQL-like language
Lightweight and dependency-free

Excel Viewer

View Excel spreadsheets and CSV files within Visual Studio Code workspaces.

Powered by Wijmo, this extension provides read-only viewers for CSV files and Excel spreadsheets within the current Visual Studio Code workspace.

SQLite

VSCode extension to explore and query SQLite databases.

Features:

Query sqlite databases and view results in a table.
Export query results to json, csv and html.
Sidebar explorer: list databases, tables, views and columns.
Autocompletion for sqlite keywords, table and views names, column names (autocompletion is available for an sql document once its bound to a database, to bind an sql document to a database use the command SQLite: Use Database)
Grammar support for sqlite keywords. This is available for documents with language sqlite. You can mark a document as an sqlite document adding -- sqlite in the first line.

Markdown

Markdown All in One

All you need to write Markdown (keyboard shortcuts, table of contents, auto preview and more).

Markdown Preview Enhanced

Markdown Preview Enhanced is an extension that provides you with many useful functionalities such as automatic scroll sync, math typesetting, mermaid, PlantUML, pandoc, PDF export, code chunk, presentation writer, etc. A lot of its ideas are inspired by Markdown Preview Plus and RStudio Markdown.

Markdown PDF

This extension convert Markdown file to pdf, html, png or jpeg file.

markdownlint

Markdown linting and style checking for Visual Studio Code.

The Markdown markup language is designed to be easy to read, write, and understand. It succeeds - and its flexibility is both a benefit and a drawback. Many styles are possible, so formatting can be inconsistent. Some constructs don't work well in all parsers and should be avoided. For example, here are some common/troublesome Markdown constructs.

markdownlint is a Visual Studio Code extension that includes a library of rules to encourage standards and consistency for Markdown files. It is powered by markdownlint for Node.js which is based on markdownlint for Ruby.

Markdown Preview Github Styling

Changes VS Code's built-in markdown preview to match Github's styling.

Markdown Preview Mermaid Support

Adds Mermaid diagram and flowchart support to VS Code's builtin markdown preview.

Themes

One Dark Pro

Atom's iconic One Dark theme, and one of the most downloaded themes for VS Code.

I am a dark theme person and after checking out dozens of different themes, I have settled for this one. In my subjective opinion this is the best dark theme out there.

NotepadPlusPlus Remixed Theme

A light theme for people who are used to the default Notepad++ theme.

Material Icon Theme

The Material Icon Theme provides lots of icons based on Material Design for Visual Studio Code.

In my opinion, this is the nicest icon theme for VSCode.

Other

Power Mode

Your code is powerful, unleash it! The extension made popular by Code in the Dark has finally made its way to VS Code.

I love this one. Adds some visual candy when typing code in the editor.

PlantUML

Rich PlantUML support for Visual Studio Code.

Fonts

Hasklig

My favourite programming font that supports monospaced ligatures. Currently I use it exclusively when coding.

FiraCode

Monospaced font with programming ligatures.

Fira Code is an extension of the Fira Mono font containing a set of ligatures for common programming multi-character combinations. This is just a font rendering feature: underlying code remains ASCII-compatible. This helps to read and understand code faster. For some frequent sequences like .. or //, ligatures allow us to correct spacing.

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