pioarduino a community fork of PlatformIO IDE for VSCode

Platforms: Espressif 32, Espressif 8266

Frameworks: Arduino, ESP-IDF

Why use this fork?

Wondering how this differs from the official PlatformIO IDE and why you might want to switch? Read the full breakdown: pioarduino-vscode-ide vs. PlatformIO IDE: Understanding the Added Value.

How it works

The installation of pioarduino is like PlatformIO IDE for VSCode. Search for pioarduino on the Visual Studio Code Marketplace and follow the documentation PlatformIO IDE for VSCode how to install.

⚠️ Breaking Change

pioarduino no longer installs a C/C++ IntelliSense extension automatically. You must install your preferred IntelliSense backend manually:

• Microsoft C/C++ (cpptools)
• clangd

IntelliSense

pioarduino supports two C/C++ IntelliSense backends:

• Microsoft C/C++ (cpptools) — the default, uses c_cpp_properties.json
• clangd — uses compile_commands.json with automatic post-processing for embedded toolchains

Switch between them in your settings:

{
  "platformio-ide.intelliSenseEngine": "cpptools"  // or "clangd"
}

For details on how each backend works, platform-specific behaviour, and troubleshooting, see the IntelliSense documentation. For the full end-to-end data flow — from project activation through PlatformIO CLI to language server — see the IntelliSense Pipeline.

License

Copyright (C) 2017-present PlatformIO contact@platformio.org and pioarduino https://github.com/pioarduino

The PlatformIO IDE for VSCode is licensed under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, so you can use it in both commercial and personal projects with confidence.