Explorer Sidekick

Adds a secondary explorer view to manage files and folders, create, view, rename, delete, cut, copy, paste, and more—outside the default workspace explorer.

Preview

Features

📁 Explorer Sidekick View: Manage files and folders in a dedicated sidebar.
🗂️ Multi-Folder Support: Display and organize multiple local folders.
🏷️ Workspace-Aware Grouping: Keep multi-project workspaces tidy by nesting duplicate entries under their project root, even when viewing as a list.
🔀 Tree/List Toggle: Switch between hierarchical tree and flat list views.
File & Folder Operations: Create, view, rename, delete files/folders.
🔎 Pattern Filtering: Filter files/folders per root using include/exclude glob patterns (e.g., show only Markdown files: *.md).
✂️ Cut, Copy, Paste: Move or duplicate files/folders.
🗂️ Multi-Selection Support: Supports Multi file or folder selection for Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete operations.
🗂️ Reveal & Copy Path: Reveal in File Explorer, copy absolute/relative paths.
🪟 Open Folder in New Window: Open any folder in a new VS Code window.
🖉 Improved Rename: Renaming a folder updates open editors.
🔄 Quick Actions: Refresh, open settings, and perform file operations.
🗑️ Remove Folder: Remove a configured root folder (does not delete from disk).
🧭 Quick Add: Add selection to Explorer Sidekick from the default explorer/editor context menu.

Getting Started

Installation

Open the Extensions view in VS Code (Ctrl+Shift+X).
Search for Explorer Sidekick.
Click Install.

Activation

The extension activates automatically on startup and adds a new "Explorer Sidekick" view to the sidebar.

Usage

Adding Folders

Click the Explorer Sidekick icon in the sidebar.
If no folders are configured, click Add Folder to Explorer or use the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and run Explorer Sidekick: Settings.
Add local folder paths to display in the secondary explorer.

File & Folder Operations

New File/Folder: Use the toolbar or context menu to create file or folders.
Rename/Delete: Right-click to renaming a file or folder.
Cut/Copy/Paste: Use context menu or keyboard shortcuts to move or duplicate files/folders.
Reveal in File Explorer: Right-click to reveal any file/folder in your OS file explorer.
Copy Path/Relative Path: Right-click to copy absolute or relative path to clipboard.
Open Folder in New Window: Right-click any file or folder to open it in a new VS Code window.
Open In Integrated Terminal: Right-click any file or folder to open it in a VS Code Integrated Terminal.
Open to the Side: Right-click any file to open the file to the side.
Open File: Click or Enter to open files.

Keyboard Shortcuts

These are the following shortcut keys when focused in Explorer Sidekick

Enter: Open File.
Ctrl+N: Create new FIle or Folder.
Delete: Remove selected file or folder.
Ctrl+X: Cut selected file or folder
Ctrl+C: Copy selected file or folder
Ctrl+V: Paste into selected folder
F2: Rename selected file or folder

You can also toggle the view mode from the view title toolbar:

View as List / View as Tree

Configuration

Configure folders to display via VS Code settings. Multi-root workspaces are supported—use ${workspaceFolder} to target every root folder, or ${workspaceFolder:FolderName} to target a specific one (matching either the workspace folder name or its basename). You can also use ${workspaceFolderName}, ${workspaceFolderBasename}, and ${workspaceFolderIndex} inside name values for dynamic labels.

// settings.json
  "secondaryExplorer.paths": [
    "${workspaceFolder}",
    "${workspaceFolder:Docs}/guides",
    {
      "name": "${workspaceFolderName} – Docs",
      "include": "**/*.md"
    }
  ]

Example configuration:

  "secondaryExplorer.paths": [
    {
      "basePath": "${workspaceFolder}",
      "name": "Workspace Docs",
      "include": [
        "**/*.{md,markdown,txt,rtf,adoc,asciidoc,restructuredtext,org,html,htm,pdf,docx,odt}"
      ],
      "exclude": [
        "node_modules",
        "dist",
        "build",
        "out"
      ]
    },
    {
      "basePath": "${workspaceFolder}",
      "name": "Workspace Images",
      "include": [
        "**/*.{png,jpg,jpeg,gif,svg,webp,avif,bmp,tiff,ico,icns,heic,heif}"
      ],
      "exclude": [
        "node_modules",
        "dist",
        "build",
        "out"
      ]
    },
        {
      "basePath": "${workspaceFolder}",
      "name": "Workspace Other",
      "include": [
        "**/*.{exe,dll,so,dylib,o,obj,a,lib,pdb,bin,elf,dmg,iso,msi,apk,aab,appimage,ipa,ttf,otf,woff,woff2,eot,class,jar,war,ear,pyc,pyo,pyd,wasm,node,zst,7z,zip,tar,gz,bz2,xz,rar,ar,deb,rpm,whl,blend,fbx,dae,gltf,glb,3ds,max,stl,ply,usdz,obj}"
      ],
      "exclude": [
        "node_modules",
        "dist",
        "build",
        "out"
      ]
    }
  ],

Include/Exclude Logic:

exclude always takes priority over include.
include accepts only file patterns (e.g., *.md).
exclude accepts both file and folder patterns (e.g., node_modules, *.log).
For example: If you set include: ["*.md"] and exclude: ["node_modules"], all Markdown files inside node_modules will be excluded from the tree view, even if they match the include pattern.

Workspace-level configuration recommended.

Notes:

Paths must be absolute and exist on disk to render.
Include/Exclude accept glob patterns; include is applied to files, and folders are expanded only if children match include.
Variable interpolation is supported in string and object forms: ${workspaceFolder}, ${userHome}.

Acknowledgements

Licensed Work: Explorer Sidekick Licensing Model: Dual-Licensed (MIT + BUSL-1.1) Current Licensor: Mario Ricalde (licensed by 6o8)

Original Author: Sivaraman (MIT License, 2021)

This extension builds upon the open-source Explorer Sidekick project. Through dual licensing, we preserve the MIT heritage of the original code while introducing BUSL-1.1 commercial licensing for future development. Both licenses remain active and provide benefits to users.

See NOTICE for complete dual-licensing information.