SFMC DevTools | Visual Studio Code Extension

Accenture SFMC DevTools VS Code Extension was built to simplify the command execution for Accenture SFMC DevTools, offering a more intuitive interface that streamlines the process of retrieving and deploying Marketing Cloud assets, configuration and code across various Business Units and instances. This tool eliminates the necessity of manual command line input (CLI), making your workflow more efficient and user-friendly.

Prerequisites

• Install a currently supported Node.js release with npm, and make both node and npm available on PATH to VS Code/Cursor and its terminals. The bundled mcdev 10 runtime requires ^22.22.2 || >=24.15.0: Node 22.22.2+ within Node 22, or Node 24.15.0+. Node 20, 21, 23 and earlier Node 22/24 patches are unsupported.
• Restart the IDE after installing Node/npm or changing PATH; an already running IDE retains its old environment.
• Git is optional for ordinary retrieve/deploy and project setup. Without Git, init and upgrade warn and skip Git steps while continuing non-Git setup. Joining a repository and Git-backed delta packages require Git and fail with an actionable error when it is unavailable. Existing Git failures are not treated as successful setup.

For Windows setup without administrator rights, see Troubleshooting: portable Node/npm.

Choose the mcdev CLI source

The extension ships the published mcdev 10.1.0 runtime with sfmc-sdk 4.0.2: no global or project-local mcdev installation is required. In Settings, configure:

• sfmc-devtools-vscode.mcdevSource: auto (default) selects project-local mcdev first, then mcdev on PATH, then the bundled runtime. bundled always uses the extension's copy. custom always uses the executable named by mcdevPath.
• sfmc-devtools-vscode.mcdevPath: executable path for custom; relative paths resolve from the project root. Supply only the path, without arguments or shell quotes. Windows .cmd launchers are supported.

Explicit bundled/custom choices never silently fall back. A failed operation is not retried with another CLI version. Source changes apply to subsequent invocations; the mcdev Output channel reports the selected source/version for diagnostics. Bundled mcdev updates arrive with extension updates, not through a global npm update. A project-version mismatch may require updating the extension or deliberately selecting a compatible local/custom CLI before upgrading the project.

When mcdev explicitly recommends a project upgrade, the completion notification offers Upgrade and More Details. Upgrade runs mcdev upgrade for the affected project using the configured CLI source. Dismissing it does nothing; the original operation is never automatically retried. Review project changes after upgrading.

If you prefer a separately installed CLI (including typing mcdev directly in a terminal), install it globally with npm install -g mcdev, or use a project-local installation. The bundled copy does not add a mcdev command to PATH.

Install SFMC DevTools VS Code Extension

• In Visual Studio Code, navigate to the Extensions tab (or click Ctrl + Shift + X
• Search for SFMC DevTools and click on Install
• After installation is completed click on the button Reload Required or simply reopen your Visual Studio Code
• A mcddev button should display at the bottom bar

Companion extensions

Installing SFMC DevTools automatically brings along a small set of companion extensions that make working with mcdev projects much smoother. One of them is required (it installs automatically and stays for as long as DevTools is installed) because DevTools relies on it to be usable:

• SFMC Language Service (required) - so your code is readable and gets linted/formatted. DevTools retrieves and deploys .ssjs and .amp files, but VS Code has no built-in support for AMPscript or SSJS. Without this extension those files are plain, uncolored text with no completions, hover docs, or diagnostics - and the ESLint/Prettier tooling mcdev sets up has nothing to hook into. It provides the syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, and language server that make the retrieved code readable and lintable.

The following soft companions ship as a pack and can each be removed individually if you do not want them:

• ESLint and Prettier - the mcdev CLI scaffolds ESLint and Prettier configs into your project, so these are advisable to have installed.
• SFMC Data Loader - companion mcdev tooling for loading and manipulating Data Extension records, so you can move data alongside the metadata DevTools retrieves and deploys.

Readable mcdev logs are now built in. DevTools streams the mcdev CLI output into the VS Code Output panel, which has no syntax coloring of its own. DevTools now colorizes its own "mcdev" Output channel internally via an embedded mcdev-log grammar, so success, warning, and error lines are distinguishable at a glance. Because this is built in, the third-party Output Colorizer extension is no longer a required companion.

Why bundle these? The SFMC extension packs are optional and do not assume you use mcdev. Developers who do use mcdev often skip the packs - this minimal set makes sure they still get the crucial language service (readable, lintable code) and the linting/formatting and data-loading tooling mcdev expects, while the Output panel is colorized by DevTools itself.

For a fuller toolchain (SFMC Data Loader, MSO Conditionals, EditorConfig, Peacock), install one of our extension packs:

• SFMC Extension Pack - SFMC Data Loader, SFMC DevTools, SFMC Language Service, and MSO Conditionals.
• SFMC Extension Pack Plus - the same four SFMC extensions plus ESLint, Prettier, and EditorConfig for a typical SFMC project toolchain.

New mcdev init projects also ship a .vscode/extensions.json file, so VS Code will surface these companions through its built-in Recommended Extensions prompt when you open a DevTools project.

Initialize SFMC DevTools Project

If you are starting a completely new SFMC DevTools project

• Use mcdev: Initialize Project when the command is available in your open mcdev project; it uses the selected CLI source in an integrated terminal.
• Command visibility still depends on existing project detection; this feature does not redesign fresh-folder or multi-root discovery. For a completely fresh folder where the command is unavailable, use a separately installed CLI and run mcdev init in that folder. The bundled fallback does not expose a standalone mcdev terminal command.
• Follow the interactive instructions. Without Git, setup warns and skips repository/remotes/commit/push steps. For more guidance, consult the SFMC DevTools init documentation.

Wiki

Consult the Wiki for a complete guide on how to use the SFMC DevTools Vscode Extension.

AI assistants (optional MCP)

For mcdev project help (wiki search, .mcdevrc concepts such as markets and marketList, createDeltaPkg, journey checklists, metadata type listing), you can add the community MCP server mcp-server-mcdev to your editor’s MCP configuration. It is published to the MCP Registry as io.github.JoernBerkefeld/mcp-server-mcdev and runs locally via npx (see that package’s README). It complements language-focused tooling such as mcp-server-sfmc for AMPscript and SSJS.

Example .vscode/mcp.json:

{
	"servers": {
		"mcdev": {
			"type": "stdio",
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["-y", "mcp-server-mcdev@latest"]
		}
	}
}

Features

• Retrieve and Deploy Marketing Cloud assets by right clicking on the file in the File Explorer and selecting the command option
• Retrieve and Deploy multiple Marketing Cloud assets from multiple metadata types at the same time from the same and different business unit
• Retrieve and Deploy Marketing Cloud assets by right clicking on the file tab and selecting the command option
• Deploy Marketing Cloud assets directly from the retrieve folder
• Copy multiple Marketing Cloud assets from one business unit to another
• Deploy multiple Marketing Cloud assets from one business unit to another
• Navigate JSON r__asset_key references to local metadata in the same BU. References inside asset folders prefer nested template metadata; other references prefer nested message metadata. Both then try flat mobile, flat webstudio, and nested webstudio metadata, in that order. Missing-reference warnings use the same lookup order.

Telemetry

This extension collects a small amount of anonymous usage telemetry to understand adoption and reliability. It never collects personal data, file contents, credentials, or Business Unit / tenant identifiers.

What is collected:

• Activation — that the extension started, whether an mcdev project is open, which related SFMC extensions are co-installed (presence booleans), and the configured mcdevSource mode (auto, bundled, or custom).
• Source changes — only actual changes to that configured mode, including when no mcdev project is open. Custom executable paths and resolved runtime paths are never collected.
• mcdev version — the installed mcdev CLI version and this extension's own version.
• Command outcomes — for mcdev-run commands (e.g. retrieve, deploy, build): the command id, its duration, and success/failure (a coarse errorCategory, plus optional sanitized errorName / errorCode when execute throws — never an error message, stack, or path).

Every event also carries the host OS, the VS Code version, and this extension's version. Events are sent to PostHog (EU cloud). The full event catalog ships in telemetry.json and is visible via the VS Code CLI --telemetry dump.

Opt out: telemetry follows VS Code's global setting. Set telemetry.telemetryLevel to off (Settings → search "telemetry") and no events are sent. The extension re-checks this setting live, so turning it off stops collection immediately.

Troubleshooting

Windows: portable Node/npm without administrator rights

The extension does not download or provision Node. You can use a portable Node/npm installation without administrator rights by adding it to your user-scoped PATH:

1. Download the official Node.js Windows portable ZIP for your architecture. Choose a currently supported release satisfying ^22.22.2 || >=24.15.0: Node 22.22.2+ within Node 22, or Node 24.15.0+. Use the distribution that includes npm, not a standalone node.exe download.
2. Extract the ZIP into a folder you can write to, and confirm that the extracted Node directory contains both node.exe and npm.cmd.
3. Open Start, search for Edit environment variables for your account, and open that settings entry.
4. Under User variables, select Path, choose Edit, then New, and add the full path to the extracted directory containing node.exe and npm.cmd. Save with OK in each dialog. You do not need administrator rights or changes to the system PATH.
5. Fully close and restart VS Code/Cursor so it picks up the updated environment.
6. Open a new IDE terminal and run node --version and npm --version. Both commands should succeed, and the Node version must satisfy the requirement above.

Building locally

From the extension directory, run npm ci, then npm run compile (or npm run package:test for a VSIX). The build stages the exact registry-locked mcdev 10.1.0 package and its runtime dependencies. No sibling source checkout or source-selection environment variable is needed.

The staged runtime under dist/mcdev records the extension lockfile digest, package versions, registry URLs/integrities and per-file hashes in bundle-metadata.json. npm run verify:vsix -- sfmc-devtools-vscode-BETA.vsix checks the packaged runtime after extraction/relocation and runs offline smoke tests. Archive timestamps can change the VSIX hash; byte-identical archive reproducibility is not claimed.

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2026 Accenture. MIT licensed.