VS Code extension that browses the remote filesystem and downloads any file or directory to a local path — no workspace mount, drag-and-drop, or scp round-trip required.
Runs as a UI extension ("extensionKind": ["ui"]), so it works in any remote window: SSH, Dev Containers, WSL, tunnels.
Usage
Open any remote window (or just a remote file/tab — the extension borrows the remote authority from whatever the window holds).
Run Remote: Download Remote File by Path... from the Command Palette.
Browse in the QuickPick:
Enter on a folder descends into it.
Enter on a file downloads it.
Enter on the . row, or the cloud-download button on a folder, downloads that directory.
For directories, choose a format, then pick a local destination in the native save dialog (defaults to ~/Downloads).
Directory formats
Format
How it's produced
None
workspace.fs.copy of the directory tree as-is
.zip
files streamed over workspace.fs, zipped locally with fflate
.tar
tar run on the remote, archive pulled down
.tar.gz / .tar.xz / .tar.zst
remote tar + gzip / xz / zstd
The tar options only appear when the corresponding binaries exist on the remote. Detection runs a silent shell task once per remote authority and caches the result for the session. Windows remotes (and remotes where tasks are unavailable) fall back to zip and plain copy, which use only workspace.fs and work on any OS.
How it works
Remote root: the remote authority isn't exposed to UI extensions directly, so it's taken from any vscode-remote: URI in the window — workspace folders, the workspace file, or open tabs.
Remote OS: also not exposed, so it's inferred from filesystem shape (drive-letter paths or a readable /C:/ → Windows; /etc or /bin → POSIX).
Remote shell: tar commands run through a hidden VS Code task; temp files under /tmp/srd-* are cleaned up afterwards.
Transfer: all file movement goes through workspace.fs, which VS Code proxies over the remote connection.
Requirements
VS Code ≥ 1.75.
A remote connection of some kind; the command errors out in a purely local window.
For tar formats: tar (plus gzip/xz/zstd for compressed variants) on a POSIX remote.
