IPFS VS Code

IPFS VS Code allows easy installation of IPFS node daemon in VS Code environment. It provides a one-click installation and integrated development experience including running of node daemon, getting peer information, uploading/pinning files, accessing IPFS Web UI, CID syntax highlighting.

Features

• Start & stop Kubo (go-ipfs) daemon
• Show node information & peers information in the sidebar
• Upload files & folders from explorer and the sidebar
• List files & folders in IPFS node and allow pinning and unpinning of files
• Show IPFS Web UI in VS Code WebView
• View IPFS file content via VS Code WebView
• CID syntax highlight and tooltip information

How to Use

Simply install via VS Code extension marketplace, and click on the IPFS logo. The extension will install the latest Kubo (ipfs-go) binaries for your OS to run the daemon in VS Code environment. The extension interacts with Kubo via local API endpoints.

If your OS already has a running instance of IPFS CLI or IPFS Desktop the extension will detect and communicate directly with the running instance instead of the VS Code one.

To access node information, see connected peer information, and view files & folders, go to side bar of the extension.

If you have a CID (v0 or v1) in the code editor, the IPFS VS Code will detect it and show information such s multibase, CID version, and multicodec.

With the extension enabled, Anywhere in the file explorer, you can upload any folder and file easily via right-click.

To view your file, right-click on the file and select "Open in WebView".

Web UI will give you full control over your IPFS daemon.

To shut down or restart the daemon, use buttons available in the sidebar or the status bar at the bottom right of VS Code.

Closing VS Code, disabling the extension, or uninstalling the extension will stop the daemon process. Only uninstalling will remove the binary from VS Code global storage completely.

What is IPFS?

InterPlanetary File System, is a peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol and a distributed system for storing and accessing files, websites, applications, and data. It uses content addressing instead of a location-based addressing scheme to store files. It uses p2p communication protocols to make 1000s of computers work as one without a centralized server. Making the network offline first and resilient to outages.

ChatGPT explains it like this:

IPFS official site is https://ipfs.tech/.

See this quick 2 mins video explanation of IPFS:

IPFS founder Juan Benet's speech at Standford University:

For full documentation of IPFS visit docs.ipfs.tech.

To see awesome projects built on IPFS visit awesome.ipfs.tech.

IPFS is proudly made by Protocol Labs. Check out their work such as IPLD, Libp2p, Drand here.

Contributing and development

You can checkout code on github.com.

Issues and Feedback

Please raise all of your issues and feedback here

Debugging

To run VS Code local debugger, pull down the repo, open it with VS Code then press F5 to start IPFS node in debugger mode.

See VS Code Extension development docs here.

Packaging and Testing

Run yarn or npm install, then yarn package or npm run-script package to produce the .vsix file VS Code can install.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Will this have conflict with other IPFS instances I installed? A: The extension will detect if an IPFS is already running on port 5001 then use the existing process first.

Q: If I close VS Code, will the daemon stop? A: Only if you completed shutdown VS Code will the process be killed. Disabling or uninstalling will also kill the process. Uninstalling will also remove the binary file installed.

Q: Where are the IPFS software installed? A: IPFS node binary is stored in VS Code Global Storage directory associated with the extension. This will not be interfering with your normal IPFS installation.