Peek inside archive files directly in VS Code — without extracting them to disk. Simply click an archive in the Explorer and get an interactive file browser with stats, right inside the editor.
Supported Formats
Format
Extension(s)
Library Used
ZIP
.zip
yauzl
JAR
.jar, .war, .ear
yauzl
VS Code Ext
.vsix
yauzl
NuGet
.nupkg
yauzl
Android
.apk, .aar
yauzl
Python Wheel
.whl
yauzl
Firefox Ext
.xpi
yauzl
eBook
.epub
yauzl
Tar
.tar
tar-stream
Tar.gz
.tar.gz, .tgz
tar-stream + zlib
Tar.bz2
.tar.bz2, .tbz2
tar-stream + unbzip2-stream
Tar.xz
.tar.xz, .txz
tar-stream + xz-decompress
Gzip
.gz
zlib
Bzip2
.bz2
unbzip2-stream
XZ
.xz
xz-decompress
RAR
.rar
node-unrar-js
7-Zip
.7z
node-7z + 7zip-bin
Features
Click to browse — click any archive in the Explorer and it opens an interactive file tree with stats in the editor
Open files inline — click any file in the archive tree to view its contents in VS Code (read-only)
No extraction — files are read directly from the archive stream, nothing written to disk
No sidebar clutter — everything lives in the editor tab, no extra panels
23 file extensions — covers ZIP-based, tar variants, standalone compressed, RAR, and 7z out of the box
Context menu integration — right-click archive files in the Explorer for quick access
Auto-refresh — when an opened archive is rebuilt or replaced on disk, the archive tab and any files opened from it reload automatically
Light on memory — ZIP-based archives are streamed: only the file list is kept in memory, and the archive file is never held open, so build tools can overwrite it at any time
Usage
Click any supported archive file in the VS Code Explorer
The archive opens in an editor tab showing format info, file/directory counts, total size, and a browsable file tree
Click any file in the tree to view its contents
You can also right-click an archive and select Open Archive, or use the command palette: Archive Peek: Open Archive.
Commands
Command
Description
Archive Peek: Open Archive
Open an archive file for browsing
Archive Peek: Refresh
Re-read all opened archives and reload files opened from them
Archive Peek: Close Archive
Close an opened archive
Settings
Setting
Default
Description
archivePeek.autoRefresh
true
Reload opened archives (and files opened from them) when they change on disk
Development
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Validate - Compile + lint
npm run validate
# Watch mode
npm run watch
# Tests
npm test
# Benchmarks. Large fixture archives are generated in the OS temp dir on first run.
npm run bench # speed benchmarks
npm run bench:memory # memory retained while archives are open
npm run bench:baseline # record speed + memory results into bench-results/ (e.g. on main)
npm run bench:compare # compare the current code against that baseline (same machine only)
Timings depend on the machine, so only compare results recorded on the same machine. CI does this
on every push: it benchmarks main, then tests and benchmarks the pushed commit on the same runner,
and shows the comparison in the workflow log and on the run's summary page.
Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.
Requirements
VS Code 1.101.0+
For .7z support: the bundled 7zip-bin package provides the 7z binary
For .tar.bz2 support: unbzip2-stream
For .tar.xz support: xz-decompress (pure JS/WASM — no native binaries needed)
For .rar support: node-unrar-js (pure JS/WASM — no native binaries needed)
