WireFerry — SFTP, FTP and FTPS Sync for Visual Studio Code

WireFerry is a Visual Studio Code extension for uploading, downloading, comparing and synchronizing project files with remote servers over SFTP, FTP or FTPS. It keeps routine website, shared-hosting and VPS file work inside VS Code, with upload on save and a built-in Remote Explorer.

Русская версия · Installation · Configuration · Commands · FAQ · Changelog

Download and install

WireFerry is published in the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. In VS Code, open Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X) and search for WireFerry.

Open WireFerry in the Marketplace.

Manual .vsix packages are also available from GitHub Releases for offline installs or rollback testing:

Download wireferry-<version>.vsix from the latest GitHub Release.

If you are a regular user, do not use Code → Download ZIP. Download the ready-to-use release package from GitHub Releases instead.

If you have not used GitHub before:

1. Open the latest release.
2. Find the Assets section and expand it if necessary.
3. Download wireferry-<version>.vsix. Do not choose either Source code archive.
4. In desktop Visual Studio Code, open Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X).
5. Open the ... menu and select Install from VSIX....
6. Select the downloaded .vsix file and reload VS Code if prompted.

Do not extract the .vsix. It is the extension package, not an archive that must be unpacked. WireFerry has no separate installer or standalone application. See the installation guide for terminal installation and common installation problems.

What WireFerry is for

WireFerry maps a local folder in your VS Code workspace to a directory on a server. You can transfer one file, a folder or a complete configured project without repeatedly locating the same paths in a separate FTP client.

Typical uses include:

• publishing small website changes to shared hosting;
• editing files on a VPS over SFTP;
• keeping development, staging and production profiles in one project;
• downloading an existing remote project into a local workspace;
• comparing a local file with the server copy before replacing it;
• mirroring files to another local directory with the local protocol.

WireFerry is a direct file-transfer tool. It is not a CI/CD pipeline, a release-management system or a replacement for version control.

Quick start

1. Open the local project folder in VS Code.
2. Open the Command Palette with Ctrl+Shift+P.
3. Run WireFerry: Config.
4. Complete the setup wizard. It asks for the protocol, host, port, username, remote path and authentication method, and verifies the connection.
5. After a successful check, the wizard creates .vscode/wireferry.json and the server appears in Remote Explorer.
6. Use WireFerry: commands, Explorer context menus or Remote Explorer to upload, download, compare and synchronize files.

The wizard supports SFTP and FTP connections. Existing .vscode/sftp.json files are still recognized as a legacy format. Advanced options such as FTPS, profiles, jump hosts and local mirroring are configured in JSONC.

Key features

• Upload or download a file, folder, active file, active folder or configured project.
• Synchronize local to remote, remote to local or in both directions.
• Upload files when they are saved in VS Code.
• Watch files changed by external tools and optionally upload them.
• Compare a local file with its remote version.
• Browse remote files in a dedicated VS Code Remote Explorer.
• Create, rename, move and delete remote files and folders.
• Inspect sizes and permissions; calculate folder sizes and compare local/remote size and MD5.
• Use multiple profiles and upload the same files to all configured profiles.
• Connect over SFTP/SSH, FTP or FTPS, or mirror to another local folder.
• Use SSH jump hosts and open an SSH terminal for SFTP configurations.
• Authenticate with an SSH key, an OS-backed VS Code secret store or a password prompt.
• Pass keyboard-interactive challenges on servers that require 2FA (interactiveAuth).
• Generate and deploy an SSH key from the server context menu.
• Recover from SFTP permission errors by staging an edited copy; on compatible SSH servers, apply it through su.
• Change owner, group and permissions on the server, see the owner and group in tooltips, and spot files you cannot write as read-only in the tree.
• Draw an ASCII tree of a server or local folder from the folder context menu, with an optional depth limit and file sizes.
• Move files and folders on the server by dragging them inside the Remote Explorer.
• Follow uploads and downloads with a byte progress bar and a Cancel button; large files (over 10 MB) and binaries ask before they open.
• Read an operation report after each right-click transfer or delete — an upload.log, download.log or delete.log tab listing every file with its size, date and permissions.
• Transfer atomically by default: each file is staged into a temporary copy and renamed into place, so an interrupted transfer never truncates the original.
• Recognize symbolic links in the server tree and open their real target.
• Apply local deletions, renames and moves to the server after a confirmation.
• Download the server copy automatically when you open a mapped local file (downloadOnOpen).
• Give each profile its own tree root and its own upload-on-save, and delete from every profile's server plus the local copy in one action.
• Open any server file by its absolute path, even outside the configured remotePath.
• Migrate an old sftp.* setup: a startup doctor finds legacy settings and sftp.json and offers to convert them.
• Update through VS Code Marketplace, and connect to legacy SSH servers that only offer old Diffie-Hellman key exchange.
• Copy a Windows path in Git Bash form (/c/…).

Latest release highlights

The latest release switches updates to the standard VS Code Marketplace flow. WireFerry no longer runs its own background GitHub release check, no longer asks for update-check consent on startup, and no longer downloads .vsix files beside the workspace config. WireFerry: Check for Updates now opens the extension page and asks VS Code to refresh Marketplace updates. GitHub Releases remain available for manual, offline or rollback installs.

See the Changelog for release-specific details and previous versions.

Configuration

WireFerry reads JSON with comments and trailing commas from .vscode/wireferry.json. The setup wizard creates the first configuration, and VS Code provides field descriptions and validation from the bundled schema.

A minimal manually edited SFTP configuration:

{
  "name": "Production",
  "host": "example.com",
  "protocol": "sftp",
  "port": 22,
  "username": "deploy",
  "password": "prompt",
  "remotePath": "/var/www/site",
  "uploadOnSave": false,
  "ignore": [".vscode", ".git", "node_modules"]
}

context selects the local directory to map; remotePath selects the corresponding server directory. Ignore patterns are not automatically inferred from .gitignore: set ignoreFile explicitly if you want WireFerry to read it.

Before the first project upload or synchronization, verify:

• context and remotePath;
• ignore and ignoreFile;
• the active profile;
• syncOption, especially any deletion behavior.

Read the configuration reference for SFTP, FTP/FTPS, local, profiles, jump hosts, watchers and all supported fields.

Main commands

Open the Command Palette with Ctrl+Shift+P and type WireFerry.

The command reference covers context-menu actions, Remote Explorer and multi-profile commands.

Authentication and safety

• Prefer SSH keys for SFTP when the server supports them.
• "password": "secretStorage" stores the password through VS Code SecretStorage instead of in the project file.
• "password": "prompt" asks on each connection and does not save the password.
• A literal password in .vscode/wireferry.json is plaintext. Do not commit it.
• The setup wizard writes .vscode, .git and .DS_Store to its initial ignore list. A hand-written configuration must define its own ignore rules.
• Synchronization can overwrite or delete files depending on syncOption. Test a new configuration with non-critical data and keep backups.
• WireFerry does not run in VS Code Restricted Mode. Trust only workspaces whose contents you have reviewed.

Known limitations

• Desktop Visual Studio Code 1.66 or newer is required.
• WireFerry runs inside VS Code; there is no standalone GUI or WireFerry CLI.
• Browser-based VS Code environments are not documented as supported.
• remoteTimeOffsetInHours exists in the schema but is not currently applied by the transfer pipeline.
• FTP transfer concurrency is forced to 1.
• Enabling both uploadOnSave and watcher.autoUpload for the same files can cause duplicate uploads.
• Server permissions, storage quotas, SSH/FTP policy and available shell commands remain controlled by the server.

Known bugs and inherited technical debt are tracked in ROADMAP.md.

Troubleshooting

I downloaded Source code instead of the extension

Delete the ZIP or TAR.GZ, return to the latest release, expand Assets and download wireferry-<version>.vsix. Source archives cannot be installed as the packaged extension.

WireFerry commands or the server tree do not appear

Confirm that the extension is installed and enabled, reload VS Code, open a folder rather than an individual file, and ensure the workspace is trusted. Run WireFerry: Config to create a configuration. Transfer-specific menus remain unavailable until a valid configuration is loaded.

Config Not Found

Open the project root rather than a single file. Confirm that .vscode/wireferry.json is inside the opened workspace and that the current file is under the configured context.

Files are transferred to the wrong directory

Check both context and remotePath. They are the local and remote roots that WireFerry maps to each other.

Unwanted files were uploaded

Add gitignore-style patterns to ignore, or set ignoreFile to a suitable file. Changing Remote Explorer's filesExclude only hides items in the tree; it does not exclude them from transfers.

The connection closes on an old SSH server

The server may require a legacy key-exchange or host-key algorithm. Add only the algorithm required by that server with the algorithms setting; see the FAQ.

I need diagnostic logs

Enable wireferry.debug, reload the VS Code window, then open View → Output → WireFerry. Remove passwords and sensitive paths before sharing logs.

More solutions are in the FAQ and troubleshooting guide.

For developers

The repository contains a TypeScript extension bundled by Webpack. The source entry point is src/extension.ts; npm run compile writes dist/extension.js. The project does not declare an exact minimum Node.js/npm version, so use a current supported Node.js release.

git clone https://github.com/e-u-shapovalov/vscode-sftp.git
cd vscode-sftp
npm ci
npm run compile
npm test
npx tsc --noEmit

Development watch mode:

npm run dev

Build an installable package:

npx @vscode/vsce package
code --install-extension wireferry-<version>.vsix

The code command is optional; the resulting package can also be installed through Extensions → ... → Install from VSIX.... See CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution checks.

FAQ

What should I download?

Install WireFerry from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. For offline/manual installs, download wireferry-<version>.vsix from Assets in the latest GitHub Release. Do not download a source archive for normal installation.

Does WireFerry have a standalone FTP client or CLI?

No. WireFerry runs inside desktop Visual Studio Code. code --install-extension is a VS Code installation command, not a WireFerry CLI.

Can it upload a website whenever I save a file?

Yes. Set uploadOnSave for the relevant configuration or profile. Check context, remotePath and ignore rules before enabling it.

Can it download an existing website?

Yes. Open an empty local folder, configure the correct remotePath, and run WireFerry: Download Project. Back up important data before testing synchronization options.

Is this the original vscode-sftp extension?

No. WireFerry is an independently maintained fork and is not presented as the original project. Its lineage is Natizyskunk/vscode-sftp ← liximomo/vscode-sftp; this fork started from upstream v1.16.3 and now uses a different name and publisher.

Support, attribution and license

• Report bugs or request features in GitHub Issues.
• Install from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace, or download manual packages from GitHub Releases.
• Review user-visible changes in the Changelog.

WireFerry is maintained by Evgenii Shapovalov and licensed under the MIT License. Required original copyright and attribution notices are preserved in LICENSE.