Exasol Extension for Visual Studio Code
A Visual Studio Code extension for working with Exasol databases. Provides database management, intelligent SQL editing, and query execution.
Note: This extension is a community-supported prototype and not officially supported by Exasol.
Installation
For Visual Studio Code, install the extension from the VS Code Marketplace.
For Cursor and other VS Code-compatible editors that use the Open VSX Registry, install it from Open VSX.
Quickstart
- Install the extension from the marketplace for your editor, or install a
.vsix file
- Click the Exasol icon in the sidebar, then
+ to add a connection
- Enter the database host, port, credentials, and TLS mode
- Open a
.sql file and press Cmd+Enter (Mac) / Ctrl+Enter (Windows/Linux) to execute
Features
- Connection management — multiple connections, secure password storage, status bar indicator
- Query execution — full file or selection, cancellable, automatic LIMIT, multi-statement support
- Separate result tabs — toggle via Command Palette to view each statement's result in its own tab
- IntelliSense — context-aware completions for keywords, functions, tables, views, and columns
- Object explorer — browse schemas, tables, views, columns, scripts, functions, virtual schemas, constraints, indices, and system tables
- Object actions — right-click to preview data, show DDL, generate SELECT, describe table
- Results viewer — sortable, filterable grid with CSV export and cell inspection
- Local file transfer — CSV and Parquet imports through the driver, plus direct table/query-to-CSV export
- Execution plan viewer — a "Plan" tab alongside every query result, showing a visual per-operator breakdown (cost share, duration, rows, CPU/network/disk) with warnings for skew, disk spills, and large redistributions; available for any profiled statement, not just SELECT — DDL, DML, IMPORT, and EXPORT included
- Query history — automatic tracking with execution time, row counts, and error indicators
- SQL Notebooks — interactive
.exabook notebooks with SQL cells, inline results, and markdown documentation
- SQL formatting — configurable keyword case, indentation, and statement spacing
- Session management — active schema tracking, persistent state across restarts
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action |
Windows/Linux |
Mac |
| Execute query |
Ctrl+Enter |
Cmd+Enter |
| Execute selection |
Ctrl+Shift+Enter |
Cmd+Shift+Enter |
| Execute entire script |
Ctrl+Alt+Enter |
Cmd+Alt+Enter |
| Find database object |
Ctrl+Shift+F (objects view) |
Cmd+Shift+F (objects view) |
Configuration
Settings > Extensions > Exasol, or search "exasol" in Settings:
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
maxResultRows |
10000 |
Max rows to fetch per query |
queryTimeout |
300 |
Query timeout in seconds |
fetchSize |
1048576 |
Approximate bytes fetched per result-set request |
maxQueryHistorySize |
1000 |
Queries to keep in history |
autoComplete |
true |
Enable IntelliSense |
separateResultTabs |
false |
Show each statement result in a separate tab |
executionPlan |
true |
Enable execution plan capture and the Plan tab; new user connections automatically enable session profiling |
exportSource |
empty |
Optional default source for direct CSV export: a table or parenthesized query |
formatter.* |
— |
Keyword case, indent style, tab width, statement spacing |
Limitations
- Large result sets (>10,000 rows) may impact rendering performance
- Query cancellation depends on Exasol and network state; local file operations use the driver's
AbortSignal cancellation and release their resources
- Local file import is supported for CSV and Parquet via
IMPORT INTO <table> FROM LOCAL CSV|PARQUET FILE '<path>'. The cluster must be able to open a connection back to the client machine for the import tunnel. Parquet requires Exasol 2025.1.9 or later.
Exasol: Export Table or Query to CSV streams a table or parenthesized query directly to a local CSV file through the driver, including column names and cancellation. Exasol: Export Results to CSV remains available for exporting the currently displayed result grid.- Direct CSV export uses
queryTimeout as its maximum wall-clock duration; increase that setting for exports of very large data sets.
- Cloud/server-side
IMPORT and EXPORT statements continue to execute as ordinary SQL. Local FBV imports, multi-file local imports, and local Parquet export have no dedicated extension support.
- Execution plans require session profiling. When
executionPlan is enabled, the extension runs ALTER SESSION SET PROFILE = 'ON' on new user connections; reconnect after changing the setting or after a profiling setup failure
- The Plan tab is only available for single-statement results — not yet for the multi-statement "Result 1 / Result 2" tab bar
Development
git clone https://github.com/exasol-labs/exasol-vscode.git
cd exasol-vscode
npm install
npm run compile
Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.
npm run watch # Auto-compile on changes
npm run test:unit # Unit tests
npm run test:local # Webview rendering tests (jsdom)
npm run test:driver-docker # Driver import/export tests against local Exasol Docker
npm run test:e2e # VS Code integration tests
The extension uses the official @exasol/exasol-driver-ts 0.8.0 package. npm ci may print transitive deprecation warnings from @vscode/vsce dependencies; these do not affect runtime use.
Support
- GitHub Issues
- Contributions welcome — submit issues or pull requests
License
MIT
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