PTE Deploy for Business Central
Deploy per-tenant extensions (PTEs) to any Business Central online environment straight from VS Code, across all your customer tenants, through the official Business Central Admin Center API. No backend and no stored secrets: sign-in goes through VS Code's Microsoft account support.
Pre-release. This extension is in public beta. Feedback is welcome through the Q&A tab of its Marketplace page.
Why
Microsoft is removing the upload paths most deployment tools rely on today (the Extension Management page upload and the Automation API extensionUpload). The supported replacement is the Admin Center API (pteInstall). PTE Deploy brings it into the editor where you already build your AL apps.
Features
- Deploy Current App: builds on your AL project and its
.app package, checks the target first (same version, downgrade, dependencies, environment state) and deploys with one confirmation. Production always asks for an explicit confirmation.
- Many tenants, one view: register your customers' tenants, browse their environments, installed extensions, scheduled installs and recent operations.
- Scan All Tenants: find where your app is installed across every tenant and environment, with a Markdown fleet report.
- Operations: follow each deployment until it succeeds or fails, even after restarting VS Code, with error details and suggestions.
- Copy Diagnostics: a redacted support bundle, never with tokens.
Requirements
- Business Central online (SaaS). On-premises is not supported.
- A Microsoft Entra account allowed to use the Business Central Admin Center in each tenant (for example Dynamics 365 Business Central administrator, or partner delegated administration).
- The first sign-in to a tenant may require an administrator to grant consent to the app.
- Optional: the AL Language extension, to build packages from VS Code.
Getting started
- Open the PTE Deploy view in the Activity Bar and choose Sign In.
- Add your customers' tenants with Add Tenant… (domain or tenant ID).
- Open an AL project and run PTE Deploy: Deploy Current App from the Command Palette, the Workspace view or the Status Bar.
FAQ: common sign-in errors
| Error |
Meaning |
What to do |
AADSTS65001 (consent required) |
The tenant has not consented to the app yet |
An administrator of that tenant opens the consent URL — the tenant node offers Open consent URL and copies it for you |
AADSTS50020 (user not in tenant) |
Your signed-in account does not exist in that tenant |
Sign in to that tenant with the right account (guest, GDAP partner account, or the customer-domain account you normally use) |
AADSTS50076 / AADSTS50079 (MFA) |
The tenant requires multi-factor authentication |
Use Sign In to Tenant… on the tenant node to complete an interactive sign-in |
AADSTS700016 (app not found) |
A custom pteDeploy.auth.clientId is wrong or not consented in that tenant |
Check the setting, or clear it to use the default app |
AADSTS50011 (redirect URI) |
A custom Entra app is missing a redirect URI |
Review the app registration against the partner guide (see below) |
| 403 from the API |
Signed in, but no Admin Center rights in that tenant |
You need a Business Central admin role there, or the customer disabled partner access for that environment |
Using your own Entra application (partners)
The extension works out of the box with its default sign-in app. To use your organization's own Entra app registration instead, set pteDeploy.auth.clientId — the walkthrough step "For partners: use your own Entra app" and the docs/PARTNER-APP-REGISTRATION.md guide included in this extension explain the registration (multitenant public client, user_impersonation permission and five redirect URIs).
Privacy
The extension talks only to Microsoft endpoints (Entra ID and the Business Central Admin Center API). Tokens are handled by VS Code's built-in Microsoft authentication and are never written to logs. The list of tenants is stored locally in VS Code. Details in the PRIVACY.md file included with the extension: no backend, no telemetry.
License
Free to use. Proprietary software © GALARUX Software and Consulting S.L.: see the LICENSE file included with the extension. Third-party components are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.
