PeopleSoft Studio

PeopleSoft development in VS Code. Open, edit and save PeopleCode, records, pages, components, App Engine programs and the rest of Application Designer's definitions, and let AI agents work on them through a built-in MCP server.

PeopleSoft Studio connects to a PeopleSoft database (Oracle; SQL Server and DB2 experimental) or opens an Application Designer project export. Every connection is read-only until you make it writable; then definitions are saved natively, writing the same rows Application Designer writes.

Development status: version 1.0 is the focused core qualified for Oracle / PeopleTools 8.62.09 on Linux and Windows x64. Preview features retain their documented limits; see the support contract and Disclaimer. 1.0 is not full Application Designer parity.

Current release: 1.0.0 — November 2, 2026. The qualified core is now version 1.0. This release also adds Fluid pages and components through the MCP, and ten new PeopleCode rules that refuse, before the save, programs App Designer or PIA would refuse. The 1.5 workflows from 0.9.9 remain, with their limits: structural Change Review, promotion between Oracle environments, Query on 8.61.15, Run and Monitor and the Windows AI handoff. See the release notes, changelog and download the VSIX.

Track completion gates in 1.0 readiness.

Why PeopleSoft Studio

• Your definitions, in the editor you already use. PeopleCode with completion, hover and outline. App Designer's record, field, page, component, menu, Component Interface, App Engine and message channel windows, rebuilt as VS Code editors. SQL, HTML and style sheets as plain text.
• Saves Application Designer recognizes. Writers use captured native saves on PeopleTools 8.62.09 and 8.61.15, with tests that replay the captured behavior. Supported writes are checked by native reopen and readback; unsupported changes are refused.
• A PeopleCode compiler checked at scale. Recorded corpus comparisons reproduced stored bytecode for 30,205 of 30,209 HCDEV programs, and matched PeopleTools 8.62.09's binary and name rows for all 30,067 programs compared on HRDMO. These results cover captured programs, not arbitrary new code; see compiler evidence.
• Built for AI agents. A local MCP server gives Claude Code, Codex or any MCP client supported reads and writes through the editors' providers and writers, each write approved by you in VS Code by default.
• Safe by default. Read-only connections, separate delivered-object policies for user and agent writes, an audit log, and a PeopleCode save reports of the rows replaced.
• Knows what is yours. Every definition is classified Delivered, Delivered modified, Partner, Custom or Unknown, with its evidence. Verified Studio creations retain ownership receipts. Event Mapping, Drop Zones and Page and Field Configurator are discovered and configured through the Customization Strategy view.

Page Designer:

App Engine Designer:

Customization Orchestration:

AI agents

PeopleSoft Studio runs its own local MCP server. Claude Code, Codex and other Streamable HTTP MCP clients use the same tools, which read and write through Studio's database providers. Integration with Oracle's delivered PeopleTools 8.63 MCP is planned; this release uses Studio's implementation.

AI client -> local PeopleSoft Studio MCP -> database provider -> PeopleTools tables

Disclaimer

PeopleSoft Studio is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied (see LICENSE). There is no guarantee that what it reads, decodes, compiles or writes is correct, complete or fit for any purpose. You use it at your own risk; the authors are not liable for data loss, corrupted definitions, outages or any other damage.

• Not an Oracle product. PeopleSoft Studio is independent: it is not affiliated with, endorsed or supported by Oracle. PeopleSoft and PeopleTools are trademarks of Oracle.
• Saving is experimental. PeopleSoft Studio writes directly to PeopleTools tables -- for PeopleCode PSPCMTXT, PSPCMPROG, PSPCMNAME; for records, fields, pages, components and the other definitions their own tables; and PSVERSION / PSLOCK -- using an independently developed compiler and save routines, not Oracle's. Save protocols are calibrated from native saves on PeopleTools 8.62.09 and 8.61.15 within each writer's supported scope. Other releases, patches and configurations may behave differently.
• Compiling with Application Designer is still recommended. After saving PeopleCode from VS Code, open the program in Application Designer and save (compile) it there, so PeopleTools' own compiler validates it. Do this especially before migrating it to another environment.
• Make a connection writable only where you can recover. Connections are read-only by default. Allow writes only on development or lab databases you have backups of, and follow your organization's change-control process. Each save keeps a report of the rows it replaced, but that is not a backup.

Get Started

1. Install PeopleSoft Studio.

2. Reload VS Code. Open the VS Code Command Palette ( CTRL + SHIFT + P ):

   Developer: Reload Window
   

3. Add and connect to a PeopleSoft environment from the PeopleSoft Studio sidebar.

4. Verify that the MCP server is running: in the PeopleSoft Studio sidebar, the Settings panel shows MCP server below the compiler profile, green while it is running.

5. Connect an AI client using PeopleSoft → Settings → Configure AI Client….

   Choose your client:

   • Claude Code: registers the server for all your local projects. The same as running:

     claude mcp add --transport http --scope user peoplesoftStudio http://127.0.0.1:7337/mcp
     

   • Codex (CLI / IDE): the same as running:

     codex mcp add peoplesoftStudio --url http://127.0.0.1:7337/mcp
     

   • Any other MCP client: choose Copy MCP URL and add it to the client as a Streamable HTTP server named peoplesoftStudio. Manual Setup shows the commands above to copy.

   The URL uses the port in the peoplesoft.mcp.port setting (7337 by default). Restart or reload the client if it was already running.

1.0 support qualification

The primary qualification profile is Oracle / PeopleTools 8.62.09, with Linux x64 and Windows x64 core clients. The bounded core is ready for 1.0; the support contract separates core scope from completed native/installed evidence, preview features and planned workflows. Settings and the MCP capability catalog expose the same release-support model. Run and Monitor remains preview with Low-priority native acceptance deferred.

What works now

Goal long-term: replace Application Designer. Today it reads many common definition types and edits the supported kinds below -- PeopleCode, records, fields, pages, components, App Engine, menus, Component Interfaces, message channels, SQL, HTML, style sheets, translates, projects and a bounded PS Query workflow. The support contract distinguishes the qualified core from preview workflows. The tables distinguish working editors from read-only viewers and features still planned.

In 0.9.2, File Layouts open in a File Layout Designer and save as App Designer saves them; Build Requests turn attached documents into a reviewed spec and a build; projects carry the related definitions their members need (sections, SQL, PeopleCode, translate values, Message Catalog entries, content references and their folders); and PeopleCode, SQL and App Engine saves are checked against run-time failures App Designer does not catch (see docs/PEOPLECODE_RULES.md).

In 0.9.0, Configuration Tools includes working Process Definition, Page and Field Configurator, Drop Zone and bounded OAuth editors. The MCP adds a structured capability catalog, Process Definition editing, and bounded PS Query authoring/execution. Query and Process Definition ownership uses the native keys and preserves delivered-object policy checks. Eleven live HRDMO MCP checks verified previews, guarded Query saves and readback. See MCP workflows and validation, Process Definitions, Customization and Security.

Integration Broker, administration and Portal Registry authoring remain available. Current development migration packages cover fields (every stored property and translate values), records with SubRecords and SQL Table user indexes, standalone SQL, HTML, freeform style sheets, stored PeopleCode, bounded PS Query, scoped menus, App Engine (with its step SQL), Application Packages with classes, pages, components, message channels, process definitions and File Layouts. Target preview stages changes and project membership into durable Change Review for developer approval and verified application, and migrated types can be undone and redone from history (except the creation of a process definition). Promote Project to Another Environment… and psft_project_promote stage the same import on a different Oracle environment. MCP exposes export, preview and promotion; the UI opens the persistent review. See Project migration for scope and limits.

Definition types (App Designer's Open Definition)

Every type in App Designer's Open Definition list, and where it stands. Yes = read and create/save; Experimental = edited and saved, reproducing App Designer's saves; Read-only = viewer, from the database; Not yet = no viewer or editor.

Capabilities

What does not work yet

• Migration of the explicitly refused shapes (custom index DDL, translations, subpackage descriptions/comments and class descriptions, nested or SQL Table subrecords, updates to indexed records), undo of a promotion that creates a process definition, of definition families outside those listed in Project migration, and between database platforms
• Editing record shapes and settings no App Designer save has been captured for (see docs/RECORD_SAVE.md)
• Register Menu Item (portal registration) and menu translations
• Component Interfaces: Test Component Interface, Java / C templates, CI references
• Run and Monitor beyond its first scope (other process types, jobs, recurrence, cancel/restart, creating run controls); native lost-response recovery is fixture-tested only (see runtime scope)
• In the component editor: Default Search Action, the search-page link message numbers, the Custom style lists; component edits through the MCP
• Build: Alter and Create Indexes/Views on SQL Server and DB2, views using rarer meta-SQL (%DatePart, %Join, %DateAdd ...), column type changes and the other uncaptured Alter cases listed in docs/RECORD_SAVE.md; migration of definition families outside the supported Studio package adapters
• A full language server: compile diagnostics as you type come from Studio's compiler, with field references, functions and definition references (Record.X, Page.X, SQL.X ...) checked against the environment, F12 resolves supported definition references, application class paths and declared functions, and completion covers keywords, the known built-in function catalog, the file's own names, connected record fields and application-class own/inherited members. Broader language tooling remains open.
• PS Query: row security combined with joins, translates, subqueries or unions; subqueries inside a union's select; between on number fields. Excel export and printing are planned.

See docs/ROADMAP.md for the longer path.

Two backends

Database — live PeopleTools tables (Oracle; SQL Server and DB2 experimental). Full environment search; PeopleCode is decoded from the tokenized PSPCMPROG byte stream.

Project export — App Designer XML on disk. No DB credentials; PeopleCode is the plain source App Designer already wrote. Scope is that project only.

A backend is where definitions come from. The two front ends — the VS Code UI and the MCP server for AI clients — sit on top of both:

   VS Code UI          MCP server (AI clients)      <- front ends
        \                    /
         DefinitionProvider interface
        /                    \
 Database backend      Project export backend       <- backends

Both front ends talk only to the DefinitionProvider interface, through the same readers and writers. Capabilities (write, global search, build) are declared per backend, so an AI client gets exactly what the editors get, and a fix to a reader or writer reaches both.

PeopleCode storage

Oracle does not document the on-disk format. Programs are a tokenized stream in PSPCMPROG.PROGTXT (chunked by PROGSEQ) with identifiers in PSPCMNAME.

This extension decodes that stream with a conservative opcode table: unknown bytes are reported, never guessed.

Settings:

• peoplesoft.peoplecode.decoder: auto (default) | strict | raw, the default for connections that do not set their own decoder (per connection, in Settings). Use raw when extending the decoder against real programs.

Saving PeopleCode (experimental)

Read the Disclaimer first. Every connection is read-only until you change it. To allow saves on a connection, open PeopleSoft: Open Settings and, in that connection's PeopleCode saving group:

1. Set Operator ID to a PeopleSoft operator that exists in that database (it is checked against PSOPRDEFN). Saves are recorded under it.
2. Set Access to Writable and confirm.
3. Leave Save mode at Compile and save.

Then open a program -- record → field → event in the tree, an Application Class, or View PeopleCode on a component -- edit it, and save. An event or class that has no program yet opens empty and the first save creates it; clearing a program and saving deletes it. A save is refused with the reason when:

• the program changed since you opened it;
• the edit does not compile;
• the stored program is not one the writer reproduces exactly;
• the operator does not exist in that database.

Saving covers Record Field PeopleCode, Component PeopleCode (component, component record and component record field), Page Activate, Menu ItemSelected, App Engine OnExecute, Component Interface Methods and Application Classes, for any definition name unless peoplesoft.writeNamePrefix limits it. Afterwards, compile the program in Application Designer as well (see the Disclaimer). See CHANGELOG.md for details.

Editor features (PeopleCode)

• Go to Definition — F12 / Ctrl-click resolves qualified application class paths, supported Record.NAME / Page.NAME and other definition references, and functions declared against Record PeopleCode. The target must exist in the connected environment.
• Completion — keywords, the known built-in function catalog, system variables, locals and function/method names; connected record fields after RECORD., and application-class own/inherited members after %This. / %Super. and explicitly typed object variables (0.9.7).
• Responsiveness and stale results (0.9.7) — completion reads class declarations and bounds slow database reads; live and explicit validation run on background workers and discard obsolete work after edits, settings/connection changes or closure. See editor acceptance for real VS Code/HRDMO checks and remaining scope.
• Hover — short docs for keywords, built-ins, % system variables
• Outline — class / method / function / property symbols
• Snippets — if, for, try, locs, msgbox, sqlexec, …
• Validate PeopleCode — compiles the program in the editor with PeopleSoft Studio's compiler (the one saves use) for the connection's PeopleTools release, and shows where it stops in Problems; Application Designer has the last word. It runs as you type (half a second after typing stops, on a background thread, so a 600 KB class does not hold up the editor) unless peoplesoft.peoplecode.validateAsYouType (or the Language Server, peoplesoft.peoplecode.languageServer.enabled) is off -- both, with the delay, the environment checks and unknown-function warnings, are under Settings > PeopleCode Editor; the command validates on demand. Against a database it also does what App Designer's compiler does with the environment: in Record and Component Record PeopleCode a bare field name of the program's record is accepted and shown as App Designer stores it (RECORD.FIELD), with a quick fix to write it so before saving; a name that is not a field, or a RECORD.FIELD the database does not have, is "Field ... not defined. (2,17)"; and a call to a function neither declared nor a known built-in is reported as App Designer's "Unknown function" (2,15); a definition reference (Record.X, Page.X, Component.X, SQL.X ...) the database lacks is noted -- App Designer compiles these without checking, warning only for Image.X ("No definition of IMAGE.X found. (2,68)"), which Studio reports the same way. Completion offers a record's fields after RECORD., every built-in function App Designer compiles, and inside an application class the class's own members after %This. (its private ones too) with those it inherits, following extends through the class's imports
• Format Document — lays a program out as Application Designer does (three-space blocks, wrapped conditions, keyword casing and spacing); it reproduces App Designer's stored text for 30,114 of 30,208 HCDEV programs and applies only when the formatted text compiles to the same program
• Find References — where an identifier (a whole word) or any text occurs in every PeopleCode program of the connection, from the word at the cursor; on a database one search of the stored source, so every program is covered. Pick an occurrence to open it at that line
• Compare Project (Projects view) — text and modeled record/field metadata compared with another connection. Read failures remain errors; missing definitions require a successful absence check. Differences open as snapshots side by side.
• Administration tools — Message Catalog, HCM Text Catalog and URL Definitions have searchable editors with create/edit, concurrency checks and readback verification. See Administration.
• Export Migration Package... / Import Migration Package... — versioned Studio JSON packages, target preview, guarded writers, readback verification and a migration receipt. Supported: fields (every stored property and translate values), records with SubRecords and SQL Table user indexes, standalone SQL, HTML, freeform style sheets, stored PeopleCode, bounded PS Query, scoped menus, App Engine, Application Packages with classes, pages, components, message channels, process definitions and File Layouts. Promote Project to Another Environment… exports, previews and stages the import on a different Oracle environment.
• Review Project Migration... (Projects view or command palette) — a saveable report of members, optional target comparison, explicit dependencies, and unresolved coverage. On Writable database connections, select dependencies to include through the existing project writer. Export/import uses Studio migration packages without Application Designer. See Project migration.
• Compare With Environment — a definition side by side with the same one in another connection (a database or a project export), in VS Code's diff editor. The other side is read once, without making that connection the active one

SQL documents use language id psft-sql (basic highlighting). HTML definitions open as HTML; Preview HTML shows one as a page, with no script run and nothing fetched.

Setup

1. Install the VSIX (npm run dev from a clone, or install a release build).
2. Open the PeopleSoft activity bar icon.
3. Add Connection (Oracle, SQL Server or DB2) or Open Project Export File.
4. Connect, then Open Definition… or use the project tree.

Oracle Instant Client is optional (peoplesoft.oracle.thickModeLibDir); leave empty for node-oracledb Thin mode.

The PeopleTools tables are read in the connection's Schema (Settings → the connection → Edit). Left empty, it is the database's owner ID from PS.PSDBOWNER, else SYSADM. Set it when the owner ID differs and the access id is not the owner; the access id then needs grants on that schema's PeopleTools tables. Connect fails with a clear message when the schema has no PeopleTools tables.

Saving and creating definitions can be limited to names starting with a prefix with peoplesoft.writeNamePrefix (empty: no limit).

Coexisting with other PeopleSoft extensions

jatz.peoplesoft-tools contributes a language also called peoplecode, on scope source.peoplecode, claiming .pcode and .ppl. Two grammars on one scope means load order decides which wins.

So this extension uses psft-peoplecode on source.psft.peoplecode, and its virtual documents end in .peoplecode rather than .pcode. Both extensions can be installed together. richardwood.peoplesoft-datamover only claims .dms and .dmt, so it does not overlap at all.

Troubleshooting

1. Check that the MCP server is running: the Settings panel's MCP server row is green. If it is not, run PeopleSoft: Start MCP Server.
2. Check that your client has the server registered as peoplesoftStudio:

   claude mcp list    # Claude Code
   codex mcp list     # Codex
   

   For another client, check that its MCP settings hold the URL from Copy MCP URL.
3. Restart or reload the client if it was already running when you registered the server.

Integration Broker

Messages, Document Builder, Services, Service Operations, Nodes and Routings now have search, inspection, validation, New, Preview and Save tools. The MCP explicitly distinguishes standard services, REST consumers and REST providers. Use psft_ib_reference for the workflow and Integration Broker documentation for supported native write paths and current PIA-only boundaries. Writes are calibrated on PeopleTools 8.62.09; on 8.61.15, for nonrowset messages, standard services, standard operations without handlers and flat string documents.

MCP workflow discovery

Start with psft_studio_reference or the filterable psft_capability_catalog for definition types, configuration tools, customization strategy and migration coverage. Process Definition editing and bounded PS Query authoring/execution now have dedicated MCP tools. See MCP reference for inputs, operation limits, rollback previews and validation.

Change Review development initiative

The 0.9.1 workflow adds durable Change Sets, persistent semantic review, checkpoint/history and reviewed reversal for bounded MCP paths, with crash and lost-reply reconciliation, continuation undo/redo and creation reversal. Since 0.9.9 it also stages structural Page, Record and App Engine edits and Application Package/class creation and deletion with exact undo/redo. It does not yet cover every object type. Track verified implementation and remaining native acceptance in Change Review progress.

The development UI provides PeopleSoft → Change Review for pending changes and history. Object actions live on right-click menus; project migration actions live on the selected project. View headers keep at most two frequent actions, with secondary operations in their overflow menus. Approval and application remain inside the review workspace. See navigation and action placement.

Approve and apply is the primary action for validated proposals. Approach approval remains separate; approval-only and per-object review remain available. The combined action binds the displayed revision and eligible objects, retaining checkpoints, native write guards and verified readback. See design and verification.