Lusisoft Developer Portal

A technology-agnostic, customizable developer workspace for Visual Studio Code.
Created by Lusisoft.

v0.3.3 — Preview. The extension is under active development. This version supports nested pages, Markdown blocks, reusable blocks, drag-and-drop ordering, theme customization and opt-in startup. Public availability depends on Marketplace publication; local VSIX installation is supported.

Overview

Lusisoft Developer Portal provides a configurable home for a software project: documentation, custom pages, visual content, links and developer actions, inside VS Code. It does not assume any programming language, framework, game engine or package manager.

The project integrator decides what appears in the portal and which actions are offered. Each project stores its own configuration in .lusisoft/portal.json, which can be committed to Git and shared with collaborators.

Features

• Visual editor: create, rename, remove and reorder pages and blocks without hand-editing JSON.
• Page hierarchy: horizontal top-level navigation and vertical nested subpages.
• Blocks: hero, text, Markdown, callout, action buttons and references to reusable shared blocks.
• Project actions: open a workspace file, open an HTTP(S) link, launch a named VS Code task, or execute a configured process with explicit arguments.
• Themes: follow VS Code or select Ocean, Forest, Amber, Violet or Custom. Customize accent, background, surface and text colors; reset to the last selected preset.
• Project layout: title, subtitle, description, default page, interface density, workspace bar and footer.
• Draft and save: preview unsaved changes; saving keeps the editor open and disables Save until further edits. Exiting with unsaved changes offers a discard confirmation.
• Optional startup: automatically open the portal for a trusted workspace with an explicit workspace setting.

The extension does not install project dependencies, inspect package.json/Cargo.toml to discover commands, or run configured project actions automatically.

Get started

Installation

Once the extension is published, search for Lusisoft Developer Portal under Extensions in VS Code and choose Install.

For a private test build, obtain the authorized .vsix package and install it through Extensions → ... → Install from VSIX..., or from a terminal:

code --install-extension lusisoft-developer-portal-0.3.3.vsix

Create or customize a project portal

1. Open a project folder in VS Code and mark it trusted only if you trust its contents.
2. Open the Command Palette and run Lusisoft: Open Developer Portal.
3. Select Customize to configure identity, pages, blocks, themes and actions.
4. Use Preview to inspect changes and Save changes to write .lusisoft/portal.json.
5. Commit .lusisoft/portal.json if you want teammates to share the configuration.

You can also edit the manifest as JSON. The extension validates configuration before saving and does not overwrite external changes without detecting a conflict.

Example manifest

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "project": {
    "name": "My Project",
    "subtitle": "Team workspace",
    "description": "Documentation and development actions",
    "accentColor": "#b8955c"
  },
  "appearance": {
    "preset": "ocean",
    "customColors": {
      "accent": "#2ab5d7",
      "background": "#101b2b",
      "surface": "#1b2d43",
      "foreground": "#f0f7ff"
    },
    "density": "comfortable",
    "showWorkspaceBar": true,
    "showFooter": true
  },
  "defaultPage": "home",
  "actions": [
    { "id": "guide", "kind": "openFile", "label": "Guide", "path": "README.md" },
    { "id": "check", "kind": "process", "label": "Validate", "executable": "python3", "args": ["-m", "compileall", "-q", "src"] },
    { "id": "website", "kind": "openUrl", "label": "Website", "url": "https://lusisoft.com" }
  ],
  "pages": [
    {
      "id": "home",
      "title": "Welcome",
      "blocks": [
        { "type": "hero", "title": "Welcome", "subtitle": "Choose a task" },
        { "type": "actions", "title": "Project actions", "layout": "cards", "actionIds": ["guide", "check", "website"] }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Actions above are examples only. The project integrator can replace python3 with their own tools and commands.

Open automatically in a configured workspace

Commit the following configuration in the consuming project's .vscode/settings.json:

{
  "lusisoftPortal.openOnStartup": "whenConfigured"
}

Also commit .lusisoft/portal.json. Once the extension is installed and VS Code starts a trusted workspace with these files, the extension can open the portal as an editor tab. It does not replace VS Code's built-in Welcome page. If the extension was just installed while the workspace was already open, use Developer: Reload Window if the portal does not appear immediately.

For a project recommendation, add .vscode/extensions.json:

{
  "recommendations": ["lusisoft.lusisoft-developer-portal"]
}

The recommendation does not install an extension without the user's consent. Marketplace installation requires the extension to be published there; private .vsix builds must be distributed and installed separately.

Supported action kinds

Configured project tasks and processes run only after the user chooses the action, the workspace is trusted, and the required confirmation is given.

Development

Requirements: Node.js 22+, npm and VS Code desktop.

npm install
npm run check

To test in the Extension Development Host, open the extension source folder in VS Code and press F5. The included launch configuration opens the Virtus Mediaevalis example. Use npm run watch while iterating and reload the development host after changes as needed.

To build a VSIX for local testing:

npm run package:vsix

If you use a private GitHub repository, do not assume that non-collaborators can access linked source files. This README intentionally contains its usage instructions directly so its links do not depend on private repository documentation.

Security and privacy

• Portal manifests are data, not executable scripts. Arbitrary HTML/JavaScript from a manifest is not evaluated in the Webview.
• The editor requires a trusted workspace to write configuration.
• The extension does not execute project commands on startup.
• Tokens and secrets must never be stored in .lusisoft/portal.json or committed to the project.

For detailed implementation documentation, consult the docs/ folder in an authorized source checkout.

License

Copyright © 2026 Lusisoft. All rights reserved. Proprietary software. See the LICENSE.md file distributed with the extension for usage terms. Third-party components remain subject to their respective licenses.