ADO Task Creator
Create your standard pair of Azure DevOps tasks under a Product Backlog Item or Bug without leaving VS Code. Type the parent's number, pick the kind of tasks, and you're done.
What it does
- Sign in once. The first time, VS Code asks you to sign in with your Microsoft work account — the same pop-up other Microsoft extensions use. No tokens to create. Then pick your organization from a list.
- Enter the parent work item number — or pick it from your branches. If a repo in your workspace is on a branch like
feature/workstream/pbi123456 or feature/workstream/csr12345/bug654321, that PBI or Bug is suggested, labelled with the repo it came from. You can always type any other number or paste a work item URL.
- Pick the kind of tasks:
| Choice |
Task 1 (Activity) |
Task 2 (Activity) |
| Regular Dev Tasks |
… \| Dev Code Work and Unit Test (Development) |
… \| Dev Peer Review (Peer Review) |
| DBCR Tasks |
… \| Dev DBCR (DBCR) |
… \| Dev DBCR Peer Review (Peer Review) |
| Dev + DBCR Tasks |
all four of the above |
|
Titles follow this pattern:
PBI 123456 | Jane | Dev Code Work and Unit Test
- PBI / Defect: a Product Backlog Item parent becomes
PBI ###### and a Bug becomes Defect ######. Other types are rejected.
- Name is the first name of the signed-in user (
Doe, Jane ABC gives Jane). You can override it in settings.
- Each task inherits the parent's Area and Iteration, is assigned to you, and is linked as a child of the parent.
- Optionally, tasks whose title already exists under the parent can be skipped (off by default — see settings).
Commands
Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P):
- ADO Task Creator: Create Tasks for Work Item:
Ctrl+Alt+T (Cmd+Alt+T on Mac, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T on Linux), or the ADO Tasks button in the status bar
- ADO Task Creator: Sign In / Change Organization
- ADO Task Creator: Sign Out (forgets the organization; remove the account itself from VS Code's Accounts menu)
Branch suggestions
The extension reads the current branch of every Git repository open in VS Code (it uses VS Code's built-in Git support) and looks for pbi<number> or bug<number>. Other numbers in the branch, such as csr12345, are ignored. If the same number appears in several repos, they're listed together. The repo containing the file you have open is shown first.
The branch only suggests the number. Whether a work item is a PBI or a Bug is always read from Azure DevOps.
To change the shortcut, open Keyboard Shortcuts and search for "ADO Task Creator".
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
adoTaskCreator.firstNameOverride |
(empty) |
Name used in titles instead of your first name |
adoTaskCreator.tenantId |
(empty) |
Entra tenant ID or domain, if sign-in picks the wrong directory |
adoTaskCreator.confirmBeforeCreate |
true |
Show titles and confirm before creating |
adoTaskCreator.skipExistingTasks |
false |
Skip tasks whose title already exists under the parent |
adoTaskCreator.showStatusBarButton |
true |
Show the status bar button |
Requirements
- Your process must have an Activity field with the values
Development, Peer Review and DBCR.
- You need permission to create work items in the project.
Privacy
Sign-in is handled entirely by VS Code's built-in Microsoft account provider; the extension never sees your password. It talks only to dev.azure.com and app.vssps.visualstudio.com.
