D365 Deployer

Deploy Web Resources and Plugin Packages to Dynamics 365 CE directly from the VS Code Explorer context menu.

Prerequisites

1. Power Platform CLI (PAC)

Option A — via VS Code extension (recommended)

Install the Power Platform Tools extension by Microsoft. PAC CLI is bundled — no separate install needed.

Option B — via winget

winget install Microsoft.PowerPlatformCLI

Option C — via MSI Download and install from: https://aka.ms/PowerAppsCLI

Verify:

pac help

2. .NET SDK (plugin deployment only)

Required for dotnet msbuild. Download from: https://dot.net

Verify:

dotnet --version

3. Connect to your D365 environment

pac auth create --url https://<your-org>.crm.dynamics.com

This opens a Microsoft login window. Sign in with an account that has access to the environment.

pac auth list          # list connections
pac auth select --index <n>   # switch active connection

Web Resources

Project setup

At the root of the project (workspace folder), create d365-deployment.settings.json:

{
  "publisherName": "Mx Dynamics",
  "publisherPrefix": "mx",
  "solutionUniqueName": "FormScript"
}

If the file is missing, it is created automatically with empty values on the first deployment.

Project structure

<project>/
├── d365-deployment.settings.json   ← configuration
├── src/
│   ├── myScript.form.ts            ← TypeScript files to deploy
│   └── static/
│       └── myFile.html             ← Static files to deploy
├── dist/                           ← pre-built output (build before deploying)
└── build/                          ← auto-generated (staging + .zip)

The extension reads from dist/ — run your build step before deploying.

Deploy

Plugin Packages

Project setup

1. Expected structure

Each plugin project must contain a .csproj file. The folder name of the project is used as the key in the configuration file.

solution-root/
├── PluginDeploymentConfig.json   ← plugin package configuration
├── Plugins.Core/
│   └── Plugins.Core.csproj
├── Plugins.Finance/
│   └── Plugins.Finance.csproj
└── Plugins.Notifications/
    └── Plugins.Notifications.csproj

2. PluginDeploymentConfig.json

Create this file at the root of your solution (or any ancestor folder of your plugin projects). The extension walks up the directory tree to find it automatically.

{
  "prefix": "mx",
  "packages": {
    "Plugins.Core": {
      "name": "mx_Plugins.Core",
      "packageId": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
    },
    "Plugins.Finance": {
      "name": "mx_Plugins.Finance",
      "packageId": ""
    }
  }
}

First deployment: if packageId is missing or empty, the extension creates the package in Dataverse via the REST API, retrieves its GUID, and writes it back to the file.

3. Auto-generated plugins section

After each successful deployment, the extension fetches the list of plugin assemblies, steps, and images from Dataverse and saves them under plugins. This block is read-only reference data — it gives you a live view of what is registered in D365 without leaving VS Code.

{
  "prefix": "mx",
  "packages": {
    "Plugins.Core": {
      "name": "mx_Plugins.Core",
      "packageId": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "plugins": [
        {
          "name": "Plugins.Core",
          "pluginId": "yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyyyyy",
          "steps": [
            {
              "stepId": "zzzzzzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzz",
              "name": "MyPlugin.Execute: Create of account",
              "mode": 0,
              "stage": 20,
              "rank": 1,
              "filteringAttributes": "",
              "preImages": [],
              "postImages": []
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Deploy

Right-click a plugin project folder in the Explorer → Deploy Package To CRM

You can select multiple folders at once (Ctrl/Shift multi-select) to deploy several plugins in sequence.

Each selected plugin goes through:

1. dotnet msbuild -t:Rebuild — full clean rebuild
2. pac plugin push --pluginId <GUID> — pushes to the connected D365 environment
3. Automatic refresh of the plugins block in PluginDeploymentConfig.json

If pac plugin push fails (package not found in D365), the extension offers to create a new package automatically.

Diagnostics

Ctrl+Shift+P → D365: Diagnose Settings

The D365 Deployer output panel shows the configuration state and PAC connection info.

Troubleshooting