NETCONF CLIENT for Visual Studio Code

About

This extension adds an interactive NETCONF client to Visual Studio Code, connecting to NETCONF servers such as NOKIA IP routers (SR OS and SRLinux). It brings NETCONF into the editor so you can manage modern network equipment directly from VS Code using the standard NETCONF protocol.

The extension is written in TypeScript and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Remote SSH is supported for lab access over private networks, including via SSH jump hosts and containerlab. It has been validated with VS Code, code-server, and Cursor.

Build

Prerequisites: Node.js and npm.

Clone the repository, install dependencies, and package the extension (compile runs automatically via vscode:prepublish). See the VS Code publishing documentation for more on vsce and publishing.

git clone https://github.com/nokia/vscode-netconf
cd vscode-netconf
npm install
npx vsce package

This produces a .vsix file that can be installed directly in VS Code and Cursor.

Contributions

Contributions are welcome. Open an issue for bugs or ideas, or send a pull request. We’re happy to review and merge.

Getting Started!

NETCONF server settings are persisted as part of the extension settings. For common cases like adding or deleting server entries, open the NETCONF view from the activity bar and you will have direct access to the server and connection list.

If you require advanced settings, like persisting the server passwords or adjusting the client capabilities, you will find those options as part of the extension settings.

Supported Features

• Support for NETCONF over SSHv2

  RFC 6241 and RFC 6242 compliant NETCONF client, fully integrated with Visual Studio Code. Both *end-of-message framing and chunked-framing (base:1.0 and base:1.1) are supported.

• Authentication support: username/password and key-based

• Connection control

  The user has control when to connect/disconnect to a NETCONF server. Multiple parallel NETCONF sessions are supported, while the user can decide, which RPC is send over which connection.

  This allows execute complex flows like lock > edit-config > validate > confirmed-commit > confirm > unlock. It's also an enabler to receive event notifications (see below). Detailed logs (per connection) are available using OUTPUT channels.

• Support for NETCONF event notifications

  The vscode-netconf extension is RFC 5277 compliant to receive NETCONF event notifications. Events will be buffered and while the status-bar shows the number of received events. By clicking on the events icon in the status-bar, a new TextDocument containing the buffered notifications will be opened and the buffer gets cleared.

  

• Examples library

  NETCONF request examples are available from https://github.com/nokia/netconf-examples and can be added to the vscode workspace.

  By default, the example library will be cloned to the users home directory. You can set the git.defaultCloneDirectory in the Visual Studio Code settings to an alternative folder like "~/Development" based on your personal needs.

• Access to server SSH greetings, SSH banner

• Access to NETCONF <hello/> messages

• Option: Prettify XML

  From the extension settings it is possible to activate the NETCONF: prettify option. This is useful, when NETCONF servers return minified XML.

• Option: Auto-open Response Files

  The NETCONF: Auto-open Response Files setting controls whether new file tabs are automatically opened when NETCONF responses are received from the router. When disabled, responses are still logged but won't automatically open new file tabs. User-initiated actions (like clicking "Open" on notifications or manually sending custom RPCs) will still open files regardless of this setting. Default: enabled.

• Option: SSH debug

  To troubleshoot SSHv2 related issues, like handshake problems around ciphers, and key-exchange algorithms, SSH debugging can be enabled. To check the logs, use the console-view part of Developer tools (accessible from Help).

• Integration with vscode-containerlab

  Create connections to nodes managed by containerlab, without the need to configure connection details. Extension will use containerlab hostname, default user and key-based authentication. Fallback to password-based authentication, while user is prompted to provide connecting details. Default settings can be tuned as needed.

  

• XML Navigator

  The extension includes XML Navigator to navigate, view, and edit NETCONF requests and responses side-by-side with the text editor.

  The XML Navigator works like the Markdown preview: once you have an XML file open, launch it from the Command Palette or the editor title bar button. The Navigator opens in a split pane beside the XML editor and stays in sync with the active document. You only need one XML Navigator at a time; if you switch to a different XML document, the Navigator follows that document.

  The Navigator has no knowledge of the underlying schema (YANG or XSD). It detects tables automatically when it finds sibling elements with the same XML tag name. As a result, there is no type validation and no handling of concepts such as list keys.

  Use the navigation bar to browse the element tree—it builds the path segment by segment. Depending on context you see either Element View or Table View. Edits are applied to the underlying XML document and support Undo/Redo.

  Sync from editor to Navigator is not automatic: use the context menu on selected XML tags to update the Navigator to the corresponding path. When you change context or focus an input in the Navigator, it shows you the corresponding element or section in the editor.

  Table View lets you edit directly, spreadsheet-style. Tables are flattened to include nested child containers.

  Experimental: Multi-cell copy, paste, and delete, as well as editing nested tables, are still experimental and may fail or produce invalid XML. Always review the resulting XML after editing.

  

Compatibility

Following vendors and device families have been tested so far:

We don't mind to get access to 3rd party equipment (preferred virtual router/simulator images as virtual-machine or docker), test licenses and some basic instructions to extend the scope of our testing, improve compatibility and extend the capabilities.

Known issues

• NETCONF responses are opened as new TextDocument. Visual Studio Code is automatically setting the isDirty tag, while you can't simple close the document as the Save As dialogue will always show up.

  Related to vscode-issue #154664.

• NETCONF responses will open as Untitled TextDocument. It's not possible to provide meaningful tab-names. Ideally, we would pre-define a file:// location, that it could be saved by simply doing CTRL-S / CMD-S without Save As popup.

  Related to vscode-issue #41909.

• The vscode-netconf extension uses the API methods showInformationMessage(), showWarningMessage(), and showErrorMessage(). Messages are displayed as plain text without differentiation between message title and details and there is no possibility to show preformatted text and enforce line-breaks. In consequence, SSH banners are not displayed very nicely.

License

This project is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause license - see the LICENSE.

Copyright (c) 2026 NOKIA