DevHelm

Local development workflow tools for Visual Studio Code: project detection, service controls, environment switching, diagnostics, ports, health checks, and Git assistance.

Supported frameworks: Spring Boot, NestJS, Next.js, and React + Vite. Detection uses direct evidence within each project root; ambiguous configuration remains Unknown. Maven and Gradle are recognized as build tools without assuming Spring Boot. Open a trusted local workspace and select DevHelm in the Activity Bar to access four independent views.

Project

Inspect root-scoped frameworks, package managers/build tools, run commands, and configured ports. Explicit project configuration takes priority over framework defaults. Detection skips generated folders and never borrows framework evidence from another project root.

Services

Use Run, Stop, and Restart to control workspace development scripts in native task terminals. Starting, Running, and Stopped reflect lifecycle evidence; failed exits and watcher/application failures have separate indicators. PID, listening port, URL, and health update as runtime evidence becomes available. Listening alone does not establish application health. Supported health endpoints and the native health setting provide explicit health evidence.

Stop targets the owned process tree. Restart waits for termination and port release. A known occupied port blocks Run; Kill Process requires confirmation. Programs requiring a full interactive TTY should use a regular VS Code terminal.

Diagnostics

Startup Errors groups issues before confirmed Running; Runtime Errors groups later issues. Repeated diagnostics share occurrence counts and timestamps. Use View Error Details, Copy Error, Copy Group, and Copy Run for bounded, redacted reports associated with the relevant run. Application logs remain in native terminals; diagnostic redaction applies to DevHelm reports.

Environment Manager

The Environments view lists In Project files and DevHelm-managed environments. Use Add Environment, Edit Fields, Edit Raw, Save, Save As..., Reconfigure, and confirmed Delete actions.

Dotenv and supported single-line Java Properties documents retain their own quoting and escaping rules. Unsupported syntax or complex backing files use Details or the native editor rather than guessed conversions. Managed environments store values in VS Code SecretStorage. Save As creates another source while preserving the original; overwriting an existing destination requires confirmation.

Switching environments does not copy or overwrite source configuration files. Selected is the environment for the next launch; Running records the current process's environment. Choose Restart explicitly to apply another selection. Selection alone never restarts a service.

See Environment Manager usage for supported mappings, editing boundaries, and source ownership.

Git

Inspect branch and staged-change state, generate or regenerate a rule-based Conventional Commit suggestion, and copy it. Supported types are feat, fix, refactor, chore, docs, and test. Suggestions use staged changes; DevHelm does not stage files or create commits.

DevHelm Settings

Run DevHelm: Open Settings to open native VS Code Settings for this extension. Preferences include automatic URL opening, health endpoint, runtime discovery timeout, diagnostic retention, Git/runtime refresh, preferred local host, logging, historical diagnostics, and run-script overrides.

Set devhelm.language to Auto (auto), English (en), or Vietnamese (vi). Auto chooses Vietnamese for a Vietnamese VS Code display locale and English otherwise. This controls DevHelm's localized interface; it does not translate project values or application logs. Existing devflow.* command, view, and configuration identifiers remain for compatibility. The public extension identifier is QuocDev.devhelm.

Install from VSIX

Requires VS Code 1.85 or newer. In normal VS Code, choose Extensions > ... > Install from VSIX..., select devhelm-0.1.0.vsix, and reload if prompted. Open a trusted local workspace and select DevHelm in the Activity Bar. The installed package includes its runtime dependencies and requires no source checkout. Git and framework build/runtime tools must be available when used.

Windows native behavior is verified. macOS/Linux native runtime behavior is not fully verified. Local filesystem workspaces are supported; virtual filesystem workspaces are excluded. This package has not been published to Marketplace.

Build and verify

For contributors, use Node.js 22 or newer, run npm ci, then npm run package. Packaging runs TypeScript, ESLint, formatting, the full test suite, and package content auditing once before creating and inspecting the VSIX. See packaging and installed verification.