Extension Update Delay

Extension Update Delay is a Visual Studio Code extension that prevents brand-new extension releases from being installed immediately.

It is useful if you want VS Code extension updates, but prefer to wait until a release has been available for a configurable amount of time, such as 24 or 48 hours.

How It Works

The extension disables VS Code's built-in automatic extension updates, then performs its own update check.

For each installed extension it:

1. Reads the currently installed version with the VS Code CLI.
2. Queries the Visual Studio Marketplace for the latest published version and release date.
3. Installs the latest version only when that release is older than the configured delay.

Internally it uses:

code --list-extensions --show-versions
code --install-extension publisher.name@version --force

Features

• Configurable update delay in hours.
• Optional automatic checks on an interval.
• Manual update check command from the Command Palette.
• Optional disablement of VS Code's built-in extension auto-update setting.
• Extension exclude list for packages you do not want managed.
• Exact-version installs through the VS Code CLI.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code
• Node.js, only when developing or packaging the extension
• The VS Code CLI available as code or code.cmd

On Windows, the default CLI command is code.cmd.

Install From Source

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Apisathan/vscode-extension-update-delay.git
cd vscode-extension-update-delay

Install dependencies and compile:

npm install
npm run compile

Open the project in VS Code:

code .

Press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host.

Package As VSIX

Install the VS Code extension packaging tool:

npm install -g @vscode/vsce

Build a .vsix package:

npm run compile
vsce package

Install the generated package:

code.cmd --install-extension .\extension-update-delay-0.0.1.vsix --force

Usage

Run this command from the Command Palette:

Extension Update Delay: Check Updates Now

Logs are written to:

View > Output > Extension Update Delay

Configuration

Example settings.json:

{
  "extensionUpdateDelay.delayHours": 48,
  "extensionUpdateDelay.checkIntervalHours": 24,
  "extensionUpdateDelay.autoCheck": true,
  "extensionUpdateDelay.disableBuiltInAutoUpdate": true,
  "extensionUpdateDelay.codeExecutable": "code.cmd",
  "extensionUpdateDelay.excludeExtensions": [
    "publisher.extension-name"
  ]
}

Available settings:

• extensionUpdateDelay.delayHours: minimum release age before installing an update. Default: 24.
• extensionUpdateDelay.checkIntervalHours: automatic check interval. Default: 24.
• extensionUpdateDelay.autoCheck: enables scheduled update checks. Default: true.
• extensionUpdateDelay.disableBuiltInAutoUpdate: sets extensions.autoUpdate to false. Default: true.
• extensionUpdateDelay.codeExecutable: VS Code CLI command or full path. Default: code.cmd on Windows, code elsewhere.
• extensionUpdateDelay.excludeExtensions: extension IDs to skip.

Notes

This extension relies on the public Visual Studio Marketplace API and the local VS Code CLI. If your editor uses another marketplace or does not support code --install-extension publisher.name@version, exact-version installs may not work.