Pipelines Explorer

Browse Azure DevOps pipelines, drill into referenced YAML templates and scripts (PowerShell, Bash, Cmd, Python, Azure CLI), and jump to the local files in your workspace.

Pipelines Explorer brings your Azure DevOps pipelines into the VS Code activity bar. Navigate organizations → projects → repositories → pipelines, then expand each pipeline to inspect every YAML template and script task it references — recursively. Link your local repository clone to the matching tree node and a single click opens the actual file in your editor.

Stop hopping between browser tabs to read your pipelines.

Features

• 🔐 Two sign-in modes — Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on or a classic Azure DevOps Personal Access Token. When signed in with Microsoft, a top-of-tree row shows the active account and tenant, and a button in the view title bar opens a tenant picker populated with the tenants your account can access. Expired or revoked tokens are detected automatically: the extension clears the stored credential and prompts you to sign in again.
• 🌳 Org → Project → Repository → Pipeline tree, with friendly empty states (No pipelines in this project, missing-permission warnings, etc.).
• 🔍 Recursive YAML analysis — every template: reference and every script-running task is surfaced under each pipeline. Recognised tasks include PowerShell@2, AzurePowerShell@5, PowerShellOnTargetMachines@3, Bash@3, ShellScript@2, CmdLine@2, BatchScript@1, AzureCLI@2, PythonScript@0, plus the shorthand step keys script:, bash:, pwsh:, powershell:. Same-repo templates can be expanded to reveal their templates and scripts. Empty groups are hidden.
• 🔗 Link a workspace folder to a repository and click any pipeline / template / script to open the local file. Pipeline variables like $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory) and $(Build.SourcesDirectory), repo-absolute paths and relative ../ segments are all resolved automatically.
• � Filter by name — press the funnel icon (or run Pipelines Explorer: Filter) to shrink the tree to pipelines, templates and scripts whose name contains a substring. The scan is debounced (~200 ms), covers every organization / project / repository the signed-in identity can see, recurses into same-repo templates, and reveals matching pipelines automatically.
• �📋 Filename-first labels with full repo paths in the tooltip, so the tree stays readable on long deployment templates.

Tree at a glance

Pipelines
└── My Organization
    └── My Project
        └── Project-Repo · 32 · azureReposGit · linked
            ├── Build & Deploy
            │   ├── Templates (3)
            │   │   ├── deployment.yml          (tooltip: solutions/foo/.ci/deployment.yml)
            │   │   │   ├── Templates (2)
            │   │   │   │   ├── prepare-parameters.yml
            │   │   │   │   └── deploy-infrastructure.yml
            │   │   │   └── Scripts (1)
            │   │   │       └── Get-WorkloadPath.ps1     PowerShell@2
            │   │   ├── build.yml
            │   │   └── lint.yml
            │   └── Scripts (4)
            │       ├── New-EntraIdWorkload.ps1   AzurePowerShell@5
            │       ├── deploy.sh                 Bash@3
            │       ├── (inline script)           bash
            │       └── (inline script)           PowerShell@2
            └── …

Screenshot

Filter

Getting started

1. Install the .vsix:

   code --install-extension vscode-pipelinesexplorer-0.3.0.vsix
   

   (Or, once published, install from the Marketplace.)
2. Open the Pipelines Explorer view in the activity bar.
3. Choose a sign-in method:
   • Sign in with Microsoft — uses VS Code's built-in Microsoft account. Recommended for organizations connected to Microsoft Entra ID.
   • Sign in with Personal Access Token — paste a PAT with at least Code (Read), Build (Read) and Project and Team (Read) scopes, and All accessible organizations as Organizations scope so the tree can enumerate every org your account can reach. See PAT scope and the 1 Dec 2026 deprecation below before you generate one.
4. Browse organizations → projects → repositories → pipelines.

A header row at the top of the tree shows the active connection (account name and, for Microsoft sign-in, the current tenant). Clicking the row — or the organization icon next to Refresh in the view title bar — opens a quick-pick listing the Entra ID tenants your account belongs to, so you can switch tenant without signing out. The choice is persisted across restarts; Reset clears it.

Linking a local clone

If you already have a local clone of one of your repositories open in VS Code:

1. Right-click the repository node and choose Link Workspace Folder… (or use the inline link icon).
2. Pick the workspace folder that contains the clone.
3. Single-click any pipeline / template / *.ps1 underneath that repo to open the file in the editor.

If a referenced file isn't found in the linked folder (e.g. it's on a different branch), the extension shows a warning with Re-link Workspace and Open in Browser options. The warning also tells you which branch the YAML was read from on Azure DevOps.

To remove a link: right-click the repository → Unlink Workspace Folder.

Choosing a branch (per repository)

By default Pipelines Explorer reads pipeline YAML, templates and scripts from each repository's default branch on Azure DevOps. You can override the branch on a per-repository basis:

1. Right-click a repository node → Select Branch….
2. Pick a branch from the list, or choose Use default branch to clear the override.
3. The tree refreshes and reads YAML from the chosen branch. The repository node shows · branch: <name> while an override is active.

When you link a workspace folder that is a Git working copy, the extension auto-detects its current branch (from .git/HEAD) and offers to use it as the override — keeping what you see in the tree aligned with what you have checked out locally.

Commands

Languages

The brand prefix Pipelines Explorer is preserved in every locale (untranslated).

Manifest strings live in package.nls.<lang>.json and runtime strings in l10n/bundle.l10n.<lang>.json. To improve a translation, open a PR editing the relevant files — preview locales include a _comment field in the manifest flagging their status.

Accessibility

Pipelines Explorer follows the VS Code accessibility guidelines:

• Keyboard navigation — every action is reachable via the command palette (Pipelines Explorer: …), the tree's built-in keyboard support, and context menu commands. No mouse-only interactions.
• Screen reader support — every tree item provides accessibilityInformation with a localized label that summarises the node type and key metadata (e.g. "Repository foo, 12 pipelines, linked to local folder, branch override main"). Tested with the VS Code built-in screen reader optimised mode.
• No color-only signals — node states (linked, branch override, warnings) are conveyed through icons (ThemeIcon) and text labels, never color alone.
• High contrast & themes — all icons use VS Code ThemeIcon ids so they follow the user's theme, including high contrast and high contrast light.
• Localized announcements — accessibility labels and warning messages (e.g. "YAML file not found in the repository.") are translated through the same vscode.l10n bundles used for the UI.

PAT scope and the 1 Dec 2026 deprecation

Pipelines Explorer discovers organizations by calling https://app.vssps.visualstudio.com/_apis/accounts — a global Azure DevOps endpoint. When you sign in with a Personal Access Token, that endpoint only works with a PAT whose Organizations scope is set to All accessible organizations (also called a global PAT). An organization-scoped PAT returns an empty list and the tree stays empty.

Microsoft has announced the retirement of global PATs for Azure DevOps Services on 1 December 2026 (aka.ms/GlobalPATDeprecation). On that date every existing global PAT stops working and new ones can no longer be created. Azure DevOps Server is not affected.

What this means for Pipelines Explorer:

• Until 1 Dec 2026 — PAT sign-in works as documented, provided you tick All accessible organizations when you generate the token.
• Recommended today — use Sign in with Microsoft. Entra-backed sign-in is the durable path and is unaffected by the retirement.
• After 1 Dec 2026 — PAT sign-in will only be usable against a single organization at a time. Support for per-organization PATs is tracked as plan 002.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.99.0 or newer.
• An Azure DevOps account with read access to the organizations / projects / pipelines you want to browse.
• (Optional) Local clones of the repositories whose files you want to open.

Known limitations

• YAML is read from a single branch per repository on Azure DevOps — the default branch, or the branch chosen via Select Branch… on the repository node. The tree (templates, scripts, line numbers) reflects that branch. If your local clone is on a different branch, opening a script may fail with "File not found in linked workspace"; either change the override (right-click the repo → Select Branch…) or align the local clone (git switch / git pull).
• Cross-repo template references (template: file.yml@otherRepo) are shown as leaves in the tree (no recursion). They can still be opened locally if a workspace folder has been linked to a repo with the same alias.
• Only azureReposGit repositories are inspected for YAML content. GitHub-hosted pipeline definitions are listed but not expanded.
• Pipeline variables other than System.DefaultWorkingDirectory, Build.SourcesDirectory, Pipeline.Workspace and Agent.BuildDirectory are not interpolated when resolving local file paths.

Telemetry

This extension does not collect telemetry.

License

MIT © Riccardo Cappello