Sitecore Serialization Explorer

A Visual Studio Code extension that helps Sitecore developers visualize, inspect, validate, and edit Sitecore Content Serialization (SCS) configuration from inside the IDE.

• Main Features
• Installation
• Configuration
• Authentication
• Features
  1. Sitecore Serialization Explorer
  2. Explain Panel
  3. Modules Listing Panel
  4. Module Items Listing Panel
  5. Module JSON Editor
• Requirements
• Full Configuration
• Known Issues
• Release Notes

Main Features

1) A live Sitecore Content Tree (via Authoring GraphQL):

2) Serialization status visualization (direct, indirect, untracked, not serialized):

Serialized (colored)	Not Serialized (grayed out)

3) Integrated Explain analysis.

4) Module-level exploration across configured json files.

5) In-editor module configuration editing for includes, rules, excluded fields, roles, and users.

Installation

Install the module using one of the options below:

• Search for "Sitecore Serialization Explorer" and install using Visual Studio Code Extensions or
• Search for "Sitecore Serialization Explorer" and install using Visual Studio Marketplace or
• Download and install from the GitHub Repository

Configuration

1. Open your solution folder in Visual Studio Code
2. Create a file for environment variables (Eg:/.env.local) at the root of your folder and add the variables:

It is recommended that you point to the "Preview" version of your "Development" Environment for serialization

3. Restart Visual Studio Code (CTRL+R)

Authentication

This extension uses the same session used by the Sitecore CLI Serialization, reading its configurations from the .sitecore/user. The authentication is typically made by opening the root of your repository in a terminal window and typing:

dotnet sitecore cloud login --allow-write true

After that, click on the Refresh button at the Sitecore Serialization Explorer window, at the left column of VSCode's Explorer tab:

Features

1) Sitecore Serialization Explorer

Adds a custom view in File Explorer: Sitecore Serialization Explorer.

• Items are listed in a content tree in the same way as in Sitecore's Content Editor
• Refresh reloads the tree from scratch
• Items can be quickly searched by Path or ID - Reveals the item in the tree and opens the Explain Panel for it
• A list of serialization modules is easily available from here

At the bottom of Visual Studio Code there are two aditional filters:

Database Filtering - Refreshes tree state for the selected database.

Module Filtering - Content is filtered to the selected module scope.

2) Explain Panel

Command: Show Details (also opens when clicking tree nodes)

For each item, the panel shows:

• Item path.
• Effective serialized/not-serialized status.
• Module match and module description.
  • Click "EDIT" opens the module in Edition Mode
  • Click "VIEW ITEMS" shows a list of items serialized by this module
• Human-readable explain reasons parsed from CLI output.
• YAML physical file (when available).

3) Modules Listing Panel

Command: Show all modules

• Shows all active modules resolved from sitecore.json module globs.
• Displays module namespace, description, references, and resolved JSON path.
• Includes actions to open JSON, edit module, and view module items.

• Click "EDIT" opens the module in Edition Mode
• Click "VIEW ITEMS" shows a list of items serialized by this module

4) Module Items Listing Panel

From Explain or Modules panel, View Items opens a module items breakdown:

• Groups results by:
  • Master database items
  • Core database items
  • Roles
  • Users
• For each row, shows path/value, status (direct/indirect), include/rule source, and YAML path.
• Supports:
  • Open YAML
  • Copy item path
  • Copy item ID

5) Module JSON Editor

From Explain/Modules panel, Edit opens a rich module editor with save support.

Editable areas:

• Module namespace and description
• References
• Includes
• Include rules
• Excluded fields
• Role predicates
• User predicates

Editor capabilities:

• Add/remove includes and rules.
• Add/remove excluded fields, role predicates, user predicates.
• Expand/collapse all includes.
• Drag-and-drop reorder includes.
• Jump navigation to Module / Includes / Excluded Fields / Roles / Users sections.
• Reveal a specific include or rule when opened from Explain actions.

Each include has 3 tabs:

1. "Overview" tab shows quick information about the include

2. "Edit" tab offers the edition form

3. "Content Tree" tree shows the items affected by the include (serialized or not) in a Content Tree format

Requirements

The extension assumes a Sitecore development workspace with serialization assets.

Required

• Visual Studio Code
• .NET SDK and Sitecore CLI (dotnet sitecore).
• A valid Sitecore solution/workspace containing serialization configuration and YAML items.

Recommended workspace files

• One or more sitecore.json files with modules globs.
• Resolved module JSON files (*.module.json, *.json, etc.) containing items.includes.
• Serialized YAML trees under each module root in items/.

Full Configuration

All options can be set either as a VS Code setting (via settings.json or the Settings UI) or as a .env.local variable in the workspace root. VS Code settings take precedence over .env.local variables when both are present.

Known Issues

• If dotnet sitecore ser explain is unavailable or slow, some status reconciliation may be delayed or remain unresolved.
• GraphQL errors (missing endpoint, invalid token, insufficient permissions, unavailable authoring host) prevent live tree loading.

Release Notes

1.0.2

Fine tuned the README documentation

1.0.1

Added an icon to our extension

1.0.0

Initial public version of Sitecore Serialization Explorer with:

• Explorer tree integration and serialization status indicators.
• Path/GUID search and reveal.
• Database and module filtering.
• Explain panel with YAML/module navigation.
• Modules listing and module items breakdown.
• In-editor module JSON editing experience.
• Optional performance tracing output.