Umetrics®

Bring Scibox® development into Visual Studio Code. This Sartorius extension connects your VS Code workspace to Scibox®, part of the Umetrics® Data Analytics Ecosystem. Create new Scibox® workflows, download existing workflows and user-defined Python functions, work with them using the development tools you already know, and save your changes back to Scibox®.

Use the full VS Code development experience to create, review, test, and refine analytical code. You can also take advantage of AI-assisted coding tools available in VS Code to help generate, explain, transform, or improve Python code before bringing it back into Scibox® workflows and applications.

With the extension, you can:

• Create new Scibox® workflows directly from Visual Studio Code
• Download workflow content and user-defined Python functions from Scibox®
• Edit and develop Scibox code directly in Visual Studio Code
• Use familiar development, debugging, versioning, and AI-assisted coding tools
• Save updated content back to Scibox®
• Turn Python-based analytics into reusable Scibox® workflows and applications

The extension bridges professional software development and the Umetrics® Data Analytics Ecosystem, giving data scientists and developers a flexible way to build advanced analytics while keeping Scibox® as the environment for workflow creation and application deployment.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code 1.90.0 or later
• Access to a Umetrics® environment
• Permission to view and update the relevant Studio projects and workflows

Get Started

1. Open the Umetrics® view from the Activity Bar.
2. Select Umetrics®: Connect and complete authentication.
3. Browse your Studio projects and workflows in the Projects view.
4. Download a workflow to the current workspace, then open a function to edit its Python source.
5. Edit a function's Python file or open Function Properties from the Studio tree.
6. Use the function or workflow sync action in the Studio tree when you are ready to upload changes.

The extension keeps Studio operations explicit. Autosync is off by default, so local changes remain on disk until you sync them. Enable Autosync when you want Python and property-file saves to upload automatically.

Features

Workflow and function editing

• Browse available projects and workflows from the Umetrics® view.
• Download workflows and their assets into your workspace.
• Open, pull, and save user-defined functions.
• Edit function properties through a readable form without editing JSON directly.
• Sync a workflow to upload all its pending changes together, including functions, workflow files, description, and graph; or upload an individual function, workflow file, dataset, or Codespace.
• Run function actions from the Projects tree or Command Palette, or target a Studio function by name through Copilot.

Workflow tools

• Open a visual workflow viewer for workflowDefinition.json files.
• Download the latest workflow graph from Studio.
• Set a workflow description and select the local workflow folder.
• Create a local debug configuration and run a single node function.

Plot configuration preview

Open a Plot Engine configuration file and run Umetrics®: Preview Plot Config to render it in a VS Code webview. The preview watches related data files and refreshes when they change.

Python snippets

Python snippets for common workflow-function code are included. In a Python editor, run Snippets: Insert Snippet from the Command Palette to browse them.

Copilot workflows

The installed extension contributes Umetrics® Copilot skills and a minimal-helper custom agent. Use these from the Chat view to guide common Studio tasks such as creating workflows and functions, uploading data, working with Codespaces, and local debugging. They are packaged with the extension under extension-contributions/; they are distinct from repository-development customizations in .github/.

Skills load in agent mode. To confirm VS Code picked them up, open the extension's page in the Extensions view and look at the Chat Skills and Chat Agents feature tables. For a dedicated tool the model can call to load a skill, enable github.copilot.chat.skillTool.enabled; without it the model reads the matching SKILL.md itself. Skill discovery as a whole follows chat.useAgentSkills.

Common Commands

Open the Command Palette with Ctrl+Shift+P (Cmd+Shift+P on macOS), then search for Umetrics®.

When Autosync is off, saving a Python file or its property JSON records an unsynced change. Upload Function uploads one function and its properties. Sync Workflow to Studio uploads all pending changes for that workflow together, including function changes, workflow files, description, and graph. Workflow files, datasets, and Codespaces have their own actions.

Configuration

Configure the extension in VS Code Settings by searching for Umetrics®.

Plot Configuration Data Files

For a chart.plotconfig.json file, the preview searches for external data in this order:

1. chart.data.json in the same directory.
2. data.json in the same directory.
3. data/chart.json in a data subdirectory.
4. A file referenced by dataFile.
5. A path referenced by dataPath.
6. Embedded data in the configuration's data property.

For example, reference a custom data file from a plot configuration:

{
  "dataFile": "my-custom-data.json",
  "title": "My Chart"
}

Troubleshooting

If authentication or requests fail on Windows because required certificates are unavailable to VS Code, install the win-ca extension and set its Inject method to append. Contact your Studio administrator if you do not have access to the expected projects or workflows.

Feedback

Please report issues and feature requests through your organization's Umetrics® support channel.