MDM VS Code Extension

A Visual Studio Code extension that surfaces your MDM CLI data directly in the sidebar.

Manage your markdown-driven Skills, Agent definitions, Harnesses, Rules, Knowledge bundles, and Plugins through the VS Code UI, with MDM running under the hood.

Features

• Activity Bar icon - dedicated MDM panel in the left sidebar
• Six collapsible sections: Skills · Agents · Harnesses · Rules · Knowledge · Plugins
• Skill management - find, install, update, audit, and remove skills without leaving the editor; tooltips show which harnesses a skill is installed to and which plugin owns it
• Cherry-pick (fork) skills - fork third-party skills into ./skills as your own (mdm skills cherry-pick), optionally installing the forks, with a replace prompt when a fork already exists
• Install mode - each scope header shows whether it installs by symlink (default) or copy; switch the project between the two from the header's context menu (mdm skills install --copy|--symlink)
• Agent definitions - browse the subagent persona files (mdm agents) recorded in mdm.lock and the global state, per scope; add from a repo or path with a harness picker, update, remove, and restore; a definition whose canonical file is missing is flagged with a one-click restore
• Harness management - add and remove configured harnesses (mdm harnesses, the AI tools mdm installs into) per scope; marks harnesses detected on this machine and warns when a harness's rules file isn't linked
• Rules management - link / unlink harness rule files to AGENTS.md from the sidebar; broken symlinks are shown with a one-click re-link
• Knowledge bundles - browse, update, and remove OKF bundles recorded in mdm.lock
• Plugins - browse, update, and remove Agent Plugins, with an optional data purge on removal
• mdm.lock as JSON - the lock file opens with JSON syntax highlighting and is validated against a bundled schema (hover any key for its meaning); mdm-state.json gets a schema too
• v1 → v2 migration - detects v1 lock files and offers to run mdm migrate, with a keep-tombstone / delete choice, a dry-run plan, and a guided --force step when an existing mdm.lock is missing entries the v1 files still hold; a pre-release mdm-lock.json is offered a rename to mdm.lock
• Quick-actions hub - the MDM status-bar button opens a menu with every command: skills, agent definitions, knowledge, plugins, harnesses, rules, restore, doctor, migration, and bug reporting
• One-click onboarding - MDM: Restore Project from Lock runs skills (which restores agent definitions too) + knowledge + plugins install in one go; empty views offer it directly
• Doctor and bug reports - MDM: Doctor shows the health report in the MDM output channel even when it exits non-zero; MDM: Report a Bug builds the prefilled GitHub issue form with mdm bug --print (nothing is sent until you submit it)
• Welcome views - every empty section explains itself and offers the relevant action as a button; a missing CLI shows setup guidance instead of an error row
• Live data - views refresh automatically when any mdm lock file or a canonical agent definition changes on disk, plus per-section refresh buttons
• Copy name context menu action on any item
• Command palette parity - every action is also a palette command under the MDM: category
• Graceful error handling - shows a clear message and settings shortcut when the CLI is not found

Requirements

The MDM CLI must be installed and reachable in your PATH:

# verify
mdm --version

If you installed the CLI to a non-standard location, set mdm.cliPath in VS Code settings.

Versioning

The extension and the CLI are major-version aligned: extension 2.x targets mdm CLI 2.x. Minor and patch versions move independently on each side. The extension checks the CLI version on activation: an older CLI gets an mdm upgrade nudge, a newer CLI major prompts you to update the extension. Dev builds of the CLI (mdm dev) are exempt from the check.

Extension Settings

CLI Commands Used

The extension drives Skills, Harnesses, and Rules through mdm <subcommand> --json, and reads Agent definition, Knowledge, and Plugin entries straight from mdm.lock and ~/.agents/mdm-state.json (the v1 per-feature lock files are read as a pre-migration fallback). Output is validated against per-shape type guards before being rendered, so an unfamiliar CLI response surfaces as an in-tree error rather than a silent failure.

Implementation details are documented in AGENTS.md.

Development

Requires Bun ≥ 1.x.

git clone https://github.com/sethcarney/mdm-vscode.git
cd mdm-vscode
bun install
bun run compile

Press F5 in VS Code to open the Extension Development Host with the extension loaded.

Scripts

Releasing

Bump the version in package.json and push to main:

# edit package.json: "version": "1.2.0"
git commit -am "chore: release v1.2.0"
git push origin main

The release workflow detects the new version, packages the extension, generates SLSA provenance, and creates a GitHub release with the .vsix attached. Download the .vsix from the release and upload it manually to the VS Code Marketplace.

License

Apache-2.0