Porter DevTools — VirtusCo

Internal VS Code extension for flashing firmware and deploying software to Porter Robot hardware.

Features

• Browse GitHub Releases — fetch and view release artifacts from Porter-ROS
• Download Artifacts — download pre-built binaries with SHA256 verification
• Flash ESP32 Firmware — flash via esptool.py (release binaries) or west (local builds)
• Deploy to Raspberry Pi — upload Docker images and Flutter GUI via SSH
• Quick Deploy — one-click: select a release version and auto-deploy everything
• Device Detection — auto-detect ESP32 devices on USB serial
• Serial Monitor — webview-based serial terminal for ESP32 debugging

Installation

Download the .vsix file from the latest GitHub Release, then:

code --install-extension porter-devtools-*.vsix

Or in VS Code: Ctrl+Shift+P → Extensions: Install from VSIX...

Setup

1. Open VS Code Settings (Ctrl+,) and search for Porter
2. Set GitHub Token — required for private repo access
3. Set RPi Host — IP address of your Raspberry Pi (for deployment)
4. Ensure esptool.py is installed (pip install esptool) for ESP32 flashing

Usage

1. Click the Porter DevTools icon in the Activity Bar (left sidebar)
2. Devices panel shows connected ESP32s and configured RPi
3. Releases panel lists available versions — click the rocket icon for Quick Deploy
4. Actions panel shows available operations based on connected hardware

Requirements

• VS Code 1.85.0+
• Python + esptool (for ESP32 flashing)
• SSH key configured (for RPi deployment)
• GitHub PAT with repo scope (for private repo access)