Jenkins Workbench

A powerful VS Code extension that brings Jenkins directly into your editor. Browse jobs, trigger builds, stream console logs, watch for status changes, and manage your CI/CD pipelines without leaving VS Code.

Features

Browse & Navigate

• Activity Bar View — Dedicated Jenkins sidebar with a hierarchical tree view
• Multi-Environment Support — Connect to multiple Jenkins instances with workspace or global scope
• Browse Everything — Explore folders, multibranch pipelines, jobs, builds, and nodes
• Go to Job... — Quick search across all configured Jenkins environments
• Pin Jobs & Pipelines — Keep critical items at the top of the tree for quick access
• Open Nodes in Jenkins — Jump from node items directly to their Jenkins page

Build Management

• Trigger Builds — Start builds with support for parameterized jobs (strings, booleans, choices, passwords)
• Stop Builds — Abort running builds directly from the tree
• Replay & Rebuild — Re-run builds with the same or modified configuration
• Open in Jenkins — Jump to any job, pipeline, or build in your browser

Build Insights & Artifacts

• Build Progress — Estimated progress and duration for running builds
• Richer Tooltips — Optional build tooltips with causes, changes, and parameters
• Artifact Preview & Download — Open images/text artifacts or download them to your workspace

Build Details Panel

• Live Console Streaming — Watch build output in real-time with automatic scrolling
• Pipeline Visualization — View stage-by-stage progress for Pipeline jobs
• Test Results — See test summary when builds complete
• Build Notifications — Get notified when watched builds finish

Watch Jobs

• Status Notifications — Watch jobs and receive alerts when builds succeed, fail, or change status
• Configurable Polling — Adjust poll intervals to balance responsiveness and server load
• Smart Recovery — Automatic retry with backoff for transient errors

Filtering

• Job Status Filters — Show all jobs, only failing jobs, or only running jobs
• Branch Filtering — Filter branches within multibranch pipeline folders
• Quick Access — Filter icons in the view title bar for one-click filtering

Build Queue

• Queue Visibility — See pending builds waiting in the queue
• Cancel Queue Items — Remove builds from the queue before they start
• Auto-Refresh — Queue updates automatically when expanded

Quick Start

1. Open the Jenkins Workbench view in the Activity Bar (look for the Jenkins icon)
2. Click the Add Environment button (plus icon) or run Jenkins Workbench: Add Environment from the Command Palette
3. Choose a scope:
   • Workspace — Available only in the current workspace
   • Global — Available across all workspaces
4. Enter your Jenkins details:
   • URL — Your Jenkins base URL (e.g., https://jenkins.example.com)
5. Select an auth method:
   • None — No authentication headers
   • Basic — Username + API token
   • Bearer token — Authorization: Bearer <token>
   • Cookie header — Send a Cookie header with every request
   • Custom headers (JSON) — Arbitrary headers (e.g., {"Cookie":"JSESSIONID=...","X-Forwarded-User":"jenkins"})
6. Provide credentials if prompted:
   • Basic — Username + API token
   • Bearer token — Token value
   • Cookie header — Cookie string
   • Custom headers (JSON) — JSON object of headers
7. Browse your jobs — Expand the environment to see jobs, builds, and nodes

Requirements

Extension Settings

Caching & Performance

Polling & Watches

Job Search

Build Tooltips

Artifacts

Commands

Environment Management

Build Actions

Artifacts

Navigation & Search

Filtering

Organization

Watch

Security

Jenkins Workbench takes security seriously:

• Secure Credential Storage — API tokens, bearer tokens, cookie values, and custom headers are stored in VS Code's SecretStorage
• Auth Header Support — Basic, Bearer, Cookie, and custom headers are sent on every request, including CSRF crumb acquisition
• CSRF Protection — Full support for Jenkins crumb issuer when CSRF protection is enabled
• Network Security — All API calls use the configured URL scheme; use HTTPS for production Jenkins instances
• No Interactive SSO — The extension does not perform browser-based OAuth/SAML flows; supply cookies/tokens manually

Recommended Setup

1. Use HTTPS — Always configure your Jenkins URL with https://
2. Create an API Token — Generate a dedicated API token in Jenkins (User > Configure > API Token)
3. Use a Service Account — Consider a dedicated Jenkins user with minimal required permissions

Troubleshooting

Empty Tree View

• Verify the Jenkins URL is correct and reachable
• Test that /api/json returns JSON data in your browser
• Check that your network allows connections to Jenkins

403 Forbidden Errors

• Confirm your account has read permissions for jobs
• Regenerate your API token if it may have expired
• Ensure the username matches the token owner

CSRF / Login Redirect Errors

• Verify your Jenkins user can access /crumbIssuer/api/json
• Check that Jenkins security settings allow API access
• Confirm you're using an API token or another supported header-based auth method
• For SSO-backed Jenkins, capture a session cookie or token and use Cookie/Bearer/Custom headers

Missing Build Actions (404)

• Some actions require Jenkins plugins:
  • Replay requires the Workflow Plugin
  • Rebuild requires the Rebuild Plugin
• Check that the plugins are installed and the user has permissions

Artifact Downloads

• Artifact preview/downloads require a folder-backed workspace
• If downloads fail, check the jenkinsWorkbench.artifactMaxDownloadMb limit

Slow Job Search

• Adjust jobSearchConcurrency based on your Jenkins server capacity
• Increase jobSearchBackoffBaseMs if you see rate limiting
• Large Jenkins instances may take longer to index

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these guidelines:

1. Fork the repository and create a feature branch
2. Follow Conventional Commits: type(scope): message
   • Examples: feat(tree): add folder icons, fix(auth): handle expired tokens
3. Include in your PR:
   • A concise summary of changes
   • Link to related issues
   • Screenshots for UI changes
   • Commands run (e.g., npm run compile)

Development Setup

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Compile TypeScript
npm run compile

# Watch mode for development
npm run watch

# Lint and format
npm run check:fix

# Launch Extension Development Host
# Press F5 in VS Code

Manual Testing Checklist

1. Run npm run compile, then press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host
2. Add a workspace and a global environment
3. Verify jobs, builds, and nodes load correctly
4. Test build actions (trigger, stop, replay, rebuild)
5. Verify watch notifications work
6. Confirm removing an environment clears it from the tree
7. Preview or download a build artifact
8. Pin and unpin a job or pipeline

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Enjoy using Jenkins Workbench! If you find it helpful, please consider leaving a review on the Visual Studio Marketplace.