local-extension-runner

Inspiration

Our team is looking to develop a dedicated VSCode extension for our project, but we do not wish to publish it to the VSCode Marketplace every time. Therefore, we are hoping to have a local plugin runner that can execute the extension locally.

How to Use

1. Develop your own extension which exports a function named activate that takes in a vscode.ExtensionContext and a vscode object and an optional deactivate function. See VSCode Extension Docs for details. The extension script must use CommonJS module and do not require('vscode') directly.

/**
 * @param {import('vscode').ExtensionContext} ctx
 * @param {import('vscode')} vscode
 */
async function activate(ctx, vscode) {
  ctx.subscriptions.push(
    vscode.commands.registerCommand('local-extension.pickAndEcho', async () => {
      const selection = await vscode.window.showQuickPick(['1', '2', '3']);
      vscode.window.showInformationMessage(
        `Hello World from local-extension, you picked ${selection}`
      );
    })
  );
}

module.exports = {
  activate,
};

2. Simply place your developed index.js into the .vscode/local-extension directory. The Local Extension Runner will automatically detect and execute your extension upon starting VSCode.

Known Issues

Presently, the runner is only able to execute the JavaScript files of local extensions. As a result, any features that rely on contributions within the package.json will not be operable.

Release Notes

0.0.1

Initial release.

0.0.2

Pass vscode to activate function.

0.0.3

Fix Disposable leakage, add error details when activating extension error happens.

0.0.4

Optimize local extension ExtensionContext creation.

0.0.4

Support local extensions to store their settings in "local-extension-runner.extensions.settings".