dcmview

Open local DICOM files and folders in dcmview directly from VS Code or Cursor.

dcmview is a fast, temporary DICOM inspection tool for research and development workflows. The extension starts a local loopback dcmview server from the selected file or folder and displays the viewer in an editor webview.

dcmview is intended for developer and research inspection on secure networks, not clinical diagnosis. Avoid public-facing server binds; the extension launches the bundled server on loopback and displays it in an editor webview.

Do not include PHI or sensitive DICOM content in public issue reports. Report security issues privately to the maintainers before public disclosure.

For common install, binary resolution, VS Code interception, startup, tunnel, and annotation CSV problems, see the main troubleshooting guide. For settings, binary resolution order, and bridge environment variables, see the configuration reference. For Python scripts and notebooks that may route through the VS Code bridge, see the Python reference. The main documentation index links the user, configuration, troubleshooting, API/debugging, development, and release references.

In VS Code

Source imagery attribution

Supported Platforms

Marketplace builds currently bundle dcmview binaries for:

• Linux x64
• macOS x64
• macOS arm64
• Windows x64

On unsupported platforms, or when you need to test a locally built binary, set dcmview.binaryPath to an absolute path to a compatible dcmview executable.

Installation

• In VS Code, install beatricebm.dcmview from the VS Code Marketplace.
• In Cursor, install beatricebm.dcmview from Cursor's extension panel. Cursor obtains the extension from Open VSX after its marketplace security review.
• For local testing, download the target-specific VSIX for your platform from a tagged GitHub Release and use Extensions: Install from VSIX....

Usage

Use the Explorer context menu command Open with dcmview on DICOM files or folders. The extension launches dcmview --no-browser --port 0, waits for the local server URL, and opens the viewer beside your current editor.

For files named *.dcm, *.dicom, or *.ima, use the editor's Reopen With... command and choose dcmview to open the file in a readonly dcmview editor tab. Set dcmview as the default editor for those patterns if you want double-clicks to open matching DICOM files directly in dcmview. Extensionless DICOM files and folders should still use the Explorer context menu command.

The command dcmview: Open Workspace with dcmview opens a selected workspace folder. The command dcmview: Stop All dcmview Sessions terminates extension managed viewer sessions.

When dcmview.terminalInterception.enabled is true, new integrated terminals route dcmview, dcmview-py, and python -m dcmview_py invocations into editor webview panels. Set DCMVIEW_VSCODE_BYPASS=1 in a terminal to bypass that integration for a single shell session.

Settings

• dcmview.binaryPath: absolute path to a dcmview binary override.
• dcmview.defaultRecursive: recursively scan selected folders by default.
• dcmview.extraArgs: additional command-line arguments passed to dcmview.
• dcmview.startupTimeoutSeconds: seconds to wait for startup.
• dcmview.terminalInterception.enabled: route integrated terminal launches into editor webviews.

See the main configuration reference for binary resolution order, environment variables, and how these settings map to dcmview CLI arguments.