A VS Code extension to browse, edit, and search every .NET user secrets file
(secrets.json) on your machine — the files managed by
dotnet user-secrets,
stored under %APPDATA%\Microsoft\UserSecrets (Windows) or
~/.microsoft/usersecrets (macOS/Linux).
Features
Dedicated Activity Bar view listing all secrets files in two groups:
Workspace projects — resolved from <UserSecretsId> in the open
workspace's .csproj files, shown by project name (with a one-click
"Create secrets.json" for projects that don't have one yet).
Other secrets on this machine — every remaining UserSecrets folder,
shown by GUID.
Two editors per file:
Raw JSON — the normal text editor.
Table view — flattened Section:Key rows (the .NET configuration
convention). Handles both nested JSON and the flat colon keys the CLI
writes. Cells are editable inline; rows can be added and deleted. Edits go
through the document, so dirty state, Ctrl+Z undo and Ctrl+S save
all work as usual, and formatting/comments in the file are preserved.
Double-click a table cell to jump to the raw JSON with that secret's
name or value selected, depending on which cell you double-clicked.
(Single click still edits inline after a short delay; each row also has a
{ } button.)
Search all secrets (search icon in the view, or ".NET Secrets: Search
All Secrets" in the Command Palette): fuzzy-search every key and value
across every file on the machine; picking a result opens the raw JSON with
the value selected.
Table filter box for narrowing rows within one file.
Live refresh when files change on disk — e.g. after running
dotnet user-secrets set in a terminal.
Development
npm install
npm run build # bundle extension + webview into dist/
npm test # vitest unit tests for the pure core (flatten/edit/locate)
npm run check # tsc --noEmit
Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host.
Architecture notes
src/core/ is pure TypeScript (no vscode imports): flattening, editing
and token-locating logic built on jsonc-parser, fully unit-tested.
The table is a CustomTextEditorProvider (priority: "option"), so the
underlying TextDocument stays the single source of truth.
Because CLI-written files use flat keys that already contain colons
({"A:B": "x"}) while hand-edited files nest ({"A": {"B": "x"}}), every
row tracks its real JSON path separately from the displayed flattened key.
