Project Zomboid Studio (VS Code)
Project Zomboid Studio is a powerful environment designed to streamline the creation, management, and building of Lua mods for Project Zomboid. This extension brings the capabilities of the PZ Studio CLI directly into VS Code, providing a seamless workflow for modders.
🚀 Features
- Instant Project Creation: Initialize a full modding project structure with templates in seconds.
- Multi-Mod Support: Manage multiple mods within a single project workspace.
- Automated Building: Build your workshop-ready folders with one click, including
mod.info generation and dual-branch support (Main & Dev Branch).
- Live Sync: Watch mode to automatically update your workshop directory as you save files.
- In-Place Documentation: Automatically clones the latest modding docs and guides into your project.
- Integrated Output Logging: Standardized timestamps and labels (
[INFO], [WARN], [ERROR]) in the VS Code output channel for easier troubleshooting.
- Clean execution: Automatic log clearing at the start of command execution.
- Version Compatibility: Optimized for Project Zomboid b42.17.0 and later versions.
🛠 Commands
Access these commands via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P):
| Command |
Description |
PZStudio: New Project |
Create a new project with a simple mod template. |
PZStudio: Add Mod |
Add a new mod to the current project. |
PZStudio: Build |
Build the project and deploy to the Workshop folder. |
PZStudio: Watch |
Watch for changes and build incrementally. |
PZStudio: Clean |
Clean the output directories. |
PZStudio: New Language |
Add a new translation template to a mod. |
PZStudio: Rename Mod |
Safely rename an existing mod. |
PZStudio: Delete Mod |
Remove a mod from the project. |
PZStudio: ModInfo Generate |
Generate mod.info files in your source tree. |
PZStudio: Update |
Sync libraries and documentation. |
⚙️ Configuration
You can configure PZ Studio directly through VS Code settings (settings.json). These settings override the global ~/.pzstudio/config.json but can be overridden by project-specific settings in your project.json where applicable.
| Setting |
Description |
pzstudio.outdir |
The directory where your built workshop files will be deployed (overrides global config, but overridden by project.json's outdir). |
pzstudio.useSymlinks |
Whether to use symlinks (junctions) when scaffolding templates (overrides global config). |
pzstudio.templates.project.url |
Repository URL for the default project template (overrides global config). |
pzstudio.templates.project.ref |
Git ref (branch, tag, or commit) for the project template. |
pzstudio.templates.mod.url |
Repository URL for the default mod template (overrides global config). |
pzstudio.templates.mod.ref |
Git ref (branch, tag, or commit) for the mod template. |
pzstudio.templates.workshop.url |
Repository URL for the default workshop template (overrides global config). |
pzstudio.templates.workshop.ref |
Git ref (branch, tag, or commit) for the workshop template. |
pzstudio.templates.language.url |
Repository URL for the default language template (overrides global config). |
pzstudio.templates.language.ref |
Git ref (branch, tag, or commit) for the language template. |
Precedence Order:
project.json (Project-specific, highest precedence)- VS Code Workspace Settings (
.vscode/settings.json)
- VS Code User Settings
- Global CLI Config (
~/.pzstudio/config.json, lowest precedence)
📂 Project Structure
A typical PZ Studio project looks like this:
my-project/
├── .docs/ # Cloned modding documentation
├── .libraries/ # Umbrella Lua libraries for IDE support
├── my_mod/ # Your mod's Lua source and assets
│ ├── media/
│ └── mod.info # Managed by PZ Studio
├── project.json # Project-wide configuration
└── workshop/ # Workshop assets (preview.png, etc.)
📦 Automated Workshop Deployment
When you run the Build command, PZ Studio creates two versions of your mod in your Zomboid Workshop folder:
- Main Workshop: The production-ready mod.
- Dev Branch: An unlisted version with the
_dev suffix, allowing you to test changes in multiplayer without affecting your live subscribers.
📝 Requirements
- Node.js: Required to run the underlying engine.
- Git: Required for cloning documentation and libraries.
🔗 Links
☕ Support
If you find this tool useful, consider supporting the developers:
Based on the original Project Zomboid Studio.
