Deploy and manage Dynamics 365 / Power Platform plugins without leaving VS Code. Build your code, deploy it, configure your steps and images — all from the sidebar.
No more switching to XrmToolBox or the legacy Plugin Registration Tool.
What You Can Do
- Deploy plugin assemblies to Dataverse directly after a build — with a single click
- Smart re-deployment — only uploads when your code has actually changed
- Register and configure plugin steps — choose the message, entity, stage, mode, execution order, and filtering rules through a guided wizard
- Attach entity images to steps (pre- and post-operation snapshots of record data)
- Enable or disable steps on the fly without losing your configuration
- Download assemblies back from Dataverse to your local machine
- Rename or delete assemblies, plugin types, and steps
- View trace logs for any assembly or plugin type (requires Dataverse Tools: Trace Viewer)
- Manage workflow activities alongside plugins in the same tree
Getting Started
- Install this extension and Dataverse Tools: Environments
- Open your plugin project folder in VS Code (must contain a
.csproj file)
- Sign in to your environment using the Environments extension
- Build your project — you'll be prompted to deploy automatically
The Assemblies Tree
The Dataverse Explorer sidebar shows all your registered assemblies in a tree:
Assemblies
MyPlugin (v1.2.0)
Plugins (2)
MyPlugin.AccountHandler
⚡ Create: account
⏸ Update: contact (disabled)
PreImage
Workflow Activities (1)
MyPlugin.SendNotificationActivity
- ⚡ — Step is active and will execute
- ⏸ — Step is registered but disabled (won't execute)
- Expand any node to see its children
- Right-click any node to see available actions
Use the eye icon in the Assemblies header to show or hide managed assemblies (those that came in via a solution).
Deploying a Plugin Assembly
Right-click the Assemblies group (or any existing assembly) and choose Deploy Assembly.
The wizard walks you through:
- Pick an environment — if you have more than one connected
- Pick the DLL — the extension finds
.dll files in your workspace automatically
- Select types to deploy — a list of all plugin classes and workflow activities found in the DLL:
- Items marked new will be created fresh
- Items marked registered are already on the server and will be updated if your code changed
- Items in the Removed from Assembly section exist on the server but are no longer in your DLL — you can choose to delete them
- Pick an activity group — only shown if you're deploying workflow activities; groups help organise them in Dataverse
- Deployment runs with a live progress message
Smart upload: The extension compares a hash of your DLL to what's on the server. If nothing changed, the upload is skipped — saving time on large assemblies.
Your steps are safe: Re-deploying never removes existing step registrations. Only the assembly and type records are updated.
After deployment, the tree refreshes and your new types appear automatically.
Registering a Plugin Step
Right-click a plugin type in the tree and choose Add Step.
The step wizard guides you through each setting on its own screen. You see a summary at all times and can jump to any field to change it:
| Setting |
What It Means |
| Message |
The Dataverse operation that triggers your plugin (e.g. Create, Update, Delete) |
| Entity |
The record type the plugin fires on (e.g. Account, Contact) — or "any entity" |
| Stage |
When in the operation your plugin runs: Pre-Validation, Pre-Operation, or Post-Operation |
| Mode |
How it runs: Synchronous (inside the transaction) or Asynchronous (background job) |
| Rank |
Execution order when multiple plugins fire on the same event (lower = earlier) |
| Filtering Attributes |
For Update steps only — which field changes should trigger the plugin (leave empty for any change) |
| Name |
A label for this step; auto-generated if you leave it blank |
| Unsecure Config |
Plain-text configuration your plugin can read at runtime |
| Secure Config |
Encrypted configuration (stored securely in Dataverse) |
Constraint: Asynchronous steps must run at Post-Operation. The wizard automatically adjusts if you set a conflicting combination.
Once you confirm, the step is created and appears in the tree under your plugin type.
Editing a Step
Right-click any step and choose Edit Step to open the same wizard pre-filled with the current values. Change any field and save.
You can also edit individual fields directly without opening the full wizard:
| Right-click option |
What it edits |
| Edit Unsecure Config… |
Opens the config in a VS Code editor tab — save with Ctrl+S to push to Dataverse |
| Edit Secure Config… |
Same, for the encrypted config |
| Edit Description… |
Same, for the step description |
Enable and Disable Steps
Right-click a step to Enable or Disable it. The icon changes in the tree:
Disabling a step suspends it without losing any settings. Useful for turning off a step during testing without deleting it.
Entity Images
Entity images let your plugin access a snapshot of a record's data — either what it looked like before the operation (Pre-Image) or after (Post-Image).
Right-click a step and choose Register Image. The image wizard asks for:
| Setting |
What It Means |
| Image Type |
Pre-Image, Post-Image, or Both |
| Name |
A label for this image (e.g. "PreImage") |
| Entity Alias |
The key your plugin code uses to look up this image (e.g. "preEntity") |
| Message Property |
Which part of the operation message to snapshot (defaults to "Target") |
| Attributes |
Specific fields to include — leave empty to include all fields |
Note: Available image types depend on the step's message and stage. For example, Create steps can only have a Post-Image (there is no "before" for a new record).
Right-click an existing image to Edit Image or Unregister Image.
Workflow Activities
Workflow activities appear in their own Workflow Activities group under each assembly, separate from plugins.
They can't have steps registered against them (they're triggered by workflows, not Dataverse events). You can:
- Change Activity Group — organises activities into named groups in the Dataverse UI
- Rename or Delete them like any other node
Downloading an Assembly
Right-click any assembly and choose Download Assembly. Pick a save location — the .dll is downloaded from Dataverse to your local disk.
Only works for assemblies stored in the database (the default for most plugin projects). Disk-based assemblies have no downloadable content.
Viewing Trace Logs
Right-click an assembly or plugin type and choose View Trace Logs… to open the trace viewer filtered to that plugin.
Requires the Dataverse Tools: Trace Viewer extension. If it's not installed, you'll be offered a link to the marketplace.
Auto-Deploy After Build
When you run a build task in VS Code and it succeeds, the extension will ask:
"Build succeeded. Deploy plugin assembly to Dataverse?"
Click Deploy to go straight to the deploy flow. Click Not now to skip.
Turn this off in Settings: dataverse-tools.deployOnBuild → false.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
What It Does |
dataverse-tools.analyzerPath |
(empty) |
Path to a custom .NET analyzer tool. Leave empty to use the bundled one. |
dataverse-tools.deployOnBuild |
true |
Show a deploy prompt after a successful build task |
Requirements
- VS Code 1.96 or later
- Dataverse Tools: Environments — required for authentication and environment selection
- .NET 8 runtime — used by the bundled assembly analyzer to inspect your DLL
This extension is part of the Dataverse Tools suite — a collection of VS Code extensions for Dynamics 365 / Power Platform plugin developers.
Other extensions in the suite:
- Dataverse Tools: Environments — connect and manage environments
- Dataverse Tools: Trace Viewer — view and filter plugin trace logs
- Dataverse Tools: FetchXML Builder — build and run FetchXML queries
- Dataverse Tools: Query Analyzer — query Dataverse with SQL
- Dataverse Tools: Workflows — browse and manage process automation
- Dataverse Tools: Web Resources — edit and publish web resources
- Dataverse Tools: Metadata — browse entity schema in the explorer
- Dataverse Tools: Decompiler — read decompiled plugin code from Dataverse
- Dataverse Tools: Audit Viewer — view audit history for Dataverse records
Acknowledgements
Inspired by the Plugin Registration Tool from the Dynamics 365 SDK and the XrmToolBox community.
