Open ENV for VS Code

Validate, complete and preview environment contracts in openenv.yaml, openenv.yml and openenv.json. Requires VS Code 1.100 or newer.

Editing contracts

Open ENV checks supported files automatically, including unsaved changes. It underlines errors in the source and reports them in Problems with source Open ENV. No preview panel or YAML extension is required.

Checks cover YAML syntax, strict JSON syntax, duplicate keys, unsupported fields, missing required fields, types, constraints and the OpenENV semantic rules. For example, requred: true is underlined as an unsupported field. Valid x-* metadata is accepted; consumers ignore extensions they do not understand.

Completion suggests fields and fixed values from the bundled specification, accounts for existing fields and the selected variable type, and omits literal fields for sensitive variables. Hover over a field to read its description and requiredness. The initial release supports specification 0.1.0. Extension versions and specification versions are independent.

Preview

Use Open ENV: Open Preview to the Side, the editor title button or the Explorer context menu. Shortcut: Cmd+K, V on macOS or Ctrl+K, V on Windows/Linux. The preview shows types, requiredness, defaults, examples, constraints and sensitive/deprecated markers. It shares the editor's current validation result and updates after a 180 ms debounce.

The extension reads only the selected contract. It does not read .env, process environment values, execute workspace commands or fetch schemas. All parser, linter and editor dependencies are bundled locally. Descriptions are rendered as text; the preview disables scripts and local resource access. Desktop and remote Node-based Extension Hosts are supported; a browser-only host is not provided. Existing YAML/JSON language services can coexist with Open ENV. Configuring the same schema in another extension may produce additional diagnostics or suggestions.

Install and migrate

The extension ID is it-perspectives.openenv. If you installed the previous prototype it-perspectives.openenv-preview, uninstall it before installing Open ENV. Changing the ID creates a separate extension; the prototype will not update automatically to the new one.

For local installation from this repository:

npm ci --ignore-scripts
npm run vscode:package
code --install-extension dist/openenv-0.2.0.vsix

Development and verification

Requires Node.js 22+ for builds. From the repository root:

npm run vscode:build
code extensions/vscode

Press F5 to open an Extension Development Host. Alternatively:

code --new-window --extensionDevelopmentPath="$PWD/extensions/vscode" "$PWD/examples/openenv.yaml"

npm run verify
npm run previews:verify
npm run vscode:package
npm run vscode:test

The host test installs the actual VSIX into an isolated profile, checks automatic activation, unsaved edits, diagnostic ranges, completion, hover, theme changes and multi-document cleanup. It does not modify your normal extensions or settings. OPENENV_VSCODE_VERSION=1.100.0 npm run vscode:test tests the minimum supported version; the default tests stable. An existing executable can be selected with OPENENV_VSCODE_EXECUTABLE.

Releases

Prepare and commit the extension version and its changelog, then run:

npm run vscode:deploy 0.2.0

This validates the release and atomically pushes main and extension-v0.2.0. GitHub Actions stages one VSIX with checksums in a draft release and publishes that file to Marketplace and Open VSX through OIDC. Both stores must confirm the version before the GitHub release becomes public. Retry failed jobs after a partial publication; the saved VSIX is reused. No persistent store token or PAT fallback is configured.

Store publication requires the publisher/namespace owner to configure GitHub trusted publishing first. See the repository's release guide for setup and recovery. Local packaging does not prove store publication.