Downstage for VS Code

Downstage turns VS Code into a plain-text playwriting desk. Start a new play, watch pages update in live preview, and export a clean PDF manuscript or acting edition when you are ready.

Quick Start

Install this extension from the VS Code Marketplace.
Run Downstage: New Play.
Write your title and first scene.
Run Downstage: Open Live Preview to see pages update as you work.
Run Downstage: Export Manuscript PDF or Downstage: Export Acting Edition PDF when you want a shareable file.

You do not need to start in the terminal. The extension opens a start guide on first launch with direct actions for New Play, Open Sample Play, and Open Live Preview.

Features

Start Writing Fast

Downstage: New Play opens an untitled script with a ready-to-edit play skeleton.
Downstage: Open Sample Play opens a fuller example so you can see the format in action.
The cursor lands in the title field so you can start typing immediately.

Live manuscript preview

Open a live manuscript preview inside VS Code while you write. If you launch preview before opening a script, Downstage creates a new play first so you are not blocked on file setup.

PDF export

Export the current script to either a Manuscript PDF or an Acting Edition PDF from the command palette. The generated file opens automatically unless you turn that off.

Writing Help

Downstage includes:

Character cue suggestions in scene context
Structure-aware headings and folding
Diagnostics in the Problems panel
Snippets for acts, scenes, cues, stage directions, and songs

Snippets for common structures

Type one of these snippet prefixes inside a Downstage document:

play for a full play skeleton
act for an act heading
scene for a scene heading
cue for a character cue with dialogue
stage for a stage direction
song for a song block

Syntax highlighting

Highlighting covers metadata, headings, stage directions, songs, parentheticals, character cues, aliases, verse, and comments.

Commands

Command	What it does
Downstage: New Play	Open a new play with a starter script
Downstage: Open Sample Play	Open a richer example play
Downstage: Open Start Guide	Reopen the first-run guide
Downstage: Open Help	Open Downstage help in your browser
Downstage: Restart Downstage	Restart the Downstage background services
Downstage: Export Manuscript PDF	Export the current script as a manuscript PDF
Downstage: Export Acting Edition PDF	Export the current script as an acting edition PDF
Downstage: Open Manuscript PDF Preview	Preview the manuscript PDF in VS Code
Downstage: Open Acting Edition PDF Preview	Preview the acting edition PDF in VS Code
Downstage: Open Live Preview	Open the live-updating manuscript preview

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`downstage.server.path`	string	`""`	Optional explicit path to the `downstage` app. When empty, the extension first tries its bundled copy and then tries your system path
`downstage.server.trace`	string	`"off"`	Extra diagnostic logging for troubleshooting
`downstage.editor.autoSuggestCharacterCues`	boolean	`true`	Auto-trigger cue suggestions on empty lines
`downstage.render.style`	string	`"standard"`	Default export style. `standard` means Manuscript. `condensed` means Acting Edition
`downstage.render.openAfterRender`	boolean	`true`	Open PDF after rendering
`downstage.preview.debounceMs`	number	`300`	Delay before re-rendering live preview (ms)

If Downstage Does Not Start

Release builds of the extension bundle Downstage for:

linux-x64
darwin-x64
darwin-arm64
win32-x64

If your platform is not listed, or if you want to use a different binary, set downstage.server.path in VS Code settings. If no bundled binary is present, the extension also tries downstage on your system path.

Most users can ignore this, install the extension, open a script, and start writing.

Release notes for the extension come from the repository root CHANGELOG.md.

Release Process

The VS Code extension ships from this repository. It does not maintain a separate release track.

Release tags v* drive the extension version used for packaged VSIX files.
.github/workflows/release.yml packages one VSIX per supported platform and uploads them to the GitHub release.
If the VSCE_PAT GitHub Actions secret is configured, the same workflow also publishes those VSIX files to the Visual Studio Marketplace.
If the OVSX_TOKEN GitHub Actions secret is configured, the workflow also publishes the same VSIX files to Open VSX.
The registries are published independently, so one can fail without blocking the other.

Development

cd editors/vscode
npm install
npm run compile
npm run package

Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host.

Downstage

Jake Scaltreto