Event Storming for VS Code
Event Storming is a workshop format for exploring a business
domain with sticky notes: domain events on a timeline, the commands that trigger them, and the
people, policies and systems around them. This extension lets you create and edit Event Storming
boards directly inside VS Code: it opens .storm files (a simple plain-text DSL) in a graphical
editor, while the text file stays the source of truth, so save, Git, and diff keep working.
New to Event Storming? Start with eventstorming.com and Alberto
Brandolini's book Introducing EventStorming.
Getting started
Install Event Storming Modeler (publisher miragon-gmbh) from the VS Code Marketplace, then
start from a filled-in order-checkout example or a blank board. The built-in Get Started with
Event Storming walkthrough is the recommended first stop: click its Create board from example
button and you have a ready-made board to explore. From there you can open any .storm file.
Prefer commands? Run these from the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P, type "Event Storming"):
- Event Storming: New Board from Example — pick a location, pre-filled with the order-checkout
example.
- Event Storming: New Empty Board — same, but a blank board (also under File > New File…).
Reading a board
Each sticky color has a meaning: Domain Event (orange), Command (blue), Actor (light
yellow), Aggregate (yellow), Policy (purple), Read Model (green), External System
(pink), Hotspot (red), plus free-text notes and freehand drawings. Time flows left to right —
earlier events sit to the left of later ones — and arrows connect the stickies into a story.
Editing a board
- Custom editor for
.storm. Open a board file and you get the full graphical editor, backed
by the plain-text file. Editing the text in a split view re-renders the canvas live (two-way
sync), and VS Code tracks dirty state as you go. To reopen a board as raw text, use
View: Reopen Editor With…, then pick Text Editor.
- Full modeler: the tool palette on the side and the context pad on a selected sticky (append,
connect, change type, delete), free movement on an unbounded canvas, inline label editing, and
sticky color overrides. Undo/redo via
Ctrl/Cmd+Z and Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z.
- Collapsed menu (top-right, Excalidraw-style): fit-to-view · export SVG/PNG (as a picture).
- Self-hosted font — no CDN, offline-capable.
TODO: icon.png is a placeholder carried over from the previous project and needs Event
Storming artwork.
Development
Building from source and the dev loop are documented in
CONTRIBUTING.md.
License
MIT
