Extension Loadout

Equip each folder with only the extensions it needs.

VS Code loads every enabled extension into every window. A Django repository still starts Rust and Java tooling, a Gradle daemon wakes up because node_modules ships Android files, and a dozen language servers sit in memory in each window you open. Extension Loadout shows what every extension costs in this folder, suggests the ones that are safe to turn off, and turns extensions on or off per folder with one click.

Highlights

• Per-folder on/off. Every extension is ON in this folder, OFF in this folder (green ✓ / red ✕), or same as the global setting. The choice is saved in .vscode/extension-loadout.json, so you can commit it.
• See what it costs. Memory in this window lists the memory of the processes each extension started (language servers, daemons), in this window and in all windows. Heavy ones are highlighted, and a memory pressure watch tells you when the machine is running low and offers to turn off the heaviest one here.
• Safe suggestions. Not needed in this folder lists extensions that only start for languages or files this folder does not have, or that the repository marks as unwanted. You usually turn these off learns from what you turned off in folders with a similar stack. Recommended by this repo shows what .vscode/extensions.json asks for.
• Select and act in bulk. Tick checkboxes (a group's checkbox selects the whole group) and Turn Off Selected, or turn all suggestions off at once. Dependencies and extension packs are handled for you.
• A dashboard with every extension in one sortable, filterable table.
• Apply your way. One restart now, or when you quit VS Code, or for this folder and all its git worktrees at once. Every apply can be undone.
• Presets (synced with Settings Sync), patterns such as ms-toolsai.* with notes, multi-root workspaces and VS Code profiles.
• English and Korean UI.

Getting started

1. Open a folder and click the Extension Loadout icon in the activity bar (the panel is also in the Explorer).
2. Look at Memory in this window and Not needed in this folder. Hover over a row to see why.
3. Turn extensions off or on with the buttons on each row, tick several and use Turn Off Selected (⊘), or click Turn all off on a suggestion group.
4. Click Apply (status bar or the panel's title) and pick Apply and Restart VS Code or Apply When VS Code Quits.

To turn something off everywhere except one project, disable it globally in the Extensions view, then turn it ON in that project's loadout.

The loadout file

// .vscode/extension-loadout.json
{
  "enable": ["vscjava.vscode-gradle"],
  "disable": ["ms-toolsai.*", "!ms-toolsai.jupyter", "rust-lang.rust-analyzer"],
  "notes": {
    "ms-toolsai.*": "no notebooks in this repo"
  }
}

• Entries are extension IDs (publisher.name), patterns with * and ?, or !ID to take something back out of a pattern in the same list.
• An exact ID beats a pattern. If an enable pattern and a disable pattern both match an extension, the panel tells you and leaves it alone.
• notes are shown in the panel and the dashboard.
• Changes made from the panel only rewrite the list that changed, so your patterns, notes and comments stay.
• In a multi-root workspace saved as name.code-workspace, the loadout is name.loadout.json next to it. Each folder's own .vscode/extension-loadout.json is merged in; when folders disagree, the extension stays on and the panel says so.

Applying changes

VS Code has no API for one extension to turn another on or off, and it keeps each workspace's on/off state in memory while it runs, so a window reload does not pick up a change. Extension Loadout therefore writes that state while VS Code is not running:

• Apply and Restart VS Code: a small helper waits for VS Code to exit, writes the two keys VS Code uses for workspace enablement (extensionsIdentifiers/enabled and …/disabled) in this workspace's storage, and starts VS Code again, which reopens your windows. Unsaved editors are restored by hot exit, as on any quit.
• Apply When VS Code Quits: nothing restarts now. A tiny waiting helper (sh + sqlite3 on macOS and Linux, Node elsewhere) applies the loadout the next time you quit. You can cancel it from the status bar.
• Apply to Other Folders…: also apply this loadout to other git worktrees of the repository (pre-selected) or other folders you have opened in VS Code, with the same single restart. Only their VS Code state changes; their files are not touched. Folders VS Code has never opened have no state to change yet.
• Undo Last Apply restores the previous state of every folder the last apply touched, and this folder's loadout file. Reset Folder to Global Settings clears all folder choices.

Global settings are never changed. The helper's log is extension-loadout-restart.log in your temp folder, and the Extension Loadout output channel records what was applied.

Memory

• Memory is the real footprint of the processes an extension started, found by the extension's install folder in their command line (or their parent process): macOS reports memory it has compressed too, Linux adds swap, Windows uses private bytes. Plain RSS can be several times too low on a machine that is swapping.
• Memory used inside the shared extension host cannot be split per extension; VS Code does not expose it. Restart Extension Host stops this window's extension host, which gives all of it back, and starts a fresh one without restarting VS Code. Language servers normally stop with it and start again fresh.
• Measured only when the panel or dashboard is shown (at most once a minute) or when you ask.
• The memory pressure watch checks once a minute while Extension Loadout is active. Memory counts as tight when the system says so (the kernel's pressure level on macOS, PSI on Linux, free memory elsewhere), when swap grows by 256 MB or more a minute, or, on macOS, when compressed memory takes up 40% or more of physical memory. Only the system's own measure can make it critical. The size of swap itself is not used, because macOS grows its swap files as needed.
• When memory is tight, the status bar shows the heaviest extension in this window, and a notification offers Turn Off … Here for the heaviest extension you can turn off in this folder, Show Memory and Restart Extension Host. The notification appears at most once an hour across all windows, so restarting VS Code to apply a loadout does not bring it back; it appears sooner only if memory becomes critical.

Suggestions

Not needed in this folder is deliberately conservative. An extension is suggested only when all of these hold:

• it starts only for specific languages or files (onLanguage, workspaceContains, or commands you run yourself), not in every window;
• none of those files exist in the folder outside node_modules, virtual environments and similar;
• it does not target common formats such as JSON, Markdown or YAML;
• no extension that stays on depends on it, and you have not turned it on here yourself.

Extensions listed under unwantedRecommendations in .vscode/extensions.json are suggested too. Anything uncertain is left out, so the list can be short or empty. Extensions marked ⚡ always start in every window and are worth reviewing yourself; they are usually the ones that cost memory.

Commands

Settings

Staying light

Extension Loadout starts at launch only in folders that have a loadout file; elsewhere it waits until you open its panel or run a command. The installed-extension list is read in the background only while the panel is visible and cached until extensions change, suggestions are computed once per window with a single file search for the candidates' patterns, and the dashboard holds no state while hidden.

Limits

• Needs VS Code 1.101 or newer (it uses the SQLite module built into VS Code's Node.js).
• Applying always means VS Code quits once, now or later. There is no way to change extension enablement of a running window from an extension.
• In a multi-root workspace VS Code keeps one on/off state for the whole workspace, so folder files are merged rather than applied per folder.
• Built-in extensions are listed only in Memory in this window, for information.
• If another extension depends on one you turn off, VS Code may keep it running; the panel marks that with a warning.

한국어

VS Code 표시 언어가 한국어이면(한국어 언어 팩) 패널, 대시보드, 명령, 알림이 모두 한국어로 나옵니다.

Development

npm install
npm run test:unit   # rules, catalog, suggestions, processes, helpers, l10n completeness
npm run test:e2e    # drives isolated VS Code windows through extension host restart → apply → restart
                    # → apply on quit → a git worktree → undo, plus multi-root workspaces and profiles
npm run test:e2e:open   # macOS: installed .vsix, relaunch with `open -n -a`, window restore
node scripts/screenshots.mjs [--ko]   # README screenshots (macOS)

The end-to-end tests use their own --user-data-dir and --extensions-dir under .vscode-test/, so your own VS Code setup is never touched. CI runs the unit tests and both end-to-end suites on macOS, Ubuntu and Windows.