Nifty Archive Browser

Browse zip, jar, vsix, whl, nupkg and tar.gz archives like folders: open files inside, compare, extract, and create zips.

Maintained. No sign-in. No telemetry. Works in VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium and other editors that use Open VSX.

Features

A release zip opened from the Explorer: every file with its size and date, filtered by name

The Archives view with a jar inside a zip expanded in place, and a file from it open read-only

Double-click to look inside. Zip, jar, war, ear, vsix, nupkg, whl, egg, apk, aar, tar, tar.gz / tgz and crate files open in a listing of every file with its size and date. Filter by name, click a file to open it.
Files open like normal files, read-only. Syntax highlighting, search, copy, even Compare with another file, straight from inside the archive. Nothing is extracted to disk.
Browse archives as folders in the Archives view in the Explorer, with archives inside archives (a jar inside a war, a wheel inside a zip) expanding in place.
Extract All… next to the archive, or extract just one file or folder.
Create Zip… from any files and folders you select in the Explorer. .git, node_modules and .DS_Store are left out (configurable).
Office documents and more. docx, xlsx, pptx, epub, odt and other zip-based files can be opened with Open With… → Archive Browser to see what's inside.
Safe by default. Paths that try to escape the archive (../) are ignored, and extraction never writes outside the folder you pick.
Works in the browser on vscode.dev and github.dev.

Command	What it does
`Nifty Archive Browser: Browse Archive…`	Show an archive in the Archives view
`Nifty Archive Browser: Extract All…`	Extract an archive into a folder
`Nifty Archive Browser: Extract…`	Extract one file or folder (Archives view)
`Nifty Archive Browser: Create Zip…`	Zip the selected files and folders (Explorer right-click)
`Nifty Archive Browser: Close All Archives`	Clear the Archives view

Setting	Default	What it does
`nifty.archive.maxSizeMB`	`1024`	Largest archive to open (archives are read into memory)
`nifty.archive.maxListed`	`5000`	Most files listed in the archive editor
`nifty.archive.zipExclude`	`[".git", "node_modules", ".DS_Store"]`	Names left out of Create Zip

VS Code: search for "Nifty Archive Browser" in the Extensions view, or install from the Visual Studio Marketplace.
Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium, Kiro, Antigravity: install from Open VSX.

This extension collects no telemetry and needs no account.

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