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Nifty Launch: launch.json Generator & Checker

Nifty Launch: launch.json Generator & Checker

Nifty

| (0) | Free
Add debug configurations for what's in your project (npm scripts, tests, Python, Django, FastAPI, Go, .NET, Rust, browsers), build compounds, and catch broken launch.json references.
Installation
Launch VS Code Quick Open (Ctrl+P), paste the following command, and press enter.
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Nifty Launch

Add debug configurations for what's in your project (npm scripts, tests, Python, Django, FastAPI, Go, .NET, Rust, browsers), build compounds, and catch broken launch.json references.

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

Features

Picking detected pnpm, Chrome and Vitest configurations and adding them to launch.json

Problems in launch.json: a missing task, input, configuration and files, and an old debug type

Configurations detected in a pnpm project with Vite and Vitest

A compound that starts the dev server and Chrome together

  • Add the configurations your project needs. Add Detected Launch Configurations… looks at your project and offers ready-made entries. Tick the ones you want and they're added to .vscode/launch.json (created if needed), keeping your comments and formatting:
    • Node.js: every package.json script, run with npm, pnpm, yarn or bun to match your lockfile, plus sub-packages in apps/* and packages/*, the main file, and attaching on port 9229
    • Tests: Vitest, Jest, pytest, Go tests and Rust tests for the current file or package
    • Browsers: Chrome and Edge on your dev server's port (Vite, Next.js, Angular, Astro, SvelteKit, Nuxt, CRA)
    • Python: the current file, Django runserver, FastAPI through uvicorn, Flask, and attaching with debugpy
    • Go: each main package
    • .NET: each app or web project, with the dotnet build task it needs added to tasks.json, and the browser opened when ASP.NET Core is listening
    • Rust: each binary, through CodeLLDB
    • Deno
  • Debug without touching launch.json. Debug Something… lists your configurations and everything detected; pick one and it starts.
  • Compounds in two clicks. Pick the configurations to start together (say, the API and the browser), name it, done. stopAll is on, so stopping one stops the rest.
  • Catch broken launch.json. Problems show up as you type:
    • preLaunchTask/postDebugTask that isn't in tasks.json
    • compounds naming a configuration that doesn't exist
    • ${input:x} with no matching input (quick fix: add it)
    • duplicate names
    • program, cwd or envFile pointing at a file that isn't there
    • old debug types like pwa-node or python (quick fix: change it)
    • debug types that no installed extension provides, naming the extension you need
  • If a configuration needs a debugger you don't have (debugpy, Go, C#, CodeLLDB), you're offered the extension to install.
  • Works in the browser on vscode.dev and github.dev for adding, combining and checking configurations; Debug Something… needs the desktop app.

Commands

Command What it does
Nifty Launch: Add Detected Launch Configurations… Pick detected configurations to add (also a lens in launch.json and a button in the Run and Debug view)
Nifty Launch: Debug Something… Start any configuration or detected target
Nifty Launch: Create Compound Configuration… Start several configurations together

Settings

Setting Default What it does
nifty.launch.validate true Check launch.json
nifty.launch.checkPaths true Report missing program/cwd/envFile paths (build output and node_modules are skipped)
nifty.launch.checkDebuggers true Report debug types no extension provides
nifty.launch.codeLens true Lenses above configurations
nifty.launch.exclude build and dependency folders Folders not searched

Install

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

Privacy

This extension collects no telemetry and needs no account.

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See all 35 Nifty tools at https://getnifty.dev

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