Quick Serve
Manage and monitor local dev servers from the VS Code sidebar.
Features
- Sidebar panel — see all your servers at a glance with live status indicators (up/down/unknown)
- Health monitoring — automatic polling detects when servers go down and notifies you
- One-click actions — start servers in integrated or external terminal, open in browser
- Expandable server details — expand any server to view and edit individual attributes (name, URL, start command, group)
- Drag & drop — reorder servers or move them between groups by dragging
- AI-powered suggestions — scan a project folder and let AI discover servers, URLs, and start commands
- AI-powered grouping — automatically organize servers into logical groups (Frontend, Backend, etc.) with a single command
- Multi-provider AI — works with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or any OpenAI-compatible API (OpenRouter, Ollama, etc.)
- Shell alias detection — AI discovers your custom shell aliases and functions that start servers
- Proxy URL detection — finds local proxy URLs (*.dev, *.test, *.local) from project configs
Installation
# Package the extension
npx @vscode/vsce package
# Install in VS Code
code --install-extension vscode-quick-serve-*.vsix
# Install in Cursor
cursor --install-extension vscode-quick-serve-*.vsix
Updating
# Disable, install new version, re-enable
code --disable-extension quick-serve.vscode-quick-serve
code --install-extension vscode-quick-serve-*.vsix
code --enable-extension quick-serve.vscode-quick-serve
Replace code with cursor for Cursor.
Getting Started
- Install the extension
- Open the Quick Serve panel in the activity bar
- Click + to add a server manually, or use AI suggestions
Manual Setup
For each server, provide:
- Name — a label (e.g. "Frontend Dev")
- URL — the local URL (e.g.
http://localhost:3000)
- Start command — shell command to start it (e.g.
cd /path/to/project && npm run dev)
AI Suggestions
- Run "Quick Serve: Enable AI Suggestions" from the command palette (
Cmd+Shift+P)
- Enter your AI provider API key (stored securely in VS Code's encrypted storage)
- Pick the parent folder containing your projects
- AI scans each subfolder, discovers servers, and presents suggestions
- Select which servers to add
Commands
Available via the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P):
| Command |
Description |
| Quick Serve: Set AI API Key |
Set or clear the AI provider API key |
| Quick Serve: Enable AI Suggestions |
Enable AI and run the first scan |
| Quick Serve: Group Servers (AI) |
Organize servers into logical groups using AI |
| Quick Serve: Clear Server Groups |
Remove all group assignments |
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
quickServe.terminalMode |
integrated |
integrated or external terminal |
quickServe.ai.enabled |
false |
Enable AI suggestions |
quickServe.ai.provider |
openai |
openai, anthropic, google, or openai-compatible |
quickServe.ai.model |
gpt-5.2 |
Model ID for the selected provider |
quickServe.ai.maxSteps |
null |
Max AI exploration steps (null = no limit) |
quickServe.ai.baseUrl |
"" |
Custom base URL for openai-compatible provider |
quickServe.servers |
[] |
Server list (editable in settings.json) |
License
MIT
| |
