VB.NET Companion

Full IDE-grade language support for VB.NET in VS Code — powered by a bundled Roslyn server that understands your whole solution, VB.NET and C# together.

VB.NET has been a second-class citizen in VS Code for too long. VB.NET Companion fixes that by shipping a complete language server with 18 LSP features including IntelliSense, hover docs, rename, call hierarchy, inlay hints, and more — all working cross-language across your entire solution.

✨ Features at a Glance

🔍 IntelliSense & Completions

Full member-access completions powered by Roslyn — including cross-language members from C# projects referenced by your VB.NET code. Completions trigger on . and space, with accurate type-aware filtering.

• VB.NET → C# members and vice versa
• Extension methods, generic types, overloads
• Works with unsaved in-memory edits

📖 Hover Documentation

Hover over any symbol to see its full signature and XML doc summary in a markdown popup. Works for:

• VB.NET and C# symbols in the same solution
• Framework types (navigates to the metadata stub)
• Properties, fields, parameters, enum members

🚀 Go to Definition (F12)

Press F12 on any symbol and navigate to its source — including cross-language and cross-project jumps:

• VB.NET → C# types, methods, properties, constructors
• C# → VB.NET types
• Framework symbols → generated metadata stub file

🔗 Find All References (Shift+F12)

SymbolFinder.FindReferencesAsync across every project in the solution. Reference results include declaration site, all usages, and cross-language hits.

✏️ Rename (F2)

Rename any symbol — type, method, property, field, local variable, or parameter — and every reference across the entire solution is updated atomically. Cross-language renames included.

🖊️ Signature Help

Displays the full overload list when you type ( or , inside a call. Shows:

• Active parameter highlighted
• All overloads listed
• XML <summary> and <param> documentation per overload

💡 Code Actions & Quick Fixes (Ctrl+.)

Click the lightbulb or press Ctrl+. to see context-sensitive actions:

• Add XML doc comment — inserts a fully-formed ''' <summary> / <param> / <returns> block (or /// for C#) with correct indentation and parameter names, on any undocumented declaration
• Suppress warning — inserts #Disable Warning BCXXXXX (VB) or #pragma warning disable (C#) above the offending line for any diagnostic at the cursor
• Remove unused imports — detects Imports / using statements flagged by the compiler and removes them all at once

🏷️ Inlay Hints

Parameter name labels appear inline at call sites so you always know what each argument means without having to hover:

ProcessText(input: rawData, maxLength: 100, trim: True)
'           ^^^^^^           ^^^^^^^^^       ^^^^   ← inlay hints

Hints are automatically suppressed for:

• Single-character parameter names
• params arrays
• Already-named arguments (VB := / C# name:)
• Arguments whose variable name matches the parameter name

📍 Go to Implementation (Ctrl+F12)

Navigate from an interface member or abstract method to its concrete implementation(s). Also works on concrete methods — navigates to the method's own declaration when no override exists. Cross-project implementations are resolved via Roslyn's source definition lookup.

🌳 Call Hierarchy

Right-click any method or property → Peek Call Hierarchy to explore:

• Incoming calls — every method in the solution that calls this one, grouped by caller with the exact call-site ranges highlighted
• Outgoing calls — every method that this body calls, including cross-language and cross-project callees

🔎 Workspace Symbol Search (Ctrl+T)

Type any symbol name to search across the entire solution instantly. Finds types, methods, properties, fields, events, and namespaces across all VB.NET and C# projects. Results are deduplicated and capped at 200 for performance.

🔢 Cross-Project CodeLens

Accurate reference counts displayed above every class, method, and property — counting references that cross language and project boundaries:

• C# method called from a VB.NET project → correct count
• VB.NET class used from C# → correctly included

📐 Document Outline & Symbols

The Explorer Outline panel and Ctrl+Shift+O symbol picker are fully populated with all declarations in the current file — classes, modules, methods, properties, fields, events, enums, and interfaces.

🎨 Semantic Token Colors

Full semantic highlighting powered by Roslyn's classifier: namespaces, classes, interfaces, structs, enums, type parameters, methods, properties, fields, variables, parameters, and enum members — each styled distinctly by your theme.

📊 VB.NET Parity Status

VB.NET Companion is the only VS Code extension that actively measures the feature gap between C# and VB.NET in your workspace:

• VB parity: OK — both languages on equal footing
• VB parity: N gaps — N features available in C# are missing for VB.NET

Click the status bar item to run the full parity probe and launch the guided remediation flow.

⚡ Zero-Config Setup

On first activation the extension automatically detects your solution file (.sln, .slnx) and configures the bundled Roslyn bridge. No manual setup required — install and start coding.

Getting Started

1. Install the extension.
2. Open a folder containing a .sln, .slnx, or .vbproj file.
3. The Roslyn bridge starts automatically and loads all projects.
4. Open any .vb file — all features activate immediately.

Platform: Windows, Linux x64, macOS arm64. The bundled companion server is a .NET 8 managed assembly run via dotnet on all platforms. The Windows build produces a self-hosted .exe in addition to the portable .dll.

Commands

Configuration

Requirements

• VS Code 1.109.0 or later
• .NET SDK installed and on PATH
• C# Dev Kit (recommended — used for C# side of parity checks)

Release Notes

See CHANGELOG for the full history.