Nord Proxy for VS Code

Routes VS Code proxy-aware traffic through NordVPN's authenticated proxy servers. The extension discovers locations through NordVPN's live API and applies its local authenticated bridge through VS Code's user-level http.proxy setting.

Features

Applies the proxy immediately without restarting VS Code.
Restarts the extension host after enabling or disabling so extensions reload with the updated user proxy configuration.
Loads available countries and cities from NordVPN's live API.
Changes proxy location without restarting VS Code.
Stores NordVPN service credentials in VS Code Secret Storage.
Preserves and restores pre-existing user proxy settings.
Cleans owned settings when disabled, deactivated, or uninstalled.
Verifies the connection and displays the proxy exit IP.

Setup

In Nord Account, open Manual setup and copy your service username and service password. These differ from your account email and password.
Run Nord Proxy: Set NordVPN Service Credentials.
Run Nord Proxy: Change Proxy Location if desired.
Run Nord Proxy: Enable Proxy.
Optionally run Nord Proxy: Verify Proxy and Show Exit IP.
Run Nord Proxy: Disable Proxy when finished.

The status-bar shield provides the same controls.

Settings lifecycle

When enabled, the extension starts a loopback authenticated proxy bridge and sets these user-level VS Code settings:

{
  "http.proxy": "http://127.0.0.1:<local-port>",
  "http.proxySupport": "override"
}

Before doing so, it records whether each setting existed and its exact previous value. Disabling restores those values. A setting is restored only if it still contains the value written by Nord Proxy, so a later manual user change is not overwritten.

VS Code calls the extension's asynchronous deactivation hook when the extension host shuts down or the extension is disabled. The extension restores the settings and stops the bridge there. If proxy mode was left enabled during a normal shutdown, it is reapplied on the next startup.

The package also registers VS Code's official vscode:uninstall hook. Its standalone cleanup script edits the applicable user/profile settings.json using a JSON-with-comments parser, preserving comments and unrelated settings. This provides fallback cleanup if the extension is uninstalled while its proxy setting is still owned.

The extension does not write workspace settings, terminal environment variables, process environment variables, or proxy command-line arguments. It does not restart VS Code.

After an explicit enable or disable, only the extension host is restarted. The main VS Code window and editor state remain open. Intentional extension-host restarts skip normal shutdown cleanup once, preventing the newly applied proxy setting from being immediately restored.

Reliability and limitations

A lightweight watchdog restores the local bridge on the same port if that process exits. Transient Nord tunnel-establishment failures are retried, and a dropped tunnel affects only its request rather than terminating the bridge.

VS Code does not expose a universal network-interception API. Software that ignores http.proxy, remote extension hosts, and programs opening raw sockets can bypass it. For strict process-wide leak prevention, use the NordVPN desktop application or operating-system VPN/firewall controls.

This independent project is not affiliated with or endorsed by NordVPN.

Development

npm.cmd install
npm.cmd test
npm.cmd run lint
npm.cmd run package:vsix

Nord Proxy