For information on Hammer as a project, see the project README.
Prerequisites
Hammer is a POSIX-only tool. On Linux and macOS it works out of the box. On Windows, you must have WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) installed with at least one Linux distribution — the extension will not function without it.
Usage
Press Ctrl+Shift+B to build.
First time: the extension will ask you to pick your build script (a .c or .cpp file). It will compile it into a build executable using the Hammer CLI. This is a one-time step called bootstrapping.
After that:Ctrl+Shift+B runs the build executable directly — no further setup needed. The build executable also knows how to recompile itself if you ever change the build script.
Press Ctrl+Shift+R to run a built executable.
If the last build produced one executable, it runs immediately.
If it produced several, a picker lets you choose which one to run.
Press Ctrl+Shift+C to clear the Hammer configuration (.hammer and .hammer_run). Use this to re-bootstrap from scratch — for example after renaming or switching the build script.
Debugging
Press Ctrl+Shift+Z (or F5) to launch the last-built executable under a debugger with full IDE integration (breakpoints, variable inspection, call stack).
Prerequisites for debugging
Compile with debug symbols. Add AddCompilerFlags(self, "-g -O0") to your build script target. Without -g the debugger cannot map instructions back to source lines.
Install a C/C++ debugger extension. Either:
C/C++ (ms-vscode.cpptools) — uses GDB on Linux and LLDB on macOS.
CodeLLDB (vadimcn.vscode-lldb) — LLDB-based, works on both platforms.
If neither is installed the extension will prompt you to install one.
GDB or LLDB installed in your system (if using ms-vscode.cpptools):
Linux: apt install gdb (or distro equivalent)
macOS: LLDB ships with Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)
Note: Debugging on Windows (WSL2) is not yet supported by this extension.
