LeetCode with Auth Sync

VS Code extension:

Open VSX extension:

Firefox extension:

Chrome extension:

Solve LeetCode problems in VS Code with browser auth sync.

Unofficial fork notice: this extension is maintained by wilmtang at wilmtang/vscode-leetcode. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or published by LeetCode. The original project's MIT license and copyright notices are preserved in LICENSE, with additional fork attribution in NOTICE.md.

Why This Plugin

If you use LeetCode from VS Code, authentication should not be the hard part. When you are already signed in to LeetCode in your browser, this extension helps VS Code use that same session for browsing problems, running tests, and submitting solutions.

Many older LeetCode VS Code workflows can break when LeetCode updates its web authentication, CSRF handling, or bot-protection checks. Users may end up manually copying cookies or CSRF tokens, only to hit confusing login errors later when a test run or submission goes through a different request path.

LeetCode with Auth Sync is built for that reality:

• No manual token copying: sign in to leetcode.com in your browser, then sync the active browser session into VS Code.
• More reliable test and submit: VS Code uses the same authenticated session context as your browser, which helps avoid stale-cookie and CSRF mismatch failures.
• Clearer troubleshooting: if LeetCode or Cloudflare still blocks a request, the extension reports a direct auth-sync/debug message instead of leaving you with a vague login failure.
• Local-first sync: browser session data is sent only to the VS Code listener running on 127.0.0.1; it is not sent to a third-party server by this extension.

The goal is simple: if you have access to LeetCode, you should be able to solve problems where you are most productive, including inside VS Code.

How to Use

This repository has two installable pieces:

• VS Code extension: the LeetCode explorer, editor commands, test/submit flow, and local auth-sync listener.
• Browser extension: the companion browser plugin that reads your signed-in leetcode.com browser session and sends it to the local VS Code listener.

Install both pieces on the same machine.

1. Install LeetCode with Auth Sync from the VS Code Marketplace.
2. Install the companion browser extension from the public listing for your browser:
   • Firefox: LeetCode VS Code Auth Sync on Firefox Add-ons
   • Chrome: LeetCode VS Code Auth Sync on Chrome Web Store
3. Sign in to leetcode.com in that browser.
4. In VS Code, open the LeetCode side bar, click Sign In, and choose Auto Cookie Sync.
5. In the browser extension popup, click Expire now, then open or refresh any leetcode.com page.

When sync succeeds, the VS Code notification closes, the LeetCode side bar refreshes, and test/submit commands use the same LeetCode session as your browser.

If a browser store listing is not available for your browser yet, load browser-extension/ manually from a local checkout using the contributor steps below.

Auto Cookie Sync is only built and tested for leetcode.com. leetcode.cn (力扣) support is currently broken in this fork — Favorites and Solutions do not work on .cn after the move to direct API calls (details in the Switch Endpoint section below and in docs/maintainer-guide.md). Contributions to restore .cn are very welcome. If you use leetcode.cn, or if web/manual login already works for your account, you can still use the existing Web Authorization or LeetCode Cookie login options.

User Controls

VS Code commands:

• LeetCode: Sign In
• LeetCode: Sign Out
• LeetCode: Show User Profile
• LeetCode: Show Browser Auth Sync Status
• LeetCode: Restart Browser Auth Sync Server
• LeetCode: Force Start Browser Auth Sync Server

Status Bar: Personal Stats Panel

Once signed in, the LeetCode: <username> indicator in the VS Code bottom status bar is clickable. It opens a personal-stats panel that mirrors the public profile and progress pages on leetcode.com:

• Total solved problems with an Easy/Medium/Hard progress bar against the full catalog (e.g. 464 / 950 Easy).
• "Beats X%" percentile per difficulty.
• Global ranking, country, company, school, and reputation when present.
• Most-used languages ranked by solved-problem count.
• The 10 most recent Accepted submissions with relative timestamps and a direct link back to each problem.

The panel is also reachable from the command palette as LeetCode: Show User Profile. When you are signed out, the same status bar indicator opens the sign-in picker instead.

Browser extension controls:

• Expire now: clears the automatic sync cooldown. After clicking it, open or refresh any leetcode.com page so the next real LeetCode request syncs cookies and browser request headers to VS Code.
• Cookie-only sync: optional advanced button. It sends cookies immediately, but it cannot capture browser request headers.
• Enabled: turns browser-side sync on or off.
• Port: must match leetcode.authSync.port in VS Code. The default is 17899.
• Shared secret: optional. If set in VS Code, set the same value in the browser extension.
• Cooldown: controls how often automatic browser sync can run after a successful sync. Expire now makes the next automatic sync ready immediately.

How Browser Auth Sync Works

The browser extension does not log in to LeetCode by itself. Instead, it copies the already-signed-in browser session into the VS Code extension over a loopback-only HTTP endpoint.

flowchart LR
    A["You sign in on leetcode.com"] --> B["Browser extension reads LeetCode cookies"]
    B --> C["POST http://127.0.0.1:17899/auth/update"]
    C --> D["VS Code extension auth-sync server"]
    D --> E["Cookie stored in VS Code global state"]
    E --> F["LeetCode explorer refreshes"]
    E --> G["Direct LeetCode HTTP/GraphQL requests"]
    G --> H["Browse, test, and submit use the synced cookie"]

Important details:

• The VS Code extension listens on 127.0.0.1 only, not on your network interface. Default endpoint: POST http://127.0.0.1:17899/auth/update.
• The health endpoint is GET http://127.0.0.1:17899/health.
• If several VS Code windows are open, only one owns the listener. Other windows verify the live owner through the local /health endpoint and can take over when that listener is gone.
• The browser extension reads leetcode.com cookies and sends a LeetCode Cookie header to the local listener.
• Automatic sync observes only LeetCode XHR/fetch requests and waits for the configured cooldown after a successful automatic sync of an unchanged session. The cooldown is bypassed (syncs immediately) if the login session fingerprint changes (based on LEETCODE_SESSION + csrftoken) or if headers are captured for the first time after a cookie-only sync.
• The VS Code output channel prints full sync details only when the login session changes. Repeat syncs of an unchanged session are collapsed into a single session unchanged line; freshly captured browser request headers are still stored and used either way.
• Expire now from the popup bypasses the cooldown for the next real LeetCode request. The optional Cookie-only sync button sends cookies immediately but does not capture browser request headers.
• Cookie values are sent only to the local VS Code listener and are not intentionally logged by either extension.
• If leetcode.authSync.secret is set, the browser extension must send the same value in the X-LeetCode-AuthSync-Secret header.
• The listener rejects state-changing requests (/auth/update, /auth/release) that carry a website Origin header, and never returns wildcard CORS headers. This blocks a malicious web page from pushing a cookie into your VS Code window through the loopback port. The companion browser extension is unaffected because it reaches the port through its http://127.0.0.1/* host permission.

Security note: the shared secret is optional but recommended

leetcode.authSync.secret is empty by default, which keeps first-time setup simple. With no secret set, the listener accepts any request that reaches 127.0.0.1:<port> and contains a valid LeetCode session cookie, as long as it is not identified as a cross-site web request. That means:

• Any other program running on your machine (or another local user, on a shared host) can post a LeetCode session to your VS Code window. A hostile local process could sign your editor in as a different account, so submissions land on the attacker's profile.
• The Origin check above stops ordinary websites, but it is defense against browsers, not against native local software.

For anything beyond a single-user personal machine, set leetcode.authSync.secret in VS Code and enter the same value in the browser extension settings. The secret is required on every /auth/update request, so a process that does not know it cannot inject a session. Treat it like a password and use a long random value.

For Contributors: Test Locally

Install dependencies first:

npm ci --replace-registry-host=always

Test the VS Code Extension

Run the extension in a VS Code Extension Development Host:

npm run local -- vscode:dev

That compiles TypeScript, opens a new VS Code window with this checkout as the extension under development, and starts the auth-sync listener after activation.

Useful contributor commands in the development host:

• LeetCode: Show Browser Auth Sync Status
• LeetCode: Restart Browser Auth Sync Server
• LeetCode: Force Start Browser Auth Sync Server

To test a packaged local install instead of an Extension Development Host:

npm run local -- vscode:install

This builds dist/vscode-leetcode-auth-sync.vsix, uninstalls the old stock/local extension IDs if present, installs the VSIX with the code CLI, and asks you to reload VS Code.

Reload the VS Code Extension While Developing

After changing TypeScript:

1. Recompile with npm run compile, or keep npm run watch running in another terminal.
2. In the Extension Development Host, run Developer: Reload Window.

If you used npm run local -- vscode:install, rerun that install command after code changes, then reload the normal VS Code window with Developer: Reload Window.

If only auth-sync settings changed, use LeetCode: Restart Browser Auth Sync Server or change the setting and let the extension restart the listener.

Test the Browser Extension

Start Chrome or Chromium with the unpacked browser extension and a disposable profile:

npm run local -- chrome:dev

To test against your current Chrome user-data directory:

npm run local -- chrome:dev-current

Quit Chrome first when using the current-profile script. If Chrome is already running, it can ignore the --load-extension flag.

Manual Chrome load:

1. Open chrome://extensions.
2. Enable Developer mode.
3. Click Load unpacked.
4. Select the browser-extension/ folder.

Manual Firefox load:

1. Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox.
2. Click Load Temporary Add-on.
3. Select browser-extension/manifest.json.

Chrome uses the MV3 background.service_worker entry from browser-extension/manifest.json. Firefox uses the background.scripts entry from the same manifest.

Reload the Browser Extension While Developing

Chrome:

1. Open chrome://extensions.
2. Find LeetCode VS Code Auth Sync.
3. Click the reload button on the extension card.
4. Reopen the popup or options page before testing UI changes.

Firefox:

1. Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox.
2. Find LeetCode VS Code Auth Sync.
3. Click Reload.
4. Reopen the popup or options page before testing UI changes.

Reload the browser extension after changes to browser-extension/background.js, manifest.json, popup.*, options.*, or icons.

End-to-End Local Test

1. Start VS Code locally with npm run local -- vscode:dev.
2. Start the browser extension with npm run local -- chrome:dev, or load it manually.
3. Sign in to https://leetcode.com in that browser profile.
4. In VS Code, choose LeetCode: Sign In, then Auto Cookie Sync.
5. In the browser extension popup, click Expire now, then open or refresh any leetcode.com page.
6. Confirm the VS Code waiting notification closes and the LeetCode explorer refreshes as signed in.
7. Run a problem test or submit command to confirm the synced cookie works against LeetCode directly.

You can also smoke-test the local listener:

curl -i http://127.0.0.1:17899/health

For the full local workflow and troubleshooting notes, see docs/maintainer-guide.md.

Contributor Scripts

npm run scripts:help
npm run compile
npm run watch
npm run lint
npm run local -- vscode:dev
npm run local -- vscode:install
npm run local -- chrome:dev
npm run local -- chrome:dev-current
npm run local -- paths
npm run local -- icons
npm run auth-sync:lint:firefox
npm run auth-sync:build:firefox
npm run auth-sync:build:chrome
npm run release:vscode:local

Maintainer Publishing

The VS Code extension and browser extension use separate release lanes.

VS Code Marketplace releases are handled by .github/workflows/vscode-extension.yml and use vscode-extension-v* tags:

npm run release:vscode:local
git tag vscode-extension-v0.18.8
git push origin vscode-extension-v0.18.8

The local release run lints and packages the VSIX before the tag is pushed. The workflow verifies that the tag matches package.json. Add VSCE_PAT to the vscode-marketplace GitHub Actions environment; the token must be an Azure DevOps Personal Access Token with Marketplace Manage scope for the publisher in package.json. See docs/maintainer-guide.md.

Browser extension releases use browser-extension-v* tags for both Firefox and Chrome:

git tag browser-extension-v0.1.3
git push origin browser-extension-v0.1.3

Firefox publication is handled by .github/workflows/firefox-extension.yml. It uses web-ext and needs AMO_JWT_ISSUER and AMO_JWT_SECRET in the firefox-addons environment.

Chrome publication is handled by .github/workflows/chrome-extension.yml. Build the Chrome ZIP locally with npm run auth-sync:build:chrome. The workflow needs CHROME_WEBSTORE_CLIENT_ID, CHROME_WEBSTORE_CLIENT_SECRET, CHROME_WEBSTORE_REFRESH_TOKEN, CHROME_WEBSTORE_PUBLISHER_ID, and CHROME_WEBSTORE_EXTENSION_ID in the chrome-web-store environment.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.57.0+

No Node.js required. As of this fork the extension talks to LeetCode directly over HTTP/GraphQL using your synced browser cookie, so it no longer bundles or shells out to the vsc-leetcode-cli and does not need a Node.js runtime on your PATH. (On the rare occasion LeetCode serves a Cloudflare challenge, the extension falls back to the system curl, which ships with macOS, Windows 10+, and most Linux distros.)

Quick Start

Features

Sign In/Out

• Simply click Sign in to LeetCode in the LeetCode Explorer will let you sign in with your LeetCode account.

• You can also use the following command to sign in/out:

  • LeetCode: Sign in
  • LeetCode: Sign out

---

Switch Endpoint

• By clicking the button at the explorer's navigation bar, you can switch between different endpoints.

• The supported endpoints are:

  • leetcode.com
  • leetcode.cn

  Note: The accounts of different endpoints are not shared. Please make sure you are using the right endpoint. The extension will use leetcode.com by default.

  ⚠️ leetcode.cn (力扣) support is currently broken. After this fork moved off the bundled CLI to direct API calls, two features do not work on .cn: Favorites (the default star list is matched by the English name "Favorite", but .cn names it "收藏") and Solutions (.cn uses a different community-solutions API). Everything was validated only against leetcode.com. Contributions to restore .cn are very welcome — please open a PR. See docs/maintainer-guide.md.

---

Pick a Problem

• Directly click on the problem or right click the problem in the LeetCode Explorer and select Preview Problem to see the problem description.

• Select Show Problem to directly open the file with the problem description.

  Note：You can specify the path of the workspace folder to store the problem files by updating the setting leetcode.workspaceFolder. The default value is：$HOME/.leetcode/.

  You can specify whether including the problem description in comments or not by updating the setting leetcode.showCommentDescription.

  You can switch the default language by triggering the command: LeetCode: Switch Default Language.

---

Editor Shortcuts

• The extension supports 5 editor shortcuts (aka Code Lens):

  • Submit: Submit your answer to LeetCode.
  • Test: Test your answer with customized test cases.
  • Star/Unstar: Star or unstar the current problem.
  • Solution: Show the top voted solution for the current problem.
  • Description: Show the problem description page.

  Note: You can customize the shortcuts using the setting: leetcode.editor.shortcuts. By default, only Submit and Test shortcuts are enabled.

---

Search problems by Keywords

• By clicking the button at the explorer's navigation bar, you can search the problems by keywords.

Settings

Setting Name	Description	Default Value
leetcode.hideSolved	Specify to hide the solved problems or not	false
leetcode.defaultLanguage	Specify the default language used to solve the problem. Supported languages are: bash, c, cpp, csharp, golang, java, javascript, kotlin, mysql, php, python,python3,ruby,rust, scala, swift, typescript	N/A
leetcode.useWsl	Specify whether to use WSL or not	false
leetcode.endpoint	Specify the active endpoint. Supported endpoints are: leetcode, leetcode-cn. ⚠️ leetcode-cn is currently broken (favorites + solutions); only leetcode is validated. PRs welcome.	leetcode
leetcode.workspaceFolder	Specify the path of the workspace folder to store the problem files.	""
leetcode.filePath	Specify the relative path under the workspace and the file name to save the problem files. More details can be found here.
leetcode.enableStatusBar	Specify whether the LeetCode status bar will be shown or not.	true
leetcode.editor.shortcuts	Specify the customized shortcuts in editors. Supported values are: submit, test, star, solution and description.	["submit, test"]
leetcode.enableSideMode	Specify whether preview, solution and submission tab should be grouped into the second editor column when solving a problem.	true
leetcode.showCommentDescription	Specify whether to include the problem description in the comments	false
leetcode.useEndpointTranslation	Use endpoint's translation (if available)	true
leetcode.colorizeProblems	Add difficulty badge and colorize problems files in explorer tree	true
leetcode.problems.sortStrategy	Specify sorting strategy for problems list	None
leetcode.allowReportData	Opt in to anonymous usage telemetry. When enabled, events are sent to the official LeetCode plugin telemetry endpoint, not to an endpoint operated by this unofficial fork. Telemetry is disabled by default.	false
leetcode.authSync.enabled	Enable the local browser auth sync server on 127.0.0.1.	true
leetcode.authSync.port	Local port used by the browser auth sync server. The browser extension must use the same port.	17899
leetcode.authSync.ownerHeartbeatIntervalSeconds	How often the VS Code window that owns the browser auth sync listener writes its heartbeat.	30
leetcode.authSync.observerCheckIntervalSeconds	How often observer windows verify the auth sync listener through /health.	60
leetcode.authSync.ownerStaleAfterSeconds	Legacy compatibility setting. Owner liveness is verified through the local /health endpoint.	120
leetcode.authSync.secret	Optional shared secret for browser auth sync. If set, the browser extension must send the same secret.	""

Want Help?

When you meet any problem, you can check out the Troubleshooting and FAQ first.

If your problem still cannot be addressed, please file an issue.

Release Notes

Refer to CHANGELOG

Acknowledgement

• This extension originated from @jdneo's vscode-leetcode, which built on @skygragon's leetcode-cli. This fork no longer bundles leetcode-cli; it talks to LeetCode directly using a synced browser cookie.
• Special thanks to our contributors.