Visual Studio Code has become “The Editor” for many in software development and it has many extensions which you can use to extend the functionality for your needs and customize it. Here’s a short list of the extensions I use for frontend (React, JavaScript, Node.js), backend (GraphQL, Python, Node.js, Java, PHP, Docker) and database (PostgreSQL, MongoDB) development.
General
editorconfig
Attempts to override user/workspace settings with settings found in .editorconfig files.
Visual Studio IntelliCode
Provides AI-assisted development features for Python, TypeScript/JavaScript and Java developers in Visual Studio Code, with insights based on understanding your code context combined with machine learning.
GitLens
Visualize code authorship at a glance via Git blame annotations and code lens, seamlessly navigate and explore Git repositories, gain valuable insights via powerful comparison commands, and so much more.
Git Blame
See Git Blame information in the status bar for the currently selected line.
Local History
Plugin for maintaining local history of files.
Language and technology specific
ESlint
Integrates ESLint into VS Code.
Prettier
Opinionated code formatter which enforces a consistent style by parsing your code and re-printing it with its own rules that take the maximum line length into account, wrapping code when necessary.
Python
Linting, Debugging (multi-threaded, remote), Intellisense, Jupyter Notebooks, code formatting, refactoring, unit tests, and more.
PHP Intelephense
PHP code intelligence for Visual Studio Code is a high performance PHP language server packed full of essential features for productive PHP development.
Java Extension Pack
Popular extensions for Java development and more.
Docker
Makes it easy to build, manage, and deploy containerized applications from Visual Studio Code. It also provides one-click debugging of Node.js, Python, and .NET Core inside a container.
Markdown All in One
All you need to write Markdown (keyboard shortcuts, table of contents, auto preview and more)
Markdownlint
Includes a library of rules to encourage standards and consistency for Markdown files.
Markdown Preview Enhanced
Provides you with many useful functionalities such as automatic scroll sync, math typesetting, mermaid, PlantUML, pandoc, PDF export, code chunk, presentation writer, etc.
Prettify JSON
Prettify ugly JSON inside VSCode.
PlantUML
Rich PlantUML support for Visual Studio Code.
HashiCorp Terraform
Syntax highlighting and autocompletion for Terraform
Database
PostgreSQL
Query tool for PostgreSQL databases. While there is a database explorer it is NOT meant for creating/dropping databases or tables. The explorer is a visual aid for helping to craft your queries.
MongoDB
Makes it easy to work with MongoDB.
GraphQL
Adds syntax highlighting, validation, and language features like go to definition, hover information and autocompletion for graphql projects. This extension also works with queries annotated with gql tag.
GraphQL for VSCode
VSCode extension for GraphQL schema authoring & consumption.
Apollo GraphQL for VS Code
Rich editor support for GraphQL client and server development that seamlessly integrates with the Apollo platform.
Javascript
Babel
JavaScript syntax highlighting for ES201x, React JSX, Flow and GraphQL.
Jest
Use Facebook’s Jest with pleasure.
npm
Supports running npm scripts defined in the package.json file and validating the installed modules against the dependencies defined in the package.json.
User Interface specific
indent-rainbow
Simple extension to make indentation more readable
Rainbow Brackets
Rainbow colors for the round brackets, the square brackets and the squiggly brackets.
vscode-icons
Icons for filetypes in file browser.
Other tips
VScode Show Full Path in Title Bar
With Code open, hit: Command+ , “window.title”: “{activeEditorLong}activeEditorLong{separator}${rootName}”
Slow integrated terminal in macOScodesign --remove-signature /Applications/Visual\ Studio\ Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Code\ Helper\ (Renderer).app
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