VS Code Tips and Tricks

Basics
Customization
Extensions
File and folder management
Editing hacks
Intellisense
Snippets
Git integration
Debugging
Task runner
Other Resources

The key bindings below may or may not be accurate with the latest build. See here for the latest keyboard shortcut reference.

Basics

Insider Version of VS Code

The VS Code team uses the Insiders version to test the latest features and bug fixes of VS Code. You can use this same version by downloading here.

For Early Adopters - Insiders has the most recent code changes and may lead to the occasional broken build.
Frequent Builds - New builds everyday with the latest bug fixes and features.
Side-by-side install - Insiders installs next to the Stable build allowing you to use either independently.

Getting Started

Open the welcome page to get started with the basics of VS Code. Help -> Welcome.

Includes the interactive playground.

Command Palette

Access all available commands based on your current context.

Mac: cmd+shift+p or f1

Windows / Linux: ctrl+shift+p or f1

Reference keybindings

All of the commands are in the command palette with the associated key binding (if it exists). If you forget what the key binding is use the command palette to help you out.

Quick open

Quickly open files.

Mac: cmd+p

Windows / Linux: ctrl+p

Tip: Type "?" to view help suggestions.

CLI tool

Linux: Follow instructions here.

Windows: Follow instructions here.

Mac: see below.

Open the command palette (F1) and type "shell command". Hit enter to execute "Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH".

# open code with current directory
code .

# create a new window
code -n

# change the language
code --locale=es

# open diff editor
code --diff <file1> <file2>

# see help options
code --help

# disable all extensions
code --disable-extensions .

.vscode folder

Workspace specific files are in .vscode. For example, tasks.json for the Task Runner and launch.json for the debugger.

Status bar decorations

Errors and Warnings

Mac: shift+cmd+m

Windows / Linux: ctrl+shift+m

Quickly jump to errors and warnings in the project.

Cycle through errors with f8 or shift+f8

Change language mode

Mac: cmd+k m

Windows / Linux: ctrl+k m

Customization

There are many things you can do to customize VS Code.

Change your theme
Change your keyboard shortcuts
Tune your settings
Add JSON validation
Create snippets
Install extensions

Check out the full documentation.

Change your theme

Open the command palatte and type "themes". You can install more themes from the extension Marketplace.

Additionally, you can install and change your file icon themes.

Change your keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard Reference Sheets

Download the keyboard shortcut reference sheet for your platform (macOS, Windows, Linux).

Keymaps

Are you used to keyboard shortcuts from another editor? You can install a Keymap extension that brings the keyboard shortcuts from your favorite editor to VS Code. Go to Preferences -> Keymap Extensions to see the current list on the Marketplace. Some of the more popular ones:

Customize your keyboard shortcuts

Open the command palatte and type "Keyboard Shortcuts." You can now add your own keybindings in the file on the right.

See more in the Official Documentation.

Tune your settings

Open settings.json

Mac: cmd+,

Windows / Linux: File -> Preferences -> User Settings

Format on paste

"editor.formatOnPaste": true

Change the font size

"editor.fontSize": 18

Change the zoom level

"window.zoomLevel": 5

Font ligatures

"editor.fontLigatures": true

Tip: You will need to have a font installed that supports font ligatures. FiraCode is a popular font on the VS Code team.

Auto Save

"files.autoSave": true

Format on save

"editor.formatOnSave": true,

Change the size of tab characters

"editor.tabSize": 4

Spaces or tabs

"editor.insertSpaces": true

Render whitespace

"editor.renderWhitespace": true

Ignore files / folders

Removes these files / folders from your editor window.

"files.exclude": {
		"somefolder/": true, 
		"somefile": true
}

Remove these files / folders from search results.

"search.exclude": {
    "someFolder/": true,
    "somefile": true
}

And many, many others.

Language specific settings

For those settings you only want for specific languages.

"[languageid]": {
    
}

Tip: You can find the language ID by typing in the command palatte "Cofnigure language specific settings"

Add JSON Validation

Enabled by default for many files. Create your own schema and validation in settings.json

"json.schemas": [
    {
        "fileMatch": [
            "/bower.json"
        ],
        "url": "http://json.schemastore.org/bower"
    }
]

or for a schema defined in your workspace

"json.schemas": [
    {
        "fileMatch": [
            "/foo.json"
        ],
        "url": "./myschema.json"
    }
]

or a custom schema

"json.schemas": [
    {
        "fileMatch": [
            "/.myconfig"
        ],
        "schema": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
                "name" : {
                    "type": "string",
                    "description": "The name of the entry"
                }
            }
        }
    },

See more in the documentation.

Extensions

Find extensions

In the VS Code marketplace.
Search inside VS Code
View extension recommendations
Community curated extension lists, such as awesome-vscode.

Install extensions

Click the extension activity bar button. You can search via the search bar or click the more button to filter and sort by install count.

Extension recommendations

Click the extension activity bar button. Then click "Show Recommended Extensions" in the more button menu.

Creating my own extension

Are you interested in creating your own extension? You can learn how to do this in the documentation, specifically check out the documentation on contribution points.

configuration
commands
keybindings
languages
debuggers
grammars
themes
snippets
jsonValidation

File and folder management

Integrated terminal

Windows / Linux / Mac: ctrl+`

Autosave

Open settings.json with cmd+,

"files.autoSave": "afterDelay"

Toggle sidebar

Mac: cmd+b

Windows / Linux: ctrl+b

Zen Mode

Mac: cmd+k z

Windows / Linux: ctrl+k z

Enter distraction free mode.

Side by side editing

Mac: cmd+\ or cmd then click a file from the file browser.

Windows / Linux: ctrl+\

Linux: ctrl+2

Switch between editors

Mac: cmd+1, cmd+2, cmd+3

Windows / Linux: ctrl+1, ctrl+2, ctrl+3

Move to Explorer window

Mac: cmd+shift+e

Windows / Linux: ctrl+shift+e

Create and open a file

Mac: cmd+click

Windows / Linux: ctrl+click

Close the currently opened folder

Mac: cmd+w

Linux: ctrl+k f

History

Navigate entire history with ctrl+tab

Navigate back.

Mac: ctrl+-

Windows / Linux: alt+left

Navigate Forward.

Mac: ctrl+shift+up

Windows / Linux: alt+right

Navigate to a file

Mac: cmd+e or cmd+p

Windows / Linux: ctrl+e or ctrl+p

File associations

Setup language associations for files that aren't detected accurately (i.e. many config files).

"file.associations": {
    ".database": "json"
}

Editing hacks

Here are a selection of common features for editing code. If the keyboard shortcuts aren't comfortable for you, consider installing a Keymap extension for your old editor.

Multi cursor selection

Mac: opt+cmd+up or opt+cmd+down

Windows: ctrl+alt+up or ctrl+alt+down

Linux: alt+shift+up or alt+shift+down

Add more cursors to current selection.

Join line

Mac: ctrl+j

Windows / Linux: Not bound by default. Open Keyboard shortcuts and bind editor.action.joinLines to a shortcut of your choice.

Copy line up / down

Mac: opt+shift+up or opt+shift+down

Windows / Linux(Issue #5363): shift+alt+down or shift+alt+up

Shrink / expand selection

Find by symbol

Mac: cmd+shift+o

Windows / Linux: ctrl+shift+o

Navigate to a specific line

Mac: ctrl+g or cmd+p, :

Windows / Linux: ctrl+g

Undo cursor position

Mac: cmd+u

Windows / Linux: ctrl+u

Move line up and down

Mac: opt+up or opt+down

Windows / Linux: alt+up or alt+down

Trim trailing whitespace

Mac: cmd+shift+x

Windows / Linux: ctrl+k ctrl+x

Code formatting

Currently selected source code

Mac: cmd+k, cmd+f

Windows / Linux: ctrl+k, ctrl+f

Whole document format

Windows / Linux: shift+alt+f

Code folding

Mac: shift+cmd+[ and shift+cmd+]

Windows / Linux: ctrl+shift+[ and ctrl+shift+]

Select current line

Mac: cmd+i

Windows / Linux: ctrl+i

Navigate to beginning and end of file

Mac: cmd+up and cmd+down

Windows: ctrl+up and ctrl+down

Linux: ctrl+home and ctrl+end

Toggle README preview

In a markdown file use

Mac: shift+cmd+v

Windows / Linux: ctrl+shift+v

Side by Side Markdown Edit and Preview

In a markdown file use

Linux: ctrl+k v

Special bonus: The preview will now sync.

Intellisense

Anytime, try ctrl+space to trigger the suggest widget.

You can view available methods, parameter hints, short documentation, etc.

Peek

Select a symbol then type alt+f12. Alternatively, you can use the context menu.

Go to definition

Select a symbol then type f12. Alternatively, you can use the context menu.

Find all references

Select a symbol then type shift+f12. Alternatively, you can use the context menu.

Rename symbol

Select a symbol then type f2. Alternatively, you can use the context menu.

.eslintrc.json

Install eslint extension. Configure your linter however you'd like. Specification is here.

Here is configuration to use es6.

{
    "env": {
        "browser": true,
        "commonjs": true,
        "es6": true,
        "node": true
    },
    "parserOptions": {
        "ecmaVersion": 6,
        "sourceType": "module",
        "ecmaFeatures": {
            "jsx": true,
            "classes": true,
            "defaultParams": true
        }
    },
    "rules": {
        "no-const-assign": 1,
        "no-extra-semi": 0,
        "semi": 0,
        "no-fallthrough": 0,
        "no-empty": 0,
        "no-mixed-spaces-and-tabs": 0,
        "no-redeclare": 0,
        "no-this-before-super": 1,
        "no-undef": 1,
        "no-unreachable": 1,
        "no-use-before-define": 0,
        "constructor-super": 1,
        "curly": 0,
        "eqeqeq": 0,
        "func-names": 0,
        "valid-typeof": 1
    }
}

package.json

See intellisense for your package.json file.

Emmet syntax

Support for Emmet syntax.

Snippets

Create custom snippets

File -> Preferences -> User Snippets, select the language, and create a snippet.

"create component": {
    "prefix": "component",
    "body": [
        "class $1 extends React.Component {",
        "",
        "	render() {",
        "		return ($2);",
        " 	}",
        "",
        "}"
    ]
},

See more details in documentation.

Git Integration

Diffs

Click Git icon then select the file to diff.

Side by side

Default is side by side diff.

Inline view

Toggle inline view by clicking more button in the top right.

Branches

Easily switch between branches via the status bar.

Staging

Stage all

Hover over the number of files and click the plus button.

Stage selected

Stage a portion of a file by selecting that file (using the arrows) and then staging "selected lines" via the more button.

Undo last commit

See Git output

Sometimes I want to see what my tool is doing. Visual Studio Code makes it easy to see what git commands are running. This is helpful when learning git or debugging a difficult source control issue.

Mac: shift+cmd+u

Windows / Linux: ctrl+shift+u

to run toggleOutput. Select Git in the dropdown.

Gutter indicators

View diff decorations in editor. See documentation for more details.

Resolve merge conflicts

During a merge click the git icon and make changes in the diff view.

Setup VS Code as default merge tool

git config --global merge.tool code

Debugging

Configure debugger

f1 and select "Debug: Open Launch.json", select the environment. This will generate a launch.json file. Works out of the box as expected for Node and other environments. May need some additional configuration for other languages. See documentation for more details.

Breakpoints and stepping through

Place breakpoints next to the line number. Navigate forward with the debug widget.

Data inspection

Inspect variables in the debug panels and in the console.

Task Runner

Auto detect tasks

f1, type "Configure Task", then select "Configure Task Runner". This will generate a task.json file with content like the following. See documentation for more details.

{
	// See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
	// for the documentation about the tasks.json format
	"version": "0.1.0",
	"command": "npm",
	"isShellCommand": true,
	"showOutput": "always",
	"suppressTaskName": true,
	"tasks": [
		{
			"taskName": "install",
			"args": ["install"]
		},
		{
			"taskName": "build",
			"args": ["run", "build"]
		}
	]
}

There are occasionally issues with auto generation. Check out the documentation for getting things to work properly.

Run tasks from command palette

f1, run the command "Run Task", and select the task you want to run. Terminate the running task by running the command "Terminate Running Task"

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