VS Code Tips and Tricks

Note: Tips and Tricks has moved to the official Visual Studio Code documentation at code.visualstudio.com.
The content is now at vscode-docs. Pull requests and documentation issues are still greatly appreciated.

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 Visual Studio 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.

Navigate between recently opened files

Repeat the Quick Open keyboard shortcut to cycle quickly between recently opened files.

Open multiple files from Quick Open

You can open multiple files from Quick Open by pressing the Right arrow key. This will open the currently selected file in the background and you can continue selecting files from Quick Open.

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 .

# open the current directory in the most recently used code window
code -r .

# 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

You can filter problems by type ('errors', 'warnings') or text matching.

Change language mode

Mac: cmd+k m

Windows / Linux: ctrl+k m

If you want to persist the new language mode for that file type, you can use the Configure File Association for ... command to associate the current file extension with an installed language.

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 Palette 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 Palette and type "keyboard shortcuts." You can now add your own keybindings in the file on the right.

See more in Key Bindings for Visual Studio Code.

Tune your settings

Open settings.json

Mac: cmd+,

Windows / Linux: File > Preferences > Settings or ctrl+,

Format on paste

"editor.formatOnPaste": true

Change the font size

"editor.fontSize": 18

Change the zoom level

"window.zoomLevel": 5

Font ligatures

"editor.fontFamily": "Fira Code",
"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": "afterDelay"

You can also toggle Auto Save from the top-level menu with the File > Auto Save.

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": "all"

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 Palette "Configure 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 Extensions 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 Extensions 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. A simple "Hello, world" tutorial can be found here.

configuration
commands
keybindings
languages
debuggers
grammars
themes
snippets
jsonValidation

File and folder management

Integrated terminal

Windows / Linux / Mac: ctrl+`

Auto Save

Open settings.json with cmd+,

"files.autoSave": "afterDelay"

You can also toggle Auto Save from the top-level menu with the File > Auto Save.

Toggle Sidebar

Mac: cmd+b

Windows / Linux: ctrl+b

Zen Mode

Mac: cmd+k z

Windows / Linux: ctrl+k z

Enter distraction free Zen mode.

Side by side editing

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

Windows / Linux: ctrl+\

Linux: ctrl+2

You can use drag and drop editors to create new editor groups and move editors between groups.

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

Windows / Linux: ctrl+k f

History

Navigate entire history with ctrl+tab

Navigate back.

Mac: ctrl+-

Windows / Linux: alt+left

Navigate Forward.

Mac: ctrl+shift+-

Windows / Linux: alt+right

Navigate to a file

Mac: cmd+e or cmd+p

Windows / Linux: ctrl+e or ctrl+p

File associations

Create language associations for files that aren't detected accurately (for example, many config files are JSON).

"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

Go to Symbol in File

Mac: cmd+shift+o

Windows / Linux: ctrl+shift+o

You can group the symbols by kind by adding a colon, @:.

Go to Symbol in Workspace

Mac: cmd+t

Windows / Linux: ctrl+t

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+k cmd+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: alt+cmd+[ and alt+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

Open Markdown 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

Mac: cmd+k v

Windows / Linux: ctrl+k v

Special bonus: The preview will now sync.

IntelliSense

Anytime, try ctrl+space to trigger the Suggestions 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 or ctrl+click (cmd+click on macOS).

You can go back to your previous location with the Go > Back command or alt+left (ctrl+- on macOS).

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 the 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 Creating your own Snippets.

Git Integration

Git integration comes with VS Code "in-the-box". You can install other SCM provider from the extension Marketplace. This section describes the Git integration but much of the UI and gestures are shared by other SCM providers.

Diffs

Click the Source Control button in the Activity Bar then select the file to diff.

Side by side

Default is side by side diff.

Inline view

Toggle inline view by clicking the More (...) button in the top right and selecting Switch to Inline View.

If you prefer the inline view, you can set "diffEditor.renderSideBySide": false.

Review Pane

Navigate through diffs with F7 and Shift+F7. This will present them in a unified patch format. Lines can be navigated with arrow keys and pressing Enter will jump back in the diff editor and the selected line.

Edit pending changes

You can make edits directly in the pending changes of the diff view.

Branches

Easily switch between Git 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 choosing Stage Selected Ranges from the Command Palette.

Undo last commit

See Git output

VS Code makes it easy to see what Git commands are actually 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 drop-down.

Gutter indicators

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

Resolve merge conflicts

During a merge, click the Source Control button in the Activity Bar and make changes in the diff view. Select and accept current, incoming or both changes in just one click.

Setup VS Code as default merge tool

git config --global merge.tool code

Pull request extension

Review pull requests inside vscode vscode-pull-request-github

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.js 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.

Inline values

You can set "debug.inlineValues": true to see variable values inline in the debugger. This feature is experimental and disabled by default.

Task Runner

Auto detect tasks

Select Tasks from the top-level menu, run the command Configure Tasks..., then select the type of task you'd like to run. This will generate a tasks.json file with content like the following. See the Tasks 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 the Tasks menu

Select Tasks from the top-level menu, run the command Run Task..., and select the task you want to run. Terminate the running task by running the command Terminate Task...

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