VS Code

This repository, known as "Code - OSS," is where Microsoft develops Visual Studio Code together with the community. It's the open source foundation for the VS Code product, which is a distribution of this same code with Microsoft-specific branding and telemetry added under a separate product license. Developers who want a lightweight but fully featured code editor, or who want to build their own editor distribution or extension, are the audience for this repository. Development happens fully in the open, with a public roadmap, monthly iteration plans, and endgame plans all tracked on the project's wiki.

Key features

• Full edit-build-debug cycle: comprehensive code editing, navigation, and code understanding paired with lightweight debugging support out of the box.
• Rich extensibility model: a large extension API that lets third parties add language support, themes, debuggers, and custom tooling on top of the base editor.
• Bundled language extensions: built-in extensions for many languages, including grammars and snippets, with extensions suffixed language-features (like json-language-features) adding richer support such as Go to Definition.
• Cross-platform: builds and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, with monthly stable releases and a daily Insiders build for early access to changes.
• Dev Containers support: a built-in Dev Containers and GitHub Codespaces configuration so contributors can build in a consistent, isolated environment.
• Multiple feedback channels: bugs, feature requests, and questions are handled across GitHub Issues, Stack Overflow, GitHub Discussions, and a Slack community for extension authors.
• Public development process: the roadmap, iteration plans, and issue tracking all happen in the open on GitHub rather than behind closed doors.

Ideal use cases

This repository is the right starting point if you want to build from source, contribute a fix or feature to VS Code itself, or build a custom editor distribution based on the same codebase. It's also useful if you specifically want the unbranded, telemetry-free "Code - OSS" build rather than the Microsoft-distributed VS Code binary. For contributors, it's the place to find good first issues, review pull requests, or work on core editor behavior, coding guidelines, and translations.

Most developers who just want to use an editor day to day are better served by downloading the prebuilt Visual Studio Code binary from its website rather than building this repository from source, since that avoids the build toolchain and dev container setup entirely. Building from source is aimed at contributors and people customizing the editor itself, not at typical end users who just want to write code.

Many of the editor's related components, such as the Node.js debug adapter and the Mono debug adapter, live in their own separate repositories rather than in this one, which is worth knowing if you're trying to trace down where a specific piece of functionality is maintained. A full list of these related projects is kept on the project's wiki for anyone extending the editor rather than just using it.

Installation

To build and run from source, the project recommends using the Dev Containers workflow, which needs at least 4 cores and 6 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended):

• Use the Dev Containers: Clone Repository in Container Volume command in VS Code, which creates a Docker volume for better disk I/O on macOS and Windows.
• Alternatively, for GitHub Codespaces, install the GitHub Codespaces extension and use the Codespaces: Create New Codespace command.

For most end users who just want to run the editor rather than build it, download the prebuilt Visual Studio Code binary for Windows, macOS, or Linux from the official website, or install the Insiders build for daily updates. Detailed build and contribution instructions, including coding guidelines, debugging the codebase, and the pull request process, live in the project's "How to Contribute" wiki page, and related debug adapter projects (like the Node.js and Mono debug adapters) are maintained in their own separate repositories.