Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code: the universal code editor

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is the most popular code editor in the world, developed by Microsoft and fully open-source. Lightweight yet powerful, it supports almost every language through its extensions, and natively includes a terminal, Git, a debugger and IntelliSense. Free, cross-platform and updated every month.

Key features

• IntelliSense: smart autocompletion, hover documentation, function signatures
• Built-in debugger for Python, JavaScript, PHP, Go and many more
• Integrated Git version control: diff, commit, branches without leaving the editor
• Integrated multi-tab terminal (PowerShell, bash, WSL…)
• Extensions Marketplace with thousands of community plugins
• Multi-cursor, column selection and simultaneous editing
• Settings Sync: sync your config across all your devices via your GitHub/Microsoft account
• Live Share: real-time collaboration with other developers

Must-have extensions

• Prettier — automatic code formatting (JS, CSS, HTML, JSON…)
• ESLint / Pylint — on-the-fly error detection for your language
• GitLens — advanced Git annotations: blame, history, comparisons
• Path Intellisense — autocompletion of file paths
• Error Lens — shows errors right on the affected line
• One Dark Pro or Catppuccin — themes popular among developers

Shortcuts and tips

• Ctrl+Shift+P — command palette: access to every VS Code function
• Ctrl+P — quickly open files by name within the project
• Alt+Click — add an extra cursor for simultaneous editing
• Ctrl+K Z — Zen Mode: distraction-free fullscreen
• Ctrl+` — open/close the integrated terminal
• Use workspaces to save a configuration of multiple open folders
• Enable Settings Sync (Account → Turn on Settings Sync) to get your config on any machine