Visual Bikeshed

April 2, 2026 · View on GitHub

Visual Studio Code extension for Bikeshed that strives to provide a better and integrated authoring experience for spec authors, including a side-by-side preview and language features like autocompletion.

This plugin is currently in Beta and under active development. There may be bugs. Please file an issue. Pull requests are always welcome!

Features

Bikeshed side-by-side preview within Visual Studio Code. Bring up Visual Studio Code Command Palette (⇧⌘P on Macs) and select Open Bikeshed Preview while editing a Bikeshed file.
Compilation support via local Bikeshed install or through the W3C Spec Generator.
IntelliSense / autocompletion support for W3C webref definitions and definitions within the document.

Requirements

Local Bikeshed installation if you want faster and local compilation (preferred method). Follow Bikeshed installation steps.

Extension Settings

This extension contributes the following settings:

visualBikeshed.autoUpdate: Automatically update the preview when the document changes.
visualBikeshed.compilerOption: Selects a compilation method (URL or Bikeshed binary path).
visualBikeshed.commandPath: Path to the Bikeshed binary, for local compilation.
visualBikeshed.processorUrl: URL of the Bikeshed processor (defaults to https://www.w3.org/publications/spec-generator/).

Known Issues

W3C WebRef index is a work in progress.

Release Notes

0.0.1 - 0.0.2

Initial releases of Visual Bikeshed.