AlgoKit AVM Visual Studio Code Debugger Extension for Contributors

August 14, 2025 ยท View on GitHub

Setup

Initial Setup

  1. Clone this repository.
  2. Run npm i to install the dependencies.
  3. Open the repository root in VS Code.
  4. Install recommended extensions.

Run/Debug the AVM Debugger Extension

  1. Run either the "Launch in workspace" or "Launch in multi-root workspace" configurations via the "Run and Debug" pane.
  2. A new "Extension Development Host" VS Code instance will be launched. If launching the multi-root workspace, then reload this VS Code instance as a workspace.
  3. Initiate an AVM debug session using the configurations in the "Run and Debug" pane inside the "Extension Development Host" VS Code instance.

Create and Install a Test Extension Package

  1. Run npm run build.
  2. Run npm run package to produce a .vsix package in the project root.
  3. Open a repository containing artefacts you'd like to debug in VS Code and install the .vsix package.
  4. Follow the steps in the Readme Usage section section.

Debug the AVM Debug Adapter and Debugger

  1. Uncomment "avmDebugger.debugAdapter.port": 4711 in settings.json and sample.code-workspace located in the example workspaces in this repository.
  2. Clone the avm-debugger.
  3. Run npm i inside the avm-debugger repository to install the dependencies.
  4. Open the avm-debugger repository root in VS Code.
  5. Run the "Server" configuration via the "Run and Debug" pane, which starts the debug adapter on port 4711.
  6. Run the steps in Run/Debug the AVM Debugger Extension.

Commits

We are using the Conventional Commits standard for commit messages. This allows us to automatically generate release notes and version numbers. We do this via Semantic Release and GitHub actions.

Update minimum required VS Code version

The minimum required VS Code version is specified in the package.json file

  • The required VS Code version
  "engines": {
    "vscode": "^1.92.0"
  },
  • The type definitions for VS Code
  ...
  "devDependencies": {
    ...
    "@types/vscode": "~1.92.0",
    ...
  }

Note: the dependency @types/vscode only accept patch updates because VS Code type definitions can be different between minor updates.

To update the minimum required VS Code version, run:

npm install @types/vscode@1.92.0 --save-dev --save-prefix='~'

where {new-version} is the new version. This command will update both elements.