My Favorite VS Code Extensions

VS Code is my editor of choice. It’s really powerful on its own but what makes it shine are the extensions. The marketplace is filled with extensions where you can find almost everything that you need. Combined with Zsh it makes a really powerful playground.

I’ll bring you my favorite VS extensions that I use every day.

And with no particular order let’s start.

Better Align

If you like your code to be beautifully aligned than there is no better extension for you. With Better Align you can align code by a colon(:), assignment(=,+=,-=,*=,/=) and arrow(=>).

You don’t need to select what you want to align it’s enough to have your cursor there and the extension will figure it out for you.

Bookmarks

Most of us try to keep our files small and modular but every now and then you end up on a huge project and get lost in endless controllers. Bookmarks is essential in those situations.

When you need to check multiple functions in a large file you can use bookmarks to quickly navigate between them.

Bracket Pair Colorizer 2

It does what the name implies, it sets the same color for matching brackets. With this extension, the code is much more readable.

Code Spell Checker

This is a really simple but handy extension that checks your spelling and underlines all misspelled words. You are also able to add words to the dictionary so the extension gets better with use.

GitLens — Git supercharged

GitLens is awesome for those who work in teams, it’s sometimes hard to know who did what and who to ask for a section of code something isn’t clear. This extension has multiple great features.

It shows you who and when edited the current line, it also shows in the status bar more information and you are able to navigate to that specific commit.

On hover, you get more details and you are able to see what the change was.

Live Server

Start and stop a server with a single click in the status bar. Changes will be visible as soon as you save your file no need to manually refresh the page every time.

Partial Diff

Before I discovered this command I found my self going to online ‘text compare’ sites a lot.

Path Intellisense

Neat little plugin that autocompletes your filenames. With it, importing scripts, components, etc will be a child’s play.

It’s truly a lifesaver.

Prettier – Code formatter

Prettier is an opinionated code formatter. It enforces a consistent style by parsing your code and re-printing it with its own rules that take the maximum line length into account, wrapping code when necessary.

Project Manager

Really nice way to switch between projects, no need to close the current VS, and search for your project in the file explorer. You will have all your projects one click away.

Settings Sync

Most of us spend a lot of time customizing our environment, the best way to have it synchronized across all of our devices is with Settings Sync.

Not only it will be synced but you will have a backup of your configuration if something happens to your system.

TODO Highlight

Comments usually blend with the background and are barely visible, which is good we don’t want our comments to distract us from the code and overwhelm us.

This extension will highlight some keywords like TODO or FIXME.

If you know something needs to be fixed but it’s not urgent you can just add a FIXME in a comment above and it will remind you next time you see it.

Trailing Spaces

A VS Code extensions that highlights all Trailing Spaces and it provides a keyboard shortcut to remove all Trailing Spaces from the file.

PHP Intelephense

PHP code intelligence for VS Code. A must-have if you work with PHP.

Indent-rainbow

This extension is not for everyone. Not everyone will like the indentation to be colored but it can be really useful to keep your code nicely formatted and indented.

Git Graph

Really cool extension to see the Git Graph as the name implies, I’m sure you will be amazed and spend some time exploring it while you check your projects git graph.

One Dark Pro

This is my favorite VS Code theme. It’s beautiful and the code is really readable while not being hard on your eyes as it’s a dark theme 

VS Code has some awesome plugins and themes. I enjoy finding and trying them out.

They make your life easier and working hours enjoyable.

And that’s it those were some of my favorite VS code extensions.

I’ll keep this list updated if I find any new extensions worth sharing.