Courses VSCode Extension

Nov 9, 2026

This details the maintenance guidelines for the freeCodeCamp/courses-vscode-extension repository which contains the source code for the freeCodeCamp - Courses extension.

Publishing the Extension

A GitHub Action automagically publishes the extension to the Visual Studio Marketplace, on the release of a new GitHub Release.

Package a new version of the extension:
```
npm run pack -- --no-git-tag-version <tag_type>
```
Where <tag_type> is one of: major, minor, patch.

The --no-git-tag-version flag updates the package version without creating a Git commit or tag. These are created in the following steps.
Push the new version to main:
```
git commit -am "<tag_type>(<version>): <description>"
git push
```
Optionally, you can push directly to upstream/main, but opening a new PR is recommended for a sanity check.
Create a new GitHub Release using the GitHub UI:
- Correctly increment the version number, when creating a new tag.
- Upload the .vsix file with the release.
- Publish the release, and confirm the action succeeded.
Note
Creating a release requires write access to the freeCodeCamp/courses-vscode-extension repository.

Manually Publishing the Extension

A manual upload to the Visual Studio Marketplace can be achieved, by following these steps:

Visit https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/ and sign in
Navigate to the freeCodeCamp Publisher page
Select the relevant extension, and select Update
Upload the file from your local files