Command Line Interface (CLI)
Visual Studio Code has a powerful command line interface that lets you control how you launch the editor. You can open or diff files, install extensions, even change the display language on startup.
Note: Users on macOS must first run a command (Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH) to add VS Code executable to the PATH environment variable. Read the macOS Setup guide for help.
Launching from command line
You can launch VS Code from the command line to quickly open a file, folder, or project. Typically, you open VS Code within the context of a folder. To do this, type one of the following commands for Stable and Insiders respectively:
code .
or
code-insiders .
Note: Windows and Linux installations should add the VS Code binaries location to your system path. If this isn't the case, you can manually add the location to the Path/$PATH environment variable. For example on Windows, VS Code is installed under Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\bin. To review platform specific setup instructions, see Setup.
Core CLI options
Here are optional arguments you can use when starting VS Code at the command line via code:
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
-h or --help |
Print usage |
-v or --version |
Print VS Code version (for example, 1.12.2) and GitHub commit id. |
-n or --new-window |
Opens a new session of VS Code instead of restoring the previous session (default). |
-r or --reuse-window |
Forces opening a file or folder in the last active window. |
-g or --goto |
When used with file:line[:character], opens a file at a specific line and optional character position. This argument is provided since some operating systems permit : in a file name. |
-d or --diff |
Open a file difference editor. Requires two file paths as arguments. |
-w or --wait |
Wait for the files to be closed before returning. |
--locale <locale> |
Set the display language (locale) for the VS Code session. (for example, en-US or zh-TW) |
Opening Files and Folders
Sometimes you will want to open or create a file. If the specified file does not exist, VS Code will create them for you:
code index.html style.css readme.md
For both files and folders, you can use absolute or relative paths. Relative paths are relative to the current directory of the command prompt where you run code.
If you specify more than one file at the command line, VS Code will open only a single instance.
If you specify more than one folder at the command line, VS Code will create a Multi-root Workspace including each folder.
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| file | Name of a file to open. If the file doesn't exist, it will be created and marked as edited. You can specify multiple files by separating each file name with a space. |
| file:line[:character] | Name of a file to open at the specified line and optional character position. You can specify multiple files in this manner, but you must use the -g argument (once) before using the file:line[:character] specifier. |
| folder | Name of a folder to open. You can specify multiple folders and a new Multi-root Workspace is created. |
Working with extensions
You can install extensions, disable extensions and more from the command line.
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
--install-extension <ext> |
Install an extension. Provide the full extension name publisher.extension as an argument. |
--uninstall-extension <ext> |
Uninstall an extension. Provide the full extension name publisher.extension as an argument. |
--disable-extensions |
Disable all installed extensions. Extensions will still be visible in the Extensions: Show Installed Extensions dropdown but they will never be activated. |
--list-extensions |
List the installed extensions. |
--show-versions |
Show versions of installed extensions, when using --list-extensions |
--enable-proposed-api <ext> |
Enables proposed api features for an extension. Provide the full extension name publisher.extension as an argument. |
Advanced CLI options
There are several CLI options that help with reproducing errors and advanced set-ups.
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
--extensions-dir <dir> |
Set the root path for extensions. |
--user-data-dir <dir> |
Specifies the directory that user data is kept in, useful when running as root. |
-s, --status |
Print process usage and diagnostics information. |
-p, --performance |
Start with the Developer: Startup Performance command enabled. |
--disable-gpu |
Disable GPU hardware acceleration. |
--verbose |
Print verbose output (implies --wait). |
--prof-startup |
Run CPU profiler during startup. |
--upload-logs |
Uploads logs from current session to a secure endpoint. |
| Multi-root | |
--add <dir> |
Add folder(s) to the last active window for a multi-root workspace. |
Opening VS Code with URLs
On Windows and macOS, you can also open projects and files using the platform's URL handling mechanism. Use the following URL formats to:
Open a project
vscode://file/FULL/PATH/TO/PROJECT/
Open a file
vscode://file/FULL/PATH/TO/FILE
Open a file to line and column
vscode://file/FULL/PATH/TO/FILE:LINE:COLUMN
Note: You can use the URL in applications such as browsers or file explorers that can parse and redirect the URL. For example on Windows, you could pass a
vscode://URL directly to the Windows Explorer or to the command line asstart vscode://file/FULL/PATH/TO/FILE.
Next Steps
Read on to find out about:
- Basic Editing - Learn the basics of the VS Code editor.
- Code Navigation - VS Code lets you quickly understand and move through your source code.