Have you ever built a tool that solved a problem but felt a bit… fragile? That’s exactly where I found myself with my Bash-based MCP server. It worked, but it was hard to maintain that hack. In this post, I’ll show you how I took that concept and matured it into a proper VS Code extension. You’ll learn how to embed an MCP server directly into your extension, making it easier to share, test, and maintain. If you’re looking to upgrade your own development tools or just curious about how MCP servers fit into the VS Code ecosystem, this guide is for you!

When the Shai-Hulud v2 supply chain attack hit last week, I watched thousands of developers scramble to check their systems. Mine? I was able to mark it as safe. This was because I’d already layered in some straightforward security practices. If you’re wondering how to protect your own development environment from these kinds of attacks, I’ll walk you through the exact configurations and tools I use every day that kept me safe.

Ever tried to publish a JavaScript package to GitHub Packages with Yarn 4 and felt buried in docs that only cover npm or classic Yarn? You end up piecing together modern guidance from half answers. The good news: it’s actually straightforward. Let me walk you through a clean, repeatable setup.

Ever wondered if applications really have to be written to target servers or containers? Can they be more flexible so that they run anywhere? I recently had to create a Probot application that worked on VMs, containers, and serverless platforms. And I needed to do that without writing multiple versions of the code.

Building custom extensions and visualizations in Visual Studio Code can be a powerful way to enhance your development processes. The samples show you how to use vanilla JavaScript. This post shows you how to modify the code to use React instead.

Building a custom VS Code extension can open the door for innovation. Extensions can become even more powerful when you use them to create a better interface. Today we explore how to incorporate custom UIs into your extension using Webviews.

Combining Visual Studio Code with Hugo has given me a great workflow for my blog. To make it even better, I need to modify part of the editor’s behavior. I need a custom VS Code extension.

I’ve mentioned a few times that I use Visual Studio Code and Hugo for my blogging. I’ve also discussed some of the the ways I make it faster and easier to create my posts. Learn how I make my VS Code experience faster and easier by using tasks.

Did you know that dev containers can have their own private Visual Studio Code extensions? By understanding some of the life cycle of the container, it’s possible to create and use extensions that are designed to support a specific dev container or Codespaces environment.

Continuing the topics from my last post, this week I want to offer a deep dive into the lifecycle of a Jest TestEnvironment by exposing the events that are raised when tests are run. I’ll also explore some of the details that are included with each event.