How to open Visual Studio Code from the command line on OSX

Question

The docs mention an executable called code  but I m not sure where I can find that so I can put it on my path  The zip I downloaded from the VSCode site did not include any such executable   I am able to run the  app just fine    Is this a Windows-only thing

User · Answer

This is what worked for me on Mac OS Catalina -- found here (thanks, Josiah!)

If you're on Mac OS Catalina, you need to edit your .zprofile instead of .bash_profile.

Edit your ~/.zprofile file: vim ~/.zprofile
Add the following code in it, on it's own line: code () { VSCODE_CWD="$PWD" open -n -b "com.microsoft.VSCode" --args $* ;}
Save the file: :wq
Re-run the updated file: source ~/.zprofile.
Test that running code . opens your current folder in VS Code!

User · Answer

its very simple   Launching from the Command Line  You can also run VS Code from the terminal by typing  code  after adding it to the path   Launch VS Code  Open the Command Palette    P  and type  shell command  to find the Shell Command  Install  code  command in PATH command   source  https   code visualstudio com docs setup mac

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For windows Users just type in    gt code     More commands here https   code visualstudio com docs editor command-line

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For me on Macbook Book Pro 2019 MacOS version 10 15 6  shortcut to open command palette in VSCode was Shift   Command   P  On opening it one has to just write install code and press enter   After that just open the terminal and type code your vscode will start opening

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I ran  open -a  Visual Studio Code   folder-name  to open a folder with my Visual Studio Code application  Folder name is optional if you just want to open the application  Not sure if this is exactly your use-case  but hope this helps

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Added this to  usr local bin code  you might have to modify the path if they are different      usr bin env bash  CONTENTS   Applications Visual Studio Code app Contents  ELECTRON   CONTENTS MacOS Electron  CLI   CONTENTS Resources app out cli js  ATOM SHELL INTERNAL RUN AS NODE 1   ELECTRON    CLI       exit      Make executable afterwards  sudo chmod  x  usr local bin code

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From the Visual Studio Code Setup page   Tip  If you want to run VS Code from the terminal by simply typing  code   VS Code has a command  Shell Command  Install  code  command in PATH  to add  code  to your  PATH variable list  After installation  launch VS Code  Now open the Command Palette  F1 or     P on Mac  and type shell command to find the Shell Command  Install  code  command in PATH command  After executing the command  restart the terminal for the new  PATH value to take effect  You ll be able to simply type  code    in any folder to start editing files in that folder

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For Windows you can use Command  start Code filename extension  The above line works for me

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If you install Your vs code in Download folder you need to move the VS code to Application folder then open the vs code  then press shift   command   p after you will see  the below image  Then you need to type code   Now you are good to go

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This was the tutorial I was looking for in this thread  It shows the way to open files in Visual Studio Code by writing code      1 - Open the file  Bash                  open    bash profile    Terminal OS                      open    zshrc   2 - Add in your file the             code      VSCODE CWD   PWD  open -n -b  com microsoft VSCode  --args         3 - Reinicialize terminal and try in the folder you want to open           code     4 - Then you can use it as shown in this comment  https   stackoverflow com a 41821250 10033560

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If you install VS CODE using snap  You will need to add  snap bin in your PATH environment variable  so - open your  bashrc or  zshrc and add  snap bin in your PATH environment variable reload terminal  and than code comand will start it

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I discovered a neat workaround for mingw32  i e  for those of you using the version of bash which is installed by git-scm com on windows    code      VSCODE CWD   PWD  cmd   c code

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link your currentily folders to vscode   Windows Registry Editor Version 5 00    Directory Background shell   gt  on empty space   HKEY CLASSES ROOT Directory Background shell vscode   Icon   C   current-folder-vscode  Code exe 0     VsCode    HKEY CLASSES ROOT Directory Background shell vscode command     C   current-folder-vscode  Code exe       Directory shell   gt  on a folder   HKEY CLASSES ROOT Directory shell vscode     VsCode   Icon   C   current-folder-vscode  Code exe 0    HKEY CLASSES ROOT Directory shell vscode command     C   current-folder-vscode  Code exe

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The instruction given at VS Code Command Line for launching a path are incorrect  the leading colon shown in the example doesn t work  However  launching with a backslash terminated directory name opens the specified directory as expected   So  for example       code C  Users DAVE Documents Programming Angular StringCalculator src    opens the Visual Studio Code editor in directory C  Users DAVE Documents Programming Angular StringCalculator src   Important  The terminal backslash  though optional  is useful  as it makes clear that the intend is to open a directory  as opposed to a file  Bear in mind that file name extensions are  and always have been  optional   Beware  The directory that gets appended to the PATH list is the  bin directory  and the shell command code launches a Windows NT Command script   Hence  when incorporated into another shell script  code must be called or started if you expect the remainder of the script to run  Thankfully  I discovered this before my first test of a new shell script that I am creating to start an Angular 2 project in a local Web server  my default Web browser  and Visual Studio Code  all at once   Following is my Angular startup script  adapted to eliminate a dependency on one of my system utilities that is published elsewhere  but not strictly required      echo off   goto SKIPREM                                                                             Name                StartAngularApp CMD  Synopsis            Start the Angular 2 application installed in a specified                      directory   Arguments            1   OPTIONAL  Name of directory in which to application                           is installed  Remarks             If no argument is specified  the application must be in                     the current working directory                       This is a completely generalized Windows NT command                     script  shell script  that uses the NPM Angular CLI to                     load an Angular 2 application into a Node development                     Web server  the default Web browser  and the Visual                     Studio Code text editor   Dependencies        Unless otherwise specified in the command line  the                     application is created in the current working directory                       All of the following shell scripts and programs must be                     installed in a directory that is on the Windows PATH                     directory list                       1   ShowTime CMD                      2   WWPause exe                      3   WWSleep exe                      4   npm  the Node Package Manager  and its startup                          script  npm cmd  must be accessible via the Windows                         PATH environment string  By default  this goes into                         directory C  Program Files nodejs                       5   The Angular 2 startup script  ng cmd  and the Node                         Modules library must be installed for global access                          By default  these go into directory  AppData  npm   Author              David A  Gray  Created             Monday  23 April 2017  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Revision History -----------------------------------------------------------------------  Date       By  Synopsis ---------- --- -------------------------------------------------------- 2017 04 23 DAG Script created  tested  and deployed                                                                             SKIPREM  echo BOJ   0  version   t0 echo  echo ------------------------------------------------------- echo Displaying the current node js version  echo ------------------------------------------------------- echo  node -v echo  echo ------------------------------------------------------- echo Displaying the current Node Package Manager version  echo ------------------------------------------------------- echo  call npm -v echo  echo ------------------------------------------------------- echo Loading Angular starter application  1 echo into a local Web server  the default Web browser  and echo the Visual Studio Code text editor  echo ------------------------------------------------------- echo   if   1  neq          echo      echo -------------------------------------------------------     echo Starting the Angular application in directory  1     echo -------------------------------------------------------     echo      cd    1      call code  1 src    else       echo      echo -------------------------------------------------------     echo Starting the Angular application in directory  CD      echo -------------------------------------------------------     echo      call code  CD  src     call ng serve --open  echo  echo ------------------------------------------------------- echo   nx0 Done  echo ------------------------------------------------------- echo  Pause

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Note  Only for Windows Users    As many folks already suggested ways to open code from command prompt using code   command  This will only open Visual Studio Code Stable  build   But If you have downloaded Visual Studio Code Insider build version  Which has all latest build features but unstable version  then you need to follow below instructions in windows      Go to Control Panel System and Security System  Click on Advanced System Settings  Click on Environment Variables  Under System Variables tab  Click on Edit for Path Variable   Add a new path C  Users tsabu AppData Local Programs Microsoft VS Code Insiders bin   or   C  Program Files Microsoft VS Code Insiders bin based on location at which you have installed vscode insider in your machine     Open a new command prompt and type code-insiders   to open vscode-insider  build version

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If you re using visual code insiders and you want to open a file or folder in Visual Studio Code insiders from your terminal or any other command line tool then you can refer to the commands below which come by default inside visual studio code insider  To open Visual Studio Code from command line code-insiders -- To open the entire folder directory code-insiders   To open a specific file code-insiders file name eg - code index html

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We since updated the script to the following syntax to support multiple files and folders as arguments and to fix an issue with not detecting the current working directory properly   code          VSCODE CWD   PWD  open -n -b  com microsoft VSCode  --args         Update for our VS Code 1 0 release    Please use the command Install  Code  command in path or Install  code-insiders  command in path from the command palette  View   Command Palette  to make Code available to the command line

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Try this one  Open Visual Studio Code and press Command   Shift   P then type Shell in command palette now you are able to find this option like Shell Command   Install code in PATH from suggested list in command palette  Select that options   Open VSCode via Terminal Command Prompt  That s it   Now open your terminal type     code

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You can use the vscode  protocol that Visual Studio Code defines   open vscode   file full path to project or file   You can also use   Applications Visual  Studio  Code app Contents Resources app bin code   if you do not fancy modifying your path

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On OSX Mavericks I created a bash script named vscode  adapted from the  bashrc in VSCode Setup  in   bin      bin bash  if         0    then     open -a  Visual Studio Code  else         1          amp  amp  F   1     F   PWD   1          open -a  Visual Studio Code  --args   F  fi   vscode  lt file or directory gt  now works as expected

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The Easy Solution    Download  install and open Visual Studio Code  Open the Command Palette          P on Mac  OR View   Command Palette    3  Type shell command to find Shell Command  Install  code  command in PATH command   Install it and you re done    Here s a complimentary GIF   After that  you can use code or code   in the terminal  code  Peace     If you d like to go a little bit further and learn a couple of great tips tricks for using the VSCode CLI  I made a YouTube video on my workflows

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If you want to open a file or folder on Visual Studio Code from your terminal  iTerm  etc below are the commands which come as default when you install Visual Studio Code  To open Visual Studio Code from command line  code --   To open the entire folder directory  code     To open a specific file  code file name eg - code index html

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I had this issue because of VS Code Insiders  The path variable was there but I needed to rename the code-insiders cmd inside to code cmd    Maybe this is useful to someone

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After opening VSC and pressing  Command   Up   P  I tried typing in  quot shell command quot  and nothing came up  In order to get  quot Shell Command  Install  code  command in PATH command quot  to come up  you must do the following   Press  Command  Up  P   Type  gt   this will show and run commands   Then type Shell Command  Install  code  command in PATH command  It should then come up  Once you click it  it will update and you should be good to go    MacOS X Launch from Command Line docs

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If you are using VS Code Insiders  code-insiders    If you are using VS Code  code

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I have a   bin code shell script that matches the command  BengaminPasero wrote      bin bash VSCODE CWD   PWD  open -n -b  com microsoft VSCode  --args      I prefix   bin  to my  PATH which allows me to add a bunch of one off scripts without polluting my    bash profile script

[visual-studio-code] How to open Visual Studio Code from the command line on OSX?

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