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C# Dev Tools

Tools

Tools

Additional productivity tools and utilities for enhanced development workflow, all available in the Tools view of the C# Dev Tools sidebar.

Overview

Section titled “Overview”

The Tools view groups everything into the following sections:

  • Bookmarks – Mark and navigate code locations (details)
  • TODOs – Aggregated TODO/HACK/FIXME/NOTE comments across the workspace
  • Text – Regex tester, text comparer, text analyzer, string escaper
  • Encoders / Decoders – JWT, HTML, URL, Base64
  • Generators – UUID, CRON expression, hash, Lorem Ipsum
  • Icons – Browse Tabler / built-in icons
  • User Interface – Color tools and UI design helpers (details)
  • Diagrams – Excalidraw integration (details)
  • Security – Secret scanning (details)
  • Database – Microsoft SQL Server manager
  • Notebooks – C# script notebooks (.csnb)
  • Runners – Quick run/debug entry points for runnable projects
  • Azure – Service Bus Studio and Application Insights Explorer integrations

Bookmarks

Section titled “Bookmarks”

Mark important code locations for quick navigation:

  • Visual indicators for bookmarked lines
  • Global navigation between bookmarks
  • Optional labels per bookmark
  • Dedicated tree view with file grouping
  • Keyboard shortcuts for toggle / navigate

TODOs

Section titled “TODOs”

Aggregates TODO, HACK, FIXME and NOTE comments from indexed C# files:

  • Grouped by file
  • Click to jump to the comment line
  • Live count shown next to the section header
  • Updates as you edit files

Text Tools

Section titled “Text Tools”

Utilities for text manipulation:

  • Regex Tester – test regex patterns with live highlighting
  • Text Comparer – diff two pieces of text
  • Text Analyzer & Utilities – word/character counts, case conversion, sort/dedup, etc.
  • String Escaper – escape/unescape for C#, JSON, XML, etc.

Encoders / Decoders

Section titled “Encoders / Decoders”
  • JWT – decode tokens (header, payload, signature) and validate
  • HTML – encode/decode HTML entities
  • URL – percent-encode/decode URLs
  • Base64 – encode/decode strings and files

Generators

Section titled “Generators”
  • UUID Generator – generate v1/v4 UUIDs
  • CRON Generator – build cron expressions with a visual editor
  • Hash Generator – MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA512, etc.
  • Lorem Ipsum Generator – placeholder text

Icons

Section titled “Icons”

Browse and copy SVG / Tabler icons used by the extension and your code.

User Interface Tools

Section titled “User Interface Tools”

Design and preview UI elements:

  • Color converter (HEX/RGB/HSL/…)
  • Color mixer
  • Color palette generator
  • Gradient maker
  • Contrast checker (WCAG)
  • Cubic Bezier editor

Diagrams

Section titled “Diagrams”

Create and manage technical diagrams using a fully embedded Excalidraw editor:

  • Global diagrams (per user)
  • Workspace diagrams stored in .vscodecsdt/Diagrams so they can be checked into source control and shared with the team
  • Whiteboard-style drawing
  • Export to PNG / SVG
  • Backward compatible with diagrams from previous global locations

Security

Section titled “Security”

Secret Scanning powered by TruffleHog:

  • Filesystem and Git history scanning
  • 700+ secret detectors
  • Active secret verification
  • Comprehensive security reporting

Database

Section titled “Database”

A built-in Microsoft SQL Server Manager webview:

  • Connect to local or remote SQL Server instances
  • Browse databases, tables and views
  • Run ad-hoc queries with a results grid

Notebooks

Section titled “Notebooks”

C# notebook (.csnb) experience powered by an in-process Roslyn host:

  • Execute C# code cells with persistent state
  • #!nuget magic command to add NuGet packages on the fly
  • #!dbcontext magic command to scaffold an EF Core DbContext (SQL Server, SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL)
  • Inline rich object inspection

Runners

Section titled “Runners”

Quick run / debug entry points for runnable projects in the solution. Useful when you want to start a specific app without opening the Run/Debug view.

Azure

Section titled “Azure”

Integrations with curated Azure tooling extensions:

  • Service Bus Studio – installs and opens the Azure Service Bus Explorer extension; smart suggestions when Azure Service Bus packages are detected in the solution
  • Application Insights – installs and opens the Azure Application Insights Explorer extension to browse Application Insights / Log Analytics data directly in VS Code

Accessing Tools

Section titled “Accessing Tools”
  1. Open the C# Dev Tools activity bar view
  2. Expand the Tools view
  3. Expand the section you need
  4. Click the entry – the tool opens in a webview, panel, or external view

Common Features

Section titled “Common Features”
  • Webview-based – rich, interactive UIs with live preview and copy-to-clipboard
  • Standalone – most tools work without an open solution
  • Theming – follows the active VS Code theme
  • Telemetry-tracked – usage is captured anonymously to prioritise future work

Benefits

Section titled “Benefits”
  • Reduce context switching to the browser or external apps
  • Keep an all-in-one development environment
  • Consistent UI across all utilities
  • Lightweight and on-demand activation