build-extension

Development

Build, test, and package VSCode extensions in the dart_node repo

QUICK START

How to use this skill

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/majiayu000/claude-skill-registry/blob/HEAD/skills/development/build-extension/SKILL.md

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Build VSCode Extensions

This repo has two VSCode extension components:

Component	Location	What it is
dart_node_vsix	`packages/dart_node_vsix/`	The SDK package — Dart bindings for the VSCode extension API (commands, tree views, webviews, status bar, etc.)
too_many_cooks	`examples/too_many_cooks_vscode_extension/`	A concrete extension built with that SDK — multi-agent coordination UI

too-many-cooks extension

Full build (MCP server + extension + .vsix package):

bash examples/too_many_cooks_vscode_extension/build.sh

This does:

Compiles MCP server: dart compile js → add_preamble.dart → server_node.js
Compiles extension: dart compile js → wrap-extension.js bridge → out/lib/extension.js
Packages: vsce package → .vsix file

Test (runs Mocha tests under a real VSCode instance):

cd examples/too_many_cooks_vscode_extension && npm run pretest && npm test

On headless Linux, prefix with xvfb-run -a.

Install into VSCode:

code --install-extension examples/too_many_cooks_vscode_extension/*.vsix

dart_node_vsix SDK package

Test the SDK (Dart tests compiled to JS, run in VSCode):

cd packages/dart_node_vsix && npm install && npm run compile && npm test

What it provides — Dart bindings for:

commands, window, workspace, statusBar
TreeView, Webview, OutputChannel
ExtensionContext, Disposable
Mocha test API bindings
JS interop helpers (Promise, EventEmitter)

Architecture

Both use the same pattern: Dart → dart compile js → wrapper script → VSCode-compatible JS module.

The wrapper scripts (scripts/wrap-extension.js, scripts/wrap-tests.js) bridge dart2js output to VSCode's CommonJS require/module.exports system and inject polyfills (navigator, self) needed by dart2js async scheduling.