Favorite Visual Studio Code Extensions for Azure

by Tobias Zimmergren

I spend much time with Microsoft Azure. Architecture and Design, Solution Architecture, Development, Security, Operations, and more. The extensions below can serve both Developers, Administrators, and anyone in between.

In this post, we're looking at some of my favorite Visual Studio Code extensions for working with Azure in various ways. Perhaps you can find some new favorites yourself.

Share your favorites in the comments below!

Azure Account

This extension lets you sign in to your subscription and manage aspects of it within Visual Studio Code. This extension is beneficial and productive when working with development subscriptions. I don't use it for any production workload.

Azure Account extension for Visual Studio Code.

Azure Tools for Visual Studio Code

This extension is a bundle of features. If you are working with multiple Azure Services and you want to access them from within Visual Studio Code, this extension is helpful. It bundles a set of extensions:

Azure Tools extension in the Visual Studio Code marketplace.

Azure Policy

This extension is excellent for understanding the Azure Policies you have in your subscription. I find it useful as a developer when I need to adhere to specific policies in the dev or QA subscriptions.

Azure Policy extension for Visual Studio Code.

Learn more: Understanding Azure Policies with Visual Studio Code (Zimmergren)

Live Share

The Visual Studio Live Share extensions allow us to collaborate in real-time within our code editor. I like this extension to enable us to more accessible do pair-programming, even when working entirely remotely. Securely connect and share your project with your colleagues and peers, review together, and figure out blockers. I like this - and to me, its an enabler.

Visual Studio Code Live Share from the Visual Studio Marketplace

Learn more: Live Share (Visual Studio Code Marketplace)

Azure CLI Tools

While I already mentioned this in the Azure Tools bundled pack, I think this deserves another mention.

I posted a tip a few years ago, Installing the Azure CLI in Visual Studio Code. This tip is still very relevant. However, today the extension has more capabilities and features, and the Azure CLI receives continuous maintenance and updates.

Azure CLI Tools extension in the Visual Studio Code marketplace.

Learn more: Azure CLI Tools (Visual Studio Marketplace)

Bicep

If you're working with ARM templates, you might have heard about Project Bicep. It's a language that help abstract away the pain of ARM templates, and makes them easier to author and work with.

I've worked with Bicep in a couple of smaller deployments and projects, and so far I really like it. With this extension, you get an IntelliSense experience for authoring the templates, with strong typing. With the Bicep CLI you can quickly convert the bicep files into ARM json templates and deploy to Azure.

Azure Bicep for Visual Studio Code

Learn more: Bicep (Visual Studio Marketplace)

ARM Template Viewer

This extension is a third-party extension by Ben Coleman. It helps us visualize our ARM templates, and for some of my templates, it works great. For some templates, it can be challenging to visualize the templates due to their complexity.

It is worth a try and quickly visualize your templates.

Azure Application Insights

Access Application Insights directly from within Visual Studio Code. I usually enjoy drilling into the data of Application Insights in the Azure Portal. The Azure Portal allows me to quickly build my dashboards, create custom queries, and understand how my production workloads perform.

However, having the data and insights readily available at your fingertips directly from your code editor is convenient for development scenarios.

Azure Application Insights extension for Visual Studio Code.

Find more VS Code extensions

Did you know that you can launch a command in the command bar and search for extensions? I like how VScode integrate into my daily workload when I live inside the editor.

Here I am listing all things that match "azure", and I want to sort them by the ones with the most installs:

@sort:installs azure

You can, of course, sort in other ways. Here is an example of sorting by rating:

@sort:rating azure

The results roll up immediately within the editor. You can review and install as you see fit without leaving Visual Studio Code.

Visual Studio Code extensions to install, related to Azure.

Enjoy. Happy Extensions!

What are your favorite extensions when working with Azure?