MAUI Command Deck adds persistent, Visual Studio-style controls to VS Code while staying entirely inside the supported extension API.
The toolbar keeps the selected project, platform, device, configuration, and run controls visible while you work.
The left side of the status bar contains:
Startup project | Platform | Device | Configuration | Run
Build, Run, Debug, and Stop actions also appear at the top-right of editor groups. All actions are available through the Command Palette under MAUI.
Run and Debug delegate deployment and launch to Microsoft's .NET MAUI extension. Run starts without a debugger; Debug enables the debugger and Hot Reload.
- VS Code 1.95 or newer
- .NET SDK with the relevant MAUI workloads
- Microsoft's .NET MAUI VS Code extension for debugging and Hot Reload
- Xcode for iOS and Mac Catalyst targets
- Android SDK platform tools (
adb) for Android device discovery
- Open this directory in VS Code.
- Run
npm install. - Run
npm run compile. - Press
F5to launch an Extension Development Host. - In the new window, open a folder containing one or more MAUI projects.
Run npm test to compile and execute the unit tests for project discovery, target selection, device parsing, and CLI arguments.
Workspace selections are remembered independently for every VS Code workspace.
The Command Deck stays hidden when the workspace has no .NET MAUI project. It appears automatically when a MAUI .csproj is created or opened.
- VS Code does not expose an API for a general-purpose top workbench toolbar. Action buttons therefore use the supported editor-title toolbar; selectors use the status bar.
- Debug sessions are delegated to Microsoft's MAUI debug adapter. Device selection may need to be initialized once through the official MAUI extension, depending on its version.
- Android and Apple CLI deployment flags can vary between MAUI workload versions. Build output remains visible in a dedicated task terminal for diagnosis.