Agent skill · software engineering · microsoft
launch
Launch Code OSS (VS Code from sources) into an isolated throwaway profile with unique debug ports so you can drive it with @playwright/cli AND attach a Node debugger via dap-cli in the same session. Use when working on VS Code itself and you want to interact with the running workbench, automate chat or UI flows, test UI features, take screenshots, set breakpoints in the renderer / extension host / main process, or combine UI driving with debugging.
Why this skill is useful
Adds a launcher script that automates the setup of isolated Code OSS instances with unique debug ports, enabling advanced UI automation and debugging workflows.
What it needs
Requires curl, jq, lsof, node, nohup, rsync installed locally. About 11k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 188,455 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Code OSS Dev - Launch + Debug You're working on VS Code itself and you want to: 1. Launch a Code OSS build from sources that is already signed in (Copilot, GitHub, etc.) so chat / agent flows work end-to-end. 2. Drive it with @playwright/cli over CDP (UI automation). 3. Optionally attach a debugger via dap-cli to set breakpoints in the renderer, extension host, or main process. 4. Run multiple instances at once without port conflicts. This skill provides a launcher that clones an authenticated user-data-dir to a throwaway temp folder, picks free ports for every debug surface, and prints them as JSON so you can pick them up programmatically. The clone is slim: workspace storage, browser caches, file history, cached VSIX backups, and old logs are excluded by default. On macOS, auth tokens live in the OS keychain plus small files inside User/globalStorage - both of which are preserved. On Windows the GitHub session lives in the shared-data-dir instead, which the launcher seeds separately (see Windows authentication). Prerequisites macOS, Linux, or Windows. macOS / Linux: the launcher is a bash script (scripts/launch.sh) and depends on rsync, nohup, and Node on PATH. Windows: use scripts\launch.ps1 instead. It needs no extra tooling beyond Node on PATH, and works on both Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7+. Parse launcher output with ConvertFrom-Json. If Node is managed with fnm, put it on PATH first: A VS Code checkout with nodemodules/ installed (pnpm install if missing — do not symlink from a sibling worktree; that breaks builds in subtle ways). A VS Code checkout with sources built. Run pnpm run compile once (one-shot) or pnpm run watch for incremental rebuilds. Both build the full client and all built-in extensions under extensions/. You must build the full product to run successfully, building just the client is not enough. The launcher compiles only when outputs are missing; it does not detect stale dependencies or out/ files. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills microsoft/launch