How to Backup and Share Your VS Code Extensions in Minutes 🔧

Quick and easy steps to sync and share your favorite extensions

Photo by Ferenc Almasi on Unsplash

Tired of playing extension scavenger hunt every time you switch machines or start fresh? With a few simple steps, you can back them up, restore them faster than your coffee brews, and even share your setup with colleagues. Bonus: turn your team into coding wizards with a company-approved setup featuring Spell Check, SonarLint, ESLint, and formatters — because consistency is key (and chaos is overrated). Here’s how:

Step 1: Export Your Extensions 📝

Open your terminal and run the following command to list all your installed extensions:

Copy the output or save it to a file like this:

code --list-extensions > vscode-extensions.txt

This creates a vscode-extensions.txt file with all your installed extensions' names.

Step 2: Save the List in a Gist 💾

GitHub Gists make sharing and storing this list simple.

1. Visit gist.github.com.
2. Click + to create a new Gist.
3. Paste your extension list into the content box and name it vscode-extensions.txt.