vscode-dev-workbench

vscode-dev-workbench is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from microsoft/vscode. It costs 78 tokens per session (2,020 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

Use when the user wants to run the vscode.dev server locally and exercise the VS Code workbench or Agents window in the integrated browser against the local microsoft/vscode sources. Covers starting the dev server, the vscode-quality=dev URL, browser-driven interaction patterns, and optionally wiring up a local mock…

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/microsoft/vscode/vscode-dev-workbench
Any agent
npx skills add microsoft/vscode --skill vscode-dev-workbench
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for vscode-dev-workbench

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/microsoft/vscode/vscode-dev-workbench.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/microsoft/vscode/vscode-dev-workbench)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/microsoft/vscode/vscode-dev-workbench"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/microsoft/vscode/vscode-dev-workbench.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 78 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,020 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
Origin unknown No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00078 $0.02020
Opus 5 $0.00039 $0.01010
Sonnet 5 $0.00016 $0.00404
Haiku 4.5 $0.00008 $0.00202

Measured today against content hash a0b88b082b2a, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

vscode-dev-workbench scanned grade A with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured today.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

On first start you may see one crash like `Cannot find module './indexes'` — it's the watcher racing the first build. nodemon restarts automatically once `out/` finishes compiling. The server is ready when `curl -sk -o /
.github/skills/vscode-dev-workbench/SKILL.md · 138 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 138 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Running vscode.dev Against Local VS Code Sources

The vscode-dev repo is the vscode.dev server. When run locally with ?vscode-quality=dev, it serves the VS Code web workbench (or Agents window at /agents) from the sibling microsoft/vscode checkout. This is the fastest way to validate web-only changes to the workbench without shipping an Insiders build.

Layout assumption

vscode-dev and vscode must be sibling folders:

<workRoot>/
  vscode/          # microsoft/vscode checkout
  vscode-dev/      # microsoft/vscode-dev checkout

If your paths differ, check server/ in vscode-dev for the source root resolution — the /vscode-sources/* route maps to ../vscode.

Start the dev server

Critical: Run npm run dev from the vscode-dev folder, NOT from vscode. The vscode repo has no dev script and will fail with npm error Missing script: "dev". Terminal tools that simplify/strip leading cd into separate commands will silently keep the cwd of a previous terminal — always use an absolute pushd or verify with pwd before npm run dev.

cd /path/to/vscode-dev     # NOT /path/to/vscode
npm run dev                # runs watch + nodemon; serves https://127.0.0.1:3000

If you're driving this through an agent/terminal tool, prefer:

pushd /absolute/path/to/vscode-dev >/dev/null && pwd && npm run dev

On first start you may see one crash like Cannot find module './indexes' — it's the watcher racing the first build. nodemon restarts automatically once out/ finishes compiling. The server is ready when curl -sk -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://127.0.0.1:3000/ returns 200.

URLs

  • https://127.0.0.1:3000/?vscode-quality=dev — main workbench, local dev sources
  • https://127.0.0.1:3000/agents?vscode-quality=dev — Agents window, local dev sources
  • https://127.0.0.1:3000/?vscode-version=<commit> — pinned production commit
  • Add &vscode-log=trace for verbose client logging

Interacting via the integrated browser

Read the full file on GitHub · 138 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. today First seen · 138 lines · 78 tokens per session scan A a0b88b082b2a

Subscribe to this mod's changes

vscode-dev-workbench is a skill published in the GitHub repository microsoft/vscode (190,808 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 78 tokens to every session and 2,020 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories