VSCode Configuration Sync between environments

With every new project comes another development environment. Another installation of Visual Studio Code and the inevitable loss of productivity whilst you get all the necessary extensions installed and configured. If only there was a quick and painless way to perform a VSCode Configuration Sync between environments.

A quick search today for a method to sync configuration between VSCode environments revealed a VSCode Extension from Shan Ali Khan.

The VSCode Settings Sync Extension does everything the name implies leveraging GitHub Gists as the configuration store. The process is super simple too. Simply;

• Install the Settings Sync Extension
• Generate a GitHub Access Token to allow it to create a configuration Gist (one time task)
• Upload your VSCode Configuration from your VSCode instance that has your Gold Config
• Install the Settings Sync Extension on the target machine
• Download your config and watch as it retrieves your configuration and installs all your extensions

The last two steps can then be repeated in each new environment. And if you enable Auto-upload (disabled by default) on your Master Configuration machine your configuration stored in the associated Gist will always be the latest. Likewise you can Auto Download your configuration to target machines (disabled by default).

The documentation for Settings Sync is super easy to follow and will have your environments in sync super quick.

The screenshot below shows Settings Sync downloading the 36 extensions I have configured that I use for the different projects I write into a new environment.

Thanks for your work Shan Ali Khan. I’ve donated to your great extension.