Glossary

Quick reference for the vocabulary used throughout these docs. Terms link to the guide that covers them in full.

RPC (Remote Procedure Call)

A way for the webview (React UI) to call functions that run in the extension host as if they were local async functions — no manual postMessage plumbing. In vsceasy the contract is a single typed TypeScript interface shared by both sides, so calls are checked at compile time. See Typed RPC.

const api = connectWebview<DashboardApi>();
const stats = await api.getStats(); // typed call across the bridge

Webview

A sandboxed browser frame VS Code renders inside the editor or sidebar. vsceasy runs your React UI inside it. The webview cannot touch the VS Code API or the filesystem directly — it reaches the extension host through RPC.

Extension host

The Node.js process where your extension code runs. It has full access to the VS Code API, the filesystem, and secrets. The counterpart to the webview.

Panel

A webview that opens in the editor area. Defined by a file in panels/ with definePanel. Each panel auto-registers an <prefix>.open<Name> command. See Concepts.

Subpanel

A webview section rendered inline inside a menu’s activity-bar container, instead of opening in the editor area like a panel. Defined in subpanels/.

Command

A palette action (the Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P list). A file in commands/ with defineCommand registers the command plus any keybindings.

Menu

An activity-bar container (the icons down the left side) that holds tree views and subpanels. Defined in menus/ with defineMenu.

Tree view

A data-driven list/tree rendered inside a menu container. Defined in treeViews/ with defineTreeView.

Status bar item

A widget in the bottom status bar. Defined in statusBars/ with defineStatusBar.

Convention directory

A directory whose name maps to a feature type (panels/, commands/, menus/, …). Dropping a file into it is how you declare that feature — no central registration list to edit. See Concepts.

The gen step

scripts/gen.ts — scans the convention directories and writes the generated registry and the package.json#contributes block, keeping both in sync with the files on disk. Run with bun run gen; generators run it for you.

Registry

src/extension/_registry.ts — a generated, typed map of every feature found on disk. Produced by the gen step and consumed by bootstrap. You don’t edit it by hand.

contributes

The contributes block in package.json — VS Code’s manifest of commands, keybindings, view containers, and views. vsceasy generates and maintains it from your files rather than asking you to hand-edit it.

contributes.extra.json

An optional file at the project root for contributions the gen step doesn’t own — languages, grammars, snippets, themes, iconThemes, configuration. gen deep-merges it into package.json#contributes on every run; the keys it owns (commands, keybindings, viewsContainers, views) always win. See Language extensions.

Extension type

The shape create scaffolds: ui (React webview + RPC), language (grammar, snippets, file icon, scoped colors), or empty (bare activate/deactivate). Chosen with --type. See create.

Bootstrap

bootstrap(registry) — the one-liner in extension.ts that registers everything from the generated registry on activate. onActivate hooks (e.g. initDb, initSecrets) run once at activation.

Codegen

Code generation. vsceasy is codegen, not a runtime you ship — it writes plain TypeScript + React into your project, and your built extension has no runtime dependency on vsceasy. See Introduction.

Mini-ORM

The small, typed, filesystem-backed data store vsceasy ships. The bundled provider writes each entity to a JSON file under the extension’s storage dir; swapping the provider doesn’t change your entity definitions or call sites. See The mini-ORM.

Model / Entity

A typed record definition (e.g. User) created with vsceasy model add. Lives in models/ and is persisted through the mini-ORM.

CRUD

Create, Read, Update, Delete — the four basic operations on a record. vsceasy crud add scaffolds a panel + RPC that perform them against a model. See CRUD scaffolding.

Helper

A generated typed wrapper for a common runtime concern — secrets, config, state, notifications, cache, or colorize — written into src/helpers/. Added with vsceasy helper add.

Typing guard

A file in typingGuards/ that sits between the keyboard and the document: it can let a keystroke through, swallow it, or substitute something else, and it also sees paste and deletions. See Editor surface.

Ghost text

The dimmed inline suggestion at the cursor, produced by a file in inlineCompletions/. The natural place to put an LLM, which is why delayMs and cacheMs exist.

Title action

A command pinned to a view’s title row via titleActions. group: 'navigation' renders it as an icon button; anything else drops it into the … overflow menu. The command needs an icon or it renders as text. See Sidebar views.

Scoped token colors

TextMate rules written to the user’s editor.tokenColorCustomizations for your language’s scopes only, so other languages keep the active theme. Generated by --type language or helper add --kind colorize. See Language extensions.

Job

A unit of work that runs on a schedule (--every 30s) or in response to an event. Added with vsceasy job add.

Provider

A swappable backend behind an abstraction. The mini-ORM has a storage provider; the database can target per-workspace storage or shared global storage.