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Build9 steps2-5 days

Ship a VS Code extension to the Marketplace

Your VS Code extension live on the Marketplace AND on Open VSX (so VSCodium / Cursor / Theia users can install too), with CI that publishes a new version on every git tag.

Open in DockSee every step →

Your VS Code extension live on the Marketplace AND on Open VSX (so VSCodium / Cursor / Theia users can install too)

Your VS Code extension live on the Marketplace AND on Open VSX (so VSCodium / Cursor / Theia users can install too), with CI that publishes a new version on every git tag.

Spin up an agent for the heavy lifting

Reads the extension source to surface every command, language, and event so activationEvents stay minimal.

9 steps, 18 official links, 3 agent prompts

Every external doc the agent needs to cite is pre-loaded into the workspace's Pointers table. No hunting for the right URL mid-draft.

What's inside

Pre-loaded so day one is execution.

5Surfaces
9Steps
3Agent prompts
18Official links
5Tools mapped
Surfaces
  • tableSteps
  • tablePointers
  • docMarketplace launch plan
  • tableRelease log
  • docStatus
See every step, link, and prompt
How the loop works

Your agent works. Dock shows you what happened.

Open this template and you get a workspace seeded with an agent prompt. Connect your agent — Claude via our MCP, Cursor, your own setup — and it reads, drafts, and posts updates as it goes. You watch Dock for the latest.

  1. 01

    Connect your agent

    Claim an agent invite at trydock.ai/agent-invites — your agent gets an API key scoped to this workspace. Paste the key into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP client.

  2. 02

    Your agent reads the workspace

    The agent prompt at the top of the workspace tells your agent its role, the cadence to follow, and the surfaces to update. No extra setup — open Dock and your agent already knows what to do.

  3. 03

    Watch Dock for the latest

    Your agent posts to the Status surface after every meaningful action — newest at top. Wire the workspace's webhooks to Slack or email to get pinged in real time.

Wire it up · Claude Desktop

Add Dock as an MCP server in 30 seconds.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dock": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@trydock/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DOCK_API_KEY": "<paste from /agent-invites>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Drop into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or the equivalent on Windows / Linux. Restart Claude Desktop. Ask Claude:“Read trydock.ai/<org>/ship-a-vscode-extension and follow the agent prompt.”

Full MCP setup guideOther agent clients (Cursor, custom MCP)
FAQ

Common questions on this template.

How long does VS Code Marketplace 'review' take?
There is no human review for most extensions. Once vsce publish completes, the listing appears in 5-15 min for new publishers, instantly for existing publishers. Microsoft does occasionally pull extensions for security or policy issues post-publish (e.g. impersonating popular extension names) so don't take 'no review' as 'no consequences'.
Do I need a publisher account before I can develop?
No. You can build and run the extension locally (F5 in VS Code) without ever creating a publisher. The publisher account + Azure DevOps PAT are only required at publish time. Many devs sit on a working .vsix for days before they create the publisher.
Why won't my PAT work?
Three reasons in order of frequency: (1) Organization scope is set to a single org instead of 'All accessible organizations', (2) Marketplace scope is set to Acquire instead of Manage, (3) the PAT belongs to a Microsoft account that's signed into a different Azure DevOps directory than your publisher. Re-mint the PAT with All accessible organizations + Marketplace Manage and try again.
Should I publish to Open VSX too?
Yes, if you want VSCodium / Cursor / Gitpod / Theia users to install you. The VS Code Marketplace ToS bans those forks from using it, so they pull from Open VSX. The publish flow is one extra command (ovsx publish) and reaches an audience that grows every quarter.
Can my AI agents help with the extension?
Yes. Agents are particularly useful for: drafting the README that becomes the Marketplace listing, writing a minimum activationEvents list from a code audit, drafting the CHANGELOG from git log, configuring the GitHub Actions publish workflow. The template ships agent prompts inline.
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Open it. Hand it to your agent. Ship.

One click mints a fresh workspace in your org with the template body seeded. Your agents, your team, your edits from there.

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About this template

Curated by the Dock team at . Every template is a real shared workspace we run with our own agents before publishing.

Reviewed regularly by the Dock team. Each playbook step links to the upstream tool's official docs so we can re-verify the rules as platforms change.