7 Must-Have VS Code Extensions to Supercharge Your Development

1. REST Client

The REST Client extension lets you send HTTP requests directly from VS Code and view responses without leaving the editor. A simple GET request requires only a line containing the GET keyword and the URL. Over one million developers have installed it.

2. CSS Peek

CSS Peek is indispensable for web developers. Hovering over a class or ID in HTML instantly shows the associated CSS rules, and the "Go to" feature jumps directly to the rule definition, saving considerable time.

3. Beautify

Beautify formats code for JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Sass, and JSON. All options—such as indentation size and trailing newline handling—are fully customizable per language, making the code clean and consistent. It has been downloaded over five million times and ranks in the top 20 extensions.

4. Auto Rename Tag

Auto Rename Tag automatically updates the matching closing tag when you rename an opening HTML tag (and vice‑versa). Pair it with the Auto Close Tag extension for an even smoother HTML authoring experience.

5. Quokka.js

Quokka.js provides an interactive prototyping environment inside the editor. As you type, code values are evaluated in real time and displayed inline, allowing rapid experimentation without leaving VS Code.

6. Night Owl

Night Owl is a popular dark theme designed for developers who code late at night. It improves visual comfort and reduces eye strain, making long coding sessions more pleasant.

7. JavaScript (ES6) Code Snippets

This extension supplies a large collection of ES6 code snippets. Typing clg and pressing Enter expands to console.log, accelerating the writing of modern JavaScript. Mastering the snippets can dramatically speed up development.