MacOS: starting Visual Studio Code from the finder

On MacOS, a long standing wish from many developers has been to open a folder with Visual Studio Code: [WayBack] Mac OS X :: “Open Folder With” VS Code · Issue #1223 · Microsoft/vscode · GitHub.

There are many reasons for wanting this, and other tools can do this too (like Terminal, TextWrangler, Source Tree, Beyond Compare), so I was a bit surprised Visual Studio Code does not have it by default.

After initially being closed, the issue has been open for a while, so I started digging a bit for solutions that are easy to configure or install.

• Based on Automator:
  • [WayBack] Add a command to Finder services in Mac OSX to open a folder in VS Code · GitHub
  • [WayBack] Create Customize Shortcut in Mac’s Right Click Menu [Guide] – Hongkiat
  • [WayBack] Open folder in Visual Studio Code from the Finder
    • Source code: [WayBack] GitHub – Sankra/OpenFolderInVSCode: macOS service which opens a given folder from the Finder in Visual Studio Code
  • [WayBack] macos – OSX: how to add a right click option in folder to open the folder with an application like VS Code? – Ask Different
• Based on AppleScript: [WayBack] GitHub – hamxiaoz/open-folder-with-vs-code: A Finder toolbar icon to open current selected file/folder with Visual Studio Code
• Objective C (based on the .m file extension) [WayBack] GitHub – sozercan/OpenInCode: macOS Finder toolbar app to open current folder in Visual Studio Code

The last one is currently on the top of my list, so I copied and installation instructions, and added a few screenshots to explain the already included video below.

1. Download app or using brew cask install open-in-code (if using VS Code Insiders, download this instead)
2. Move Open in Code.app to /Applications (brew already has done that)
3. Go to /Applications
4. Right-click Open in Code.app and click Open. When the security dialog prompt appears, click Open.
    
5. While holding Command key, drag Open in Code.app to Finder toolbar
   
6. Once Visual Studio Code new window is opened, close it.
   

Each time you want to open a folder in Visual Studio:

1. Navigate to a folder you want to open with Visual Studio Code
2. Click on the toolbar icon
3. Folder will open with Visual Studio Code

–jeroen