The VS Code extensions I never skip

Every time I set up a new machine, there’s a short list of extensions I install before even opening the first project. The rest I try out and, most of the time, end up removing within a week.

The ones that survive on every machine

• ESLint: without it I simply don't trust the code I write at two in the morning.
• GitLens: seeing who touched a line and why, without leaving the editor, saves me from opening the terminal for a "git blame" every five minutes.
• Error Lens: shows the TypeScript error right on the line instead of forcing you to hover over it. At first it clutters the view, then you can't live without it.
• Path Intellisense: autocompletes import paths. Silly but saves the ten seconds of typing "../../../lib/components" by hand every time.
• Svelte for VS Code: highlighting, prop autocompletion, and compiler errors right in the editor — essential if you work with .svelte files daily.

The ones I tried and removed

For a while I had a good handful of “productivity” extensions installed: task managers inside the editor, themes that changed color depending on the time of day, custom icons for every file type… None of them lasted more than a month. Not because they were bad, but because in the end they added a layer of decision-making (which theme today?) that I didn’t need in order to write code.

I also tried several generic JavaScript snippet extensions and removed them all: with TypeScript properly configured and the language’s own autocompletion, most of those snippets were redundant.

The only thing I change per project

If the project uses Tailwind, I add the official extension for class autocompletion — on this very site I don’t have it installed, because it doesn’t use Tailwind and native CSS gets along fine with the editor’s default highlighting.

And that’s it. I don’t have a particularly exotic VS Code setup or a 300-line settings.json. The fewer things I have to remember why I installed, the better.