vsix-updater

A lightweight library for implementing self-update functionality in VSCode extensions.

Features

• 🔄 Support for silent updates and updates with notifications
• 📦 Automatic VSIX file download and installation
• 🎯 Clean abstract class design, easy to extend
• 🚀 ESM module based, TypeScript supported

Installation

npm install vsix-updater
# or
pnpm add vsix-updater
# or
yarn add vsix-updater

Usage

Basic Usage

Extend the Updater class and implement the getLatestMetaJson method:

import { Updater, type UpdaterMetaJson } from "vsix-updater";

class MyExtensionUpdater extends Updater {
  constructor() {
    super("my-extension", "publisher-name");
  }

  async getLatestMetaJson(): Promise<UpdaterMetaJson> {
    // Fetch the latest version info from your server
    const response = await fetch("https://your-server.com/api/latest");
    return response.json();
  }
}

// Use in your extension's activate function
export function activate(context: vscode.ExtensionContext) {
  const updater = new MyExtensionUpdater();

  // Silent update (runs in background, no notifications)
  updater.updateSilently();

  // Or update with notifications
  // updater.update();
}

UpdaterMetaJson Format

Your server should return JSON in the following format:

{
  "version": "1.2.3",
  "url": "https://your-server.com/releases/my-extension-1.2.3.vsix"
}

Advanced Usage

If you need to fully customize the update logic, extend the AbstractUpdater class:

import { AbstractUpdater, type UpdaterMetaJson } from "vsix-updater";

class CustomUpdater extends AbstractUpdater {
  constructor() {
    super("my-extension", "publisher-name");
  }

  async getLatestMetaJson(): Promise<UpdaterMetaJson> {
    // Custom implementation
  }

  async getLocalVersion(): Promise<string | null> {
    // Custom implementation
  }

  async getDest(version: string): Promise<string> {
    // Custom download path
  }

  async downloadVsix(url: string, dest: string): Promise<void> {
    // Custom download logic
  }

  async install(path: string): Promise<void> {
    // Custom installation logic
  }

  async updateSilently(): Promise<void> {
    // Custom silent update logic
  }

  async update(): Promise<void> {
    // Custom update logic
  }
}

API

Updater

| Method | Description | | ------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | getLatestMetaJson() | Get the latest version metadata (must be implemented) | | getLocalVersion() | Get the locally installed extension version | | getDest(version) | Get the VSIX download destination path | | downloadVsix(url, dest) | Download the VSIX file | | install(path) | Install the VSIX file | | updateSilently() | Silent update (no notification messages) | | update() | Update extension (shows notification messages) |

Properties

| Property | Type | Description | | ------------- | -------- | --------------------------------------- | | name | string | Extension name | | publisher | string | Publisher name | | extensionId | string | Extension ID (format: publisher.name) |

Requirements

• Node.js >= 22.13.0
• VSCode >= 1.97.0

License

MIT

Author

Conor Zhong [email protected]