C# Dev Kit for Visual Studio Code

The C# Dev Kit is a new Visual Studio Code extension that brings an improved editor-first C# development experience to Linux, macOS, and Windows.

The C# Dev Kit is designed to enhance your C# productivity when you’re working in Visual Studio Code. It works together with the C# extension, which is updated to be powered by a new fully open-source Language Server Protocol (LSP) host, creating a performant, extensible, and flexible tooling environment that easily integrates new experiences into C# for VS Code.

What is C# Dev Kit?

C# Dev Kit borrows some familiar concepts from Visual Studio to bring a more productive and reliable C# experience to VS Code. This approach ensures a great experience whether you're quickly editing a C# file, learning C#, or debugging a backend API. The C# Dev Kit consists of a set of VS Code extensions that work together to provide a rich C# editing experience, AI-powered development, solution management, and integrated testing. As shown in the following graphic, C# Dev Kit consists of:

• The C# extension, which provides base language services support and continues to be maintained independent of this effort.

• C# Dev Kit extension, which builds from the foundations of Visual Studio to provide solution management, templates, and test discovery/debugging.

• The IntelliCode for C# Dev Kit extension (optional), which brings AI-powered development to the editor.

  

Install the C# Dev Kit

To learn more about the C# Dev Kit and to install it, check out these resources:

• Visit the C# Dev Kit page on the Visual Studio Marketplace for information about the features, Q&A, ratings and reviews, and to install it.
• For information about the features and capabilities of the C# Dev Kit, see the blog post Announcing C# Dev Kit for Visual Studio Code.
• The C# Dev Kit FAQ provides answers to common questions about the kit.

Eligibility

Subscription Level	Channels	Benefit	Renewable?
Visual Studio Enterprise (Standard)	VL, Retail	Available	N/A
Visual Studio Enterprise subscription with GitHub Enterprise	VL	Available	N/A
Visual Studio Professional (Standard)	VL, Retail	Available	N/A
Visual Studio Professional subscription with GitHub Enterprise	VL	Available	N/A
Visual Studio Enterprise NFR*	NFR	Available	N/A
Visual Studio Test Professional (Standard)	VL, Retail	Not available	N/A
MSDN Platforms (Standard)	VL, Retail	Not available	N/A
Visual Studio Enterprise, Visual Studio Professional (monthly cloud)	Azure	Not available	N/A

* Includes: Not for Resale (NFR), Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP), FTE, BizSpark, Imagine, Imagine Premium, Microsoft Cloud Partner Program, Most Valuable Professional (MVP), Regional Director (RD), MCT Software & Services Developer, MCT Software & Services.

Note

Microsoft no longer offers Visual Studio Professional Annual subscriptions and Visual Studio Enterprise Annual subscriptions in Cloud Subscriptions. There will be no change to existing customers experience and ability to renew, increase, decrease, or cancel their subscriptions. New customers are encouraged to go to https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/pricing/ to explore different options to purchase Visual Studio.

Not sure which subscription you're using? Connect to https://my.visualstudio.com/subscriptions to see all the subscriptions assigned to your email address. If you don't see all your subscriptions, you might have one or more assigned to a different email address. You need to sign in with that email address to see those subscriptions.