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VS Code Marketplace Setup Guide

Step-by-step guide to create a publisher and generate a Personal Access Token (PAT) for automated publishing to the VS Code Marketplace.

Prerequisites

  • A Microsoft account (or GitHub account linked to Azure DevOps)
  • Access to your GitHub repository settings

Step 1: Create a Publisher

  1. Go to the VS Code Marketplace Publisher Management
  2. Sign in with your Microsoft or GitHub account
  3. Click Create Publisher
  4. Fill in:
    • Name: Your publisher display name (e.g., My Name)
    • ID: Your publisher ID (e.g., my-publisher) — this goes in package.json publisher field
  5. Click Create

Important: The publisher ID in your package.json must match the publisher you create here.

Step 2: Create a Personal Access Token (PAT)

  1. Go to Azure DevOps
  2. Sign in with the same account you used for the publisher
  3. Click your profile picture (top right) → Personal access tokens
  4. Click New Token
  5. Fill in:
    • Name: vsce-publish (or any name you prefer)
    • Organization: Select All accessible organizations
    • Expiration: Choose a duration (max 1 year)
    • Scopes: Click Custom defined → check Marketplace → Manage
  6. Click Create
  7. Copy the token immediately — you won't be able to see it again

Note: You must select "All accessible organizations". If you select a specific organization, publishing will fail with a 401 error.

Step 3: Add GitHub Secret

Go to your repository → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New repository secret

Secret Name Value
VSCE_PAT The Personal Access Token from Step 2

Step 4: Update package.json

Make sure your package.json has the correct publisher:

{
  "publisher": "your-publisher-id"
}

Done

Once the secret is configured, go to Actions tab → Publish Extension → Run workflow to:

  1. Run CI checks
  2. Build the .vsix package
  3. Publish to VS Code Marketplace
  4. Publish to Open VSX Registry
  5. Create a GitHub Release

Troubleshooting

"Access Denied (401)"

  • Make sure you selected All accessible organizations when creating the PAT.
  • Make sure the PAT has Marketplace > Manage scope.
  • Check that the PAT hasn't expired.

"Publisher 'xxx' not found"

  • The publisher field in package.json must exactly match the publisher ID you created in Step 1.

"Extension 'xxx' already exists"

  • Another publisher already owns that extension name. Change the name field in package.json.

PAT expired

  • Tokens expire based on the duration you set (max 1 year). Create a new token and update the VSCE_PAT secret.