Sharing Recommended VSCode Settings in Your Project Repository

Maintaining a consistent development environment in team projects, such as sharing recommended VSCode settings, can significantly improve developer experience.

Recent experience has shown me that committing a settings.json file directly may clash with personal preferences. Providing a settings.sample.json file, on the other hand, allows team members to quickly adopt project standards while retaining the freedom to customize their environment.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Create Your Sample Settings File

First, create a settings.sample.json file in your project's .vscode directory. It serves as a template for the recommended VSCode settings specific to your project and should contain all the recommended settings that you believe will benefit your team. For example:

{
  "typescript.tsdk": "node_modules/typescript/lib",
  "editor.codeActionsOnSave": {
    "source.fixAll.eslint": "explicit"
  }
}

Note to self (author): In the future I qant to add a link to an article explaining my full recommended VSCode settings.json for javascript projects, which I plan to publish in the series "My default project setup".

2. Add Instructions to Your Documentation

In your README.md or contributing guidelines, include a section on setting up the development environment. Here, mention the settings.sample.json file and provide instructions for using it:

### Copy Recommended VSCode Settings

To align your VSCode settings with the project's recommended configuration:

1. Navigate to the `.vscode` directory at the root of the project.
2. Copy the `settings.sample.json` file and rename the copy to `settings.json`.
3. If desired, customize the `settings.json` with your personal preferences.

3. Update Your .gitignore

To prevent the actual settings.json from being committed to the repository, ensure your .gitignore file includes the following line:

.vscode/*
!.vscode/settings.sample.json

This step is crucial to keeping personal or sensitive settings out of the repository.

Best Practices

• Commenting: Include comments in your settings.sample.json to explain the purpose and benefit of each setting. This will help team members understand why certain settings are recommended.
• Regular Updates: Periodically review and update the sample file to reflect any changes in your development environment or new best practices.
• Encourage Feedback: Invite your team to suggest additions or changes to the settings.sample.json file.

Conclusion

Sharing a settings.sample.json file is a less intrusive approach to share recommended VSCode settings. But it might be a bit more work to maintain compared to just committing .vscode/settings.json

Happy coding!