name: vscode-webview-ui description: Develop React applications for VS Code Webview surfaces. Use when working on the webview-ui package, creating features, components, or hooks for VS Code extensions. Includes project structure, coding guidelines, and testing instructions.

VS Code Webview UI

Overview

This skill assists in developing the React application that powers VS Code webview surfaces. It covers the webview-ui workspace, which is bundled with Vite and communicates with the extension host via the bridge/vscode helper.

Project Structure

The webview-ui package follows this structure:

webview-ui/
├── src/
│   ├── components/        # Shared visual components reused across features
│   │   └── ui/            # shadcn/ui component library
│   ├── hooks/             # Shared React hooks
│   ├── features/
│   │   └── {feature}/
│   │       ├── index.tsx  # Feature entry component rendered from routing
│   │       ├── components/# Feature-specific components
│   │       └── hooks/     # Feature-specific hooks
│   ├── bridge/            # Messaging helpers for VS Code <-> webview
│   └── index.tsx          # Runtime router that mounts the selected feature
├── public/                # Static assets copied verbatim by Vite
├── vite.config.ts         # Vite build configuration
└── README.md

Coding Guidelines

• Shared Modules: Prefer shared modules under src/components and src/hooks before introducing feature-local code.
• Feature Boundaries: Add feature-only utilities inside the nested components/ or hooks/ directories to keep boundaries clear.
• Styling: Keep styling in Tailwind-style utility classes (see src/app.css for base tokens) and avoid inline styles when reusable classes exist.
• Messaging: Exchange messages with the extension via vscode.postMessage and subscribe through window.addEventListener('message', …) inside React effects.
• Configuration: When adding new steering or config references, obtain paths through the shared ConfigManager utilities from the extension layer.

Testing & Quality

• Integration Tests: Use Playwright or Cypress style integration tests if adding complex interactions (tests live under the repo-level tests/).
• Pre-commit Checks: Run npm run lint and npm run build before committing to ensure TypeScript and bundler checks pass.