VSCode Shortcuts, Extensions & Settings for Flutter Development

VSCode is an excellent IDE for Flutter development.

After you have completed the basic setup steps, the best thing you can do is to customise it to boost your workflow.

So in this article, I'll show you all the shortcuts, extensions, settings that I use for day-to-day Flutter development.

Ready? Let's go!

VSCode Shortcuts for Flutter Development

YouTube already has many excellent videos about VSCode shortcuts, and I'll link the best ones at the end.

But for now, here's a shortlist of my favourites:

1. Quick Fix

  • MacOS: CMD+.
  • Windows: CTRL+.

Use this anywhere in the editor to get a contextual list of code actions.

You can use it to wrap, extract, remove widgets, etc:

Quick Fix example: wrap a widget
Quick Fix example: wrap a widget

Or to import files when needed:

Quick Fix example: import a file
Quick Fix example: import a file

Or to create a constructor (or even all the data class methods) from existing properties in a class.

Quick Fix example: create a constructor for final fields
Quick Fix example: create a constructor for final fields

2. Show Command Palette

  • MacOS: CMD+Shift+P
  • Windows: CTRL+Shift+P

This will bring up a search box where you can see all the recently used commands and type to search new ones:

Show the command palette
Show the command palette

3. Search files by name

  • MacOS: CMD+P
  • Windows: CTRL+P

This is great for opening any file in your project without leaving the keyboard:

Search files by name
Search files by name

4. Dart: Add Dependencies

First, open the command palette and type "Dart: Add Dependency" or "Dart: Add Dev Dependency":

Add a Dart dependency to the pubspec.yaml
Add a Dart dependency to the pubspec.yaml

It will then show a searchable list of packages that are available on pub.dev:

Search packages available on pub.dev
Search packages available on pub.dev

Once you select a dependency, it will be added to your pubspec.yaml file and installed automatically.

5. Flutter & Dart snippets

The Dart and Flutter plugins include many snippets that you can use to add common Flutter widgets quickly.

You may already be familiar with these:

  • stless: Insert a StatelessWidget
  • stful: Insert a StatefulWidget
  • stanim: Insert a StatefulWidget with an AnimationController
"stanim" snippet to insert a StatefulWidget with an AnimationController

These are great because they generate all the boilerplate code for you, and all you have left to do is to name your widget:

Generated boilerplate for the
Generated boilerplate for the "stanim" snippet

But you can also use snippets to generate common code blocks, such as if/else, for loops, function definitions, etc:

Dart snippet to insert an if/else statement
Dart snippet to insert an if/else statement
Generated if/else statement
Generated if/else statement

To see all the available Dart snippets, check this file.

If you want to take this further, you can install the Awesome Flutter Snippets extension, which offers many other useful snippets.

6. Keyboard shortcuts list

  • MacOS: CMD+K CMD+S
  • Windows: CTRL+K CTRL+S

VSCode has a ton of shortcuts. If you want to see them all and customise the key bindings, this is the one to use:

Show all the keyboard shortcuts
Show all the keyboard shortcuts

VSCode Extensions for Flutter Development

Using the right extensions will save you a lot of time and give you superpowers. These are my favourites:

1. Dart Data Class Generator

When creating model classes, you'll often needs methods such as copyWith(), toString(), toJson(), fromJson(), toMap(), fromMap(), ==, hashCode.

This is tedious and error-prone.

Instead, it's much better to use the Dart Data Class Generator to do the work for you:

Using the quick fix shortcut to generate a data class
Using the quick fix shortcut to generate a data class
Generated data class code
Generated data class code

Especially if you have model classes with many properties, this can be a huge time-saver!

Download here:

Note: there's also an alternative called Json to Dart Model which is quite configurable and can also leverage code generation libraries like Freezed and Json Serializable:

2. Flutter Riverpod Snippets

If you use Riverpod, you'll quickly get tired of typing all your providers and consumers by hand.

By using the Flutter Riverpod Snippets extension by Robert Brunhage, this job becomes much easier:

Riverpod snippet to create a stateless consumer
Riverpod snippet to create a stateless consumer
Generated ConsumerWidget boilerplate
Generated ConsumerWidget boilerplate

Download & documentation here:

Do you prefer Flutter Bloc to Riverpod? Then the bloc extension has you covered. 👍

3. Error Lens

Do you want to know if you make mistakes as you type?

The Error Lens extension improves the highlighting of errors, warnings, and other language diagnostics, and I find it immensely helpful:

Error lens extension in action
Error lens extension in action

Download here:

  • Error Lens (get any feedback about errors as you type: super useful)

4. Better Comments

Improve your code comments by highlighting alerts, notes, TODOs, and more:

Highlighted comments with the Better Comments extension
Highlighted comments with the Better Comments extension

Download here:

5. Remove comments

This is quite useful to remove all the default comments when you create a new Flutter project:

Removing all single line comments with the Remove Comments extension
Removing all single line comments with the Remove Comments extension

Download here:

6. Advanced New File

The usual way to create files is to select the folder you want in the sidebar, then click on "New File".

This is slow as it forces you to use the mouse. And for big projects, finding the correct folder can be challenging.

The Advanced New File extension lets you create files anywhere in your workspace, using your keyboard only.

You can run this from the command palette:

Selecting the Advanced New File extension
Selecting the Advanced New File extension

Then, the extension will use pattern matching to help you find the folder you need as you type:

Advanced New File: folder selection
Advanced New File: folder selection

Finally, type the name of the file in the chosen folder:

Advanced New File: choosing the file name
Advanced New File: choosing the file name

As a result, the extension will create an empty file in the right place and open it for you:

Advanced New File: file created
Advanced New File: file created

Download here:

7. GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer which suggests line completions and entire function bodies as you type:

GitHub Copilot in action
GitHub Copilot in action

While it doesn't always get it right, I've been surprised at how much time it has saved me so far! It has helped me write documentation, and even some of the landing page copy for my new course! 😀

Writing documentation with GitHub Copilot
Writing documentation with GitHub Copilot

Download here:

GitHub Copilot got a major upgrade in November 2023. To learn how to make the most of it, read: GitHub Copilot: Tips and Tricks for Flutter Devs

8. Dracula official theme (optional)

Of course, you're free to choose whichever theme you like best (as long as you use Dark Mode 😉).

Though this is my favorite:

Another one I recommend is Monokai Pro (license required), which ships with a beautiful set of icons for common file extensions.

9. Firebase Explorer

If you wanna see all your Firebase projects, Firestore data, Cloud Functions, and more without ever leaving VSCode, this one is for you:

Firebase explorer panel
Firebase explorer panel

Download here:

10. Version Lens

Ever wanted to see the latest available version of each package in your pubspec.yaml?

Version Lens does just that, and you can use it to update each package with one click:

Use the Version Lens extension to update to the latest available version for each package
Use the Version Lens extension to update to the latest available version for each package

Download here:

Useful Extensions for working with REST APIs

If your Flutter app connects to some REST APIs, these extensions will also be useful:

  • Rest Client: send HTTP request and view the response in Visual Studio Code directly.
  • Thunder Client: a good alternative to Postman for managing all your REST API calls in VSCode.
  • Live Server: Launch a local development server with live reload feature for static & dynamic pages.

VSCode Settings for Flutter Development

In addition to all the great shortcuts and extensions, there are some Flutter-specific settings that will help you a lot!

These can be set by opening Preferences: Open Settings (JSON) in the command palette:

Preferences: Open Settings via Command Palette
Preferences: Open Settings via Command Palette

The ones I find most useful are the options to fix all errors and format the code on save.

1. Fix all errors on Save

I'm sure you got annoyed with the linter telling you to use const over and over:

Linter warnings due to missing const constructors
Linter warnings due to missing const constructors

Well, rather than fixing all these warnings by hand, just add this to your settings file:

"editor.codeActionsOnSave": { "source.fixAll": true }

And all the const errors (along with many others) will vanish when you save!

2. Format on Save

When creating declarative layout, we often end up with unbalanced code or very long lines:

Sample code with long lines
Sample code with long lines

To fix this, all we have to do is to add all the commas in the right places, then save the file:

Formatted code after saving the file
Formatted code after saving the file

To enable format on save, add this to the settings:

{ "editor.formatOnSave": true }

3. Bracked Pair Colorization

A recent version of VSCode has introduced high-performance bracket pair colorization - a feature that is especially useful in Flutter.

All you have to do is to enable it:

{ "editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled": true }

And then you can enjoy all the colored brackets:

Bracket pair colorization in action
Bracket pair colorization in action

More details here:

4. Preview Flutter UI Guides

Another setting I like a lot is called previewFlutterUiGuides, which can be enabled like this:

{ "dart.previewFlutterUiGuides": true }

With this in place, the editor will show some UI guides next to our widgets:

Preview Flutter UI Guides in action
Preview Flutter UI Guides in action

5. Enable Sticky Scroll

Use this setting to enable sticky scrolling on the current scope:

{ "editor.stickyScroll.enabled": true, }

Once this is set, the current current class name and method will be pinned at the top of the editor while scrolling:

By enabling sticky scroll, the current class name and method is pinned at the top
By enabling sticky scroll, the current class name and method is pinned at the top

6. Enable file nesting for auto-generated Dart files

Do you have a lot of code-generated files and want to hide them by default the project explorer?

Just enable file nesting in the VSCode settings like this:

{ "explorer.fileNesting.patterns": { "*.dart": "${capture}.g.dart, ${capture}.freezed.dart" }, "explorer.fileNesting.enabled": true, "explorer.fileNesting.expand": false, }

As a result, any generated files will be nested inside a toggle:

With file nesting, generated files will be hidden by default and can be revealed with a toggle
With file nesting, generated files will be hidden by default and can be revealed with a toggle

Very useful if you use build_runner, Freezed, or json_serializable in your Flutter apps. 👌

My settings.json file

Feel free to grab my own setup and customise it to your needs:

{ "security.workspace.trust.enabled": false, "[dart]": { "editor.codeActionsOnSave": { "source.fixAll": true }, "editor.rulers": [ 80 ], "editor.selectionHighlight": false, "editor.suggest.snippetsPreventQuickSuggestions": false, "editor.suggestSelection": "first", "editor.tabCompletion": "onlySnippets", "editor.wordBasedSuggestions": false, }, "dart.warnWhenEditingFilesOutsideWorkspace": false, "dart.renameFilesWithClasses": "prompt", "window.zoomLevel": 1, "workbench.colorTheme": "Dracula", "editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled": true, "editor.inlineSuggest.enabled": true, "editor.formatOnSave": true, "editor.stickyScroll.enabled": true, "explorer.fileNesting.patterns": { "*.dart": "${capture}.g.dart, ${capture}.freezed.dart" }, "explorer.fileNesting.enabled": true, "explorer.fileNesting.expand": false }

You may wonder why on earth I still use 80-character lines in 2022. Well, this is mainly for presentation purposes as I record all my videos on 1080p with a large font.

Bonus: Dart Fix

Have you ever returned to a Flutter project you haven't touched for one or two years, and found a bunch of deprecated warnings? (I'm looking at you, FlatButton and RaisedButton!)

Fear not, for you don't have to fix them all by hand.

Instead, all you have to do is run dart fix on the terminal:

dart fix --dry-run # preview of the proposed changes dart fix --apply # apply the changes

More info on this page.

What about IntelliJ / Android Studio?

Glad you asked. I have written an article about it a while ago:

Conclusion

I hope all the shortcuts, extensions, and settings above will boost your productivity!

Of course, there are many more tips and tricks you could learn about VSCode.

For that, I recommend this video by Fireship.io:

And if you want to go even more in depth, you can check this page which contains a curated collection of the most popular VSCode videos.

Happy coding!

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