"code ." is not working in on the command line for Visual Studio Code on OS X/Mac

Question

The command code . doesn't work in this manual.

All the other steps before that worked. How can I call the Visual Studio Code in an OS X terminal?

pwd

/Users/mona/nodejs/myExpressApp

code .

-bash: code: command not found

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I ended up opening it from within Visual Code Studio by changing the workspace, but why won't that command code . part work?

Answer 1

1. Make sure you drag the Visual Studio Code application into the Applications folder

Otherwise (as noted in the comments), you'll have to go through this process again after a reboot.

For example, sometimes the VSCode application might be in your downloads folder, so make sure to move it out of there.

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2. Next, open Visual Studio Code

Open the Command Palette via ⌘⇧P and type shell command to find the Shell Command:

Use the Uninstall 'code' command in the PATH command before the "Install 'code' command in PATH" command.

After executing the command, restart the terminal for the new $PATH value to take effect. You'll be able to simply type 'code .' in any folder to start editing files in that folder. The "." Simply means "current directory"

(Source: Visual Studio Code documentation)

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👉 Remember to Restart your machine afterwards

Note: If you're running a build based off the OSS repository, you will need to run code-oss . (Dzeimsas Zvirblis' comment)

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EACCES: permission denied, unlink '/usr/local/bin/code'

If you see this EACCES error, just run the "Uninstall 'code' command from PATH, then the 'install' it again, and you'll be all set!

Answer 2

If you want to add it permanently:

Add this to your ~/.bash_profile, or to ~/.zshrc if you are running macOS v10.15 (Catalina) or later. (To add, cd ~ and vim ~/.bash_profile in terminal)

export PATH="$PATH:/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin"

This assumes that you have VS Code in /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app; if you have it installed in a different location ... probably move it to Applications (or modify the code to point to your custom location).

Elaborating the process to add to the file:

1. Open terminal and go to base directory using cd ~
2. Then, vim ~/.bash_profile inorder to edit the file
3. Press i for making an insertion and paste the string export PATH="$PATH:/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin" at the end
4. Save and close using :wq
5. Once this is done, paste source ~/.zshrc

Source: Visual Studio Code on macOS

Answer 3

Go the top of VS and select menu View → Command Palette...

• [macOS] Open the Command Palette via ⌘⇧P and type shell command to find the Shell Command:
• [Windows] Open the Command Palette via Ctrl+Shift+P and type shell command to find the Shell Command:

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Type: shell command

And install.

Answer 4

Open the ~/.bashrc file using vi or Vim:

vi ~/.bashrc

Enter the following by pressing i to insert:

code () { VSCODE_CWD="$PWD" open -n -b "com.microsoft.VSCode" --args $* ;}

Save and exit the file using Esc + :wq

Reflect the settings in ~/.bashrc using the following command:

source ~/.bashrc

Answer 5

Use:

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/code

Open Visual Studio Code, and then press Ctrl + Shift + P

And write command install code and you will get a popup. Then follow the instruction and done!

Answer 6

For those of you that run Z shell with iTerm2, add this to your ~/.zshrc file:

alias code="/Applications/Visual\ Studio\ Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin/code"

Answer 7

Steps to follow:

1. Open the Visual Studio Code application, and type Command + Shift + P and type the command 'install code'. Then enter it.
2. You will see the below message in Visual Studio Application: shell command ' code' successfully installed in PATH.
3. Now, jump to the iTerm CLI and type code .
4. Then you will be able to redirect to Visual Studio Code for any code change/view.

Answer 8

On my Mac I got it working:

Add to file .bash_profile:

code() {
   open -a Visual\ Studio\ Code.app $1
}

Save and in the terminal do source .bash_profile.

Then in the terminal, code index.html (or whatever) will open that file in Visual Studio Code.

Answer 9

Setup code. In just one second

Just follow one simple command with the following steps:

1. Open the Visual Studio Code application

2. Command + Shift + P

3. Type command 'install code'. Then enter it.

Boom, it’s done.

Now use the command Code . where you want to use it.

Answer 10

Here are the steps which I followed to make it work on Mac:

Install the "Shell" extension from Visual Studio Code:

Restart Visual Studio Code.

Press F1 when Visual Studio Code is opened.

Type "Shell" and select the following option: Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH command:

That will give you the following message: Shell command 'code' successfully installed in PATH.

Running the "which code" command will give you a proof the 'code' command is working now:

Answer 11

For Mac OS X, there are three ways you can enable code . to open the current folder in Visual Studio Code.

For a fresh installation

Install Visual Studio Code through Homebrew

There is a way to install Visual Studio Code through Brew-Cask.

1. First, install Homebrew from here.

2. Now run the following command, and it will install the latest Visual Studio Code on your Mac.

   brew cask install visual-studio-code
   

The above command should install Visual Studio Code and also set up the command-line calling of Visual Studio Code.

If the above steps don't work then you can do it manually. By following Microsoft Visual Studio Code documentation given here.

If Visual Studio Code is already installed

If Visual Studio Code is already installed then you don't have to reinstall it. You can follow any of the below two options.

Option 1: Update PATH in the Bash profile

Update your favorite Bash profile, such as ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc by exporting the app/bin path of the Visual Studio Code application. You can add the below export command to your favorite Bash profile.

export PATH="$PATH:/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin"

Option 2: Using the Visual Studio Code Command Palette

We can run a shell command in the Visual Studio Code Command Palette too. To do so, we need to open the Command Palette via (⇧⌘P) and type "shell command" to find the shell command named as:

Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH

Press Enter to execute the above shell command.

That's it.

Answer 12

Please follow below steps

1. Open VSCode
2. Press command + p.
3. Type >shell command in the input box at the top.
4. A dropdown will come, now select install code command in PATH option.

Answer 13

I tried this by following the documentation and it works for me:

1. Launch Visual Studio Code

2. Open the Command Palette (Cmd + Shift + P) and type 'shell command' to find

   Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH command

   

3. Restart terminal

Answer 14

This works for me:

sudo ln -fs "/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin/code" /usr/local/bin/

Answer 15

See Setting up Visual Studio Code

Tip: If you want to run Visual Studio Code from the terminal, append the following to your .bashrc file file:

code () {
if [[ $# = 0 ]]
then
    open -a "Visual Studio Code"
else
    [[ $1 = /* ]] && F="$1" || F="$PWD/${1#./}"
    open -a "Visual Studio Code" --args "$F"
fi
}

Then source ~/.bashrc

Answer 16

It was quite simple to follow the documentation to install 'code' to PATH, but it didn't work.

I simply uninstalled it first and then installed it again.

Open the Command Palette (⇧⌘P)

Shell Command: Uninstall 'code' command in PATH command.

Then install it again.

Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH command.

Restart your terminal to have the new PATH included.

Answer 17

If you came here from search engine and are a free/open source user like me looking for VSCodium (Free/Libre Open Source of VSCode) instead of Microsoft spyware VSCode, then here is a little change for you.

In VSCodium binary executable code is called codium.

So, when you open the Command Line Terminal via ⌘+⇧+P and type in shell command to find the codium.

You should be able to open VSCodium using:

codium .

Answer 18

If you are using Visual Studio Code Insiders build:

code-insiders .

With regular Visual Studio Code:

code .

Answer 19

For that to work, there needs to be an executable named 'code' in your Bash path, which some installers add for you, but this one apparently did not.

The best way to do this could be to add a symbolic link to the Visual Studio Code application in your /usr/local/bin folder. You can do this by using a command like the following in your terminal.

ln -s "/Path/To/Visual Studio Code" "/usr/local/bin/code"

You will likely need to put sudo in front of that to have the permissions for it to complete successfully.

Answer 20

I foolishly deleted my /usr/local/bin/code symbolic link and did not know the correct path. A Homebrew reinstall recreated it:

brew cask reinstall visual-studio-code

The path turned out to be:

/usr/local/bin/code ->
'/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin/code'

Answer 21

Mac OS X

1. Download Visual Studio Code for Mac OS X.

2. Double-click onVSCode-osx.zip to expand the contents.

3. Drag Visual Studio Code.app to the Applications folder, making it available in the Launchpad.

4. Add Visual Studio Code to your Dock by right-clicking on the icon and choosing Options, Keep in Dock.

Tip: If you want to run Visual Studio Code from the terminal, append the following to your ~/.bash_profile file (~/.zshrc in case you use Z shell (executable zsh)).

code () { VSCODE_CWD="$PWD" open -n -b "com.microsoft.VSCode" --args $* ;}

Now, you can simply type code . in any folder to start editing files in that folder.

Answer 22

Make sure VS Code is installed and moved to Application section

Open VS Code

Open the Command Palette (⇧⌘P)

Shell Command: Uninstall 'code' command in PATH command.

Then install it again.

Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH command.

Restart Terminal (Better OS)

Answer 23

If this is happening on Linux Mint or Ubuntu, it is likely because you installed Visual Studio Code through the software manager. This will cause other problems during debugging. Instead install it using the .deb file on the Visual Studio Code website.

If you really want to use the software manager, the solution below still works:

Use find / -name code 2> /dev/null to find the path to the Visual Studio Code binary file. It should end in /extra/vscode/bin/code

If you're using the Linux Mint software manager, you might only find paths with a ridiculously long name in the middle like this:

".../stable/7a22830d9e8fbbdc9627e43e072005eef66c14d2a4dd19992427ef4de060186a/..."

Just replace the long part with "/active/"

Once you have it, create a symbolic link:

ln -s path_you_found/extra/vscode/bin/code /usr/local/bin/code

If you don't have the rights, or only want it to be accessible for yourself, simply add this line to your .bashrc or .zshrc file:

export PATH="$PATH:path_you_found/extra/vscode/bin/

Note that I removed the 'code' filename at the end.

Answer 24

If you are on Windows and facing the same problem, have a look at Inazense's answer, Visual Studio Code - "Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH command.".

In Visual Studio Code I was not able to find “Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH command.” so I had to do this manually.

1. Open Environment Variables (System → Advanced system settings → Advanced tab → Environment variables). In system variables, click on Path and click Edit and add a new path named:

"C:\Users\Your_Username\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin"

Now you are done! Restart the command prompt and try again.

Answer 25

I was having the same problem. I had to add Visual Studio Code to my applications folder. It worked without editing a file.

1. Open the Applications folder

   

2. Search for Visual Studio Code in your search

   

3. Drag Visual Studio Code to the Applications folder

   

This will work for you.

Answer 26

If you have trouble using the Command Palette solution, you can manually add Visual Studio Code to the $PATH environment variable when your terminal starts:

cat << EOF >> ~/.bash_profile
# Add Visual Studio Code (code)
export PATH="$PATH:/Applications/Visual Studio
Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin"
EOF

Answer 27

Alternative to a command line solution:

Recently I was playing with services in Mac OS X. I added a service to a folder or file so that I can open that folder or file in Visual Studio Code. I think this could be an alternative to using the 'code .' command if you are using the Finder app.

Here are the steps:

• Open Automator App from Application (or you can use Spotlight).

• Click on the New Document button to create a new script.

• Choose 'Service' as a new type of document.

• Select 'files and folders' in 'Service receives selected' dropdown.

• Search for 'Open Finder Items' action item.

• Drag that action item to the workflow area.

• Select the 'Visual Studio Code.app' application in the action 'Open with' dropdown.

• Press Command + S to save the service. It will ask a name of service. Give it a name. I gave 'Open with Visual Studio Code'. Close the Automator app. Check the image below for more information.

  

Verify:

• Open the Finder app.

• Right-click on any folder.

• In the context menu, look for 'Open with Visual Studio Code' menu option.

• Click on the 'Open with Visual Studio Code' menu option.

• The folder should get open in the Visual Studio Code application. Check image below for more information.

  

Answer 28

Define the path of the Visual Studio Code in your ~/.bash_profile file as follows:

export PATH="$PATH:/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin"

Answer 29

Note: with Code Insiders for Visual Studio Code 1.58 (June 2021), you have Microsoft/Visual Studio Code issue 126702 (on Windows, but also Mac).

code-insiders . is not opening the current directory. It opens the path to code insiders instead.

This has been fixed.

Answer 30

For macOS, search for the Visual Studio Code application. For example, it was in my Downloads section.

Now copy that to the Applications folder and then run the following commands.

• Open terminal and type vi ~/.zshrc
• Add this line at the end (if not empty) export PATH="$PATH:/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin"
• Press Command + Q (in short, quit the terminal)
• Again open up the terminal and go to the Git code folders

You are all sorted now.