Godot Embed External Editor

A GDExtension which allows embedding an external code editor such as Visual Studio Code directly into your Godot editor!

Quick Start Guide

Features

• Automatically attach and detach external code editors.
  • Checks if the code editor is relevant for the given project (e.g. the project folder is opened inside of it) whenever possible.
  • A toggle button in the scene tab bar to manually attach and detach the external code editor.
• Supported external editors:
  • Only Visual Studio Code for now.

Quick Start

• Ensure that
  • you are using Godot 4.
  • you are on Windows.
  • in Godot's editor settings, "Single-window mode" is disabled (otherwise dialogs will not appear in front of the code editor).
  • in Godot's editor settings, external code editor is enabled and correctly set up (double-clicking a script file in Godot's file explorer should open your editor of choice).
  • you follow the setup instructions for the editor of your choice.
• Download and extract the latest build artifact or compile from source.
• Copy the addons folder into your game project folder.
• If Godot was running, be sure to select "Project -> Reload Current Project" or restart the editor (GDExtensions are not live reloaded, see this issue).
• Enable the plug-in in the project settings.
• Open your code editor by double-clicking a script file in Godot's explorer (unrelated code editors will NOT be embedded by this addon) - it should disappear shortly after launching.
• Switch to the Script tab and enjoy!

Per-Editor Setup

Visual Studio Code

Following settings changes can either be done in the user settings (Ctrl+Comma), or for each workspace folder:

• Set window.titleBarStyle to native. Otherwise the titlebar can not be hidden and the editor window will be resizable independently from its container.
• Ensure that the settings window.title and window.titleSeparator use their default values. Follow these instructions if you have modified them:
  • The window.title setting must contain both the string Visual Studio Code and the name of the currently open folder ${rootName}. This is needed in order for the addon to detect whether the instance has the project opened.
  • Similarly, the window.titleSeparator needs leading and trailing whitespace to work correctly.

If you prefer using Visual Studio Code as a plain text editor without its IDE features, consider using Zen Mode:

• Set zenMode.centerLayout to false and zenMode.fullScreen to false.
• Enable Zen Mode by running the command View: Toggle Zen Mode.

Limitations

This addon is very experimental and hacky. I'm trying to improve upon it, but there are some things that can not be fixed as easily:

General

• Godot still has problems detecting external script file changes (see this issue).
  • Workaround: Restart the editor with "Project -> Reload Current Project".
• Can not view documentation in editor without detaching editor.
  • Workaround: You can use VSCode's "List native classes" option as an alternative.
• There has been occasional freezes in the past which I've tried to fix. If they still persist, please open an issue.
  • Workaround: If you get a freeze, it seems like Alt+Tab fixes it most of the time.
• Editor's titlebar does not show after undocked.
  • Workaround: Minimize and restore the window.
• The embedded window may get native window borders and be resizable at times (e.g. when the debugger breaks).
  • Workaround: Undock and dock the window again.
• Keyboard input will only be accepted by whichever window is in focus (e.g. F5 to run the game).
• Godot does not automatically switch to the script tab.
• Hover thumbnails for scene tabs do not show in front of the embedded code editor.

Visual Studio Code

• Until this PR is finished and merged, debugging Godot games through VSCode is not possible.
• Rarely, a black strip appears at the top of VSCode which offsets all input events
  • Workaround: Restart VSCode to fix this (sadly not even the "Reload Window" command solves this).

Contributing

I don't plan on working on this project for more than my personal use-cases, so I would greatly appreciate help from others to improve upon this extension:

• Support other OSes like Mac or Linux.
• Support more editors, including documentation on how to set them up.
• Fix usability issues and bugs.

Create issues for ideas, feedback or bugs. Open pull requests if you implemented something. All help is appreciated! :)

If you want to say thanks, then you can instead donate on GitHub sponsors.