Erich Gamma once called VS Code an overnight success 10 years in the making.
Those 10 years were pretty eventful.
Before becoming one of the most widely used developer tools in the world, VS Code started with a small team building online developer tools out of Zurich, called itself Monaco, then Visual Studio Online Monaco, then Ticino (because why not?), became a desktop editor,
went open source, became an ecosystem in its own right, went back to the browser, and helped establish a whole bunch of open protocols along the way.
And just when it felt like the hard part was done, AI happened.
This is the story of how VS Code got here, told by the people who built it and the developers who helped shape it. And now, how it’s adapting once again as AI changes what a code editor can be.
The Story of VS Code was directed & produced by Stefan Kingham, with the help of a global team of videographers. Filming took place from November 2024 to mid-2026. Stefan would like to thank Microsoft, GitHub, Meta, Red Hat, GitKraken, Ona and AG Grid for helping bring this story to life.
Documentary cast (in alphabetical order):
● Luciana Abud: Principal Technical PM Manager at Microsoft
● Eric Amodio: Creator of GitLens & CTO at GitKraken
● Max Rydahl Andersen: Distinguished Engineer at Red Hat
● SteVen Batten: Principal Engineering Manager at Microsoft
● Dirk Bäumer: Founding VS Code Engineer at Microsoft
● Michael Bolin: Former Software Engineer at Facebook
● Wes Bos: Full-Stack Developer & Co-Host of the Syntax.fm Podcast
● Chris Dias: Former Partner Program Manager at Microsoft
● Alexandru Dima: Founding VS Code Engineer at Microsoft
● Jaana Dogan: Principal Engineer at Google
● Sven Efftinge: Co-Founder at Gitpod
● Görkem Ercan: Former Distinguished Engineer at Red Hat
● Erich Gamma: Original VS Code Lead at Microsoft
● Scott Hanselman: VP, Member of Technical Staff at Microsoft
● Burke Holland: Principal Developer Advocate at Microsoft
● Stephen Kreyenbuhl: Engineering Manager at Meta
● Julia Liuson: Former President of Microsoft’s Developer Division
● Steve Lucco: TypeScript Co-Creator at Microsoft
● Peng Lyu: Former Principal Engineering Manager at Microsoft
● Kai Maetzel: VS Code Lead at Microsoft
● Oege de Moor: Founder of GitHub Copilot
● João Moreno: Founding VS Code Engineer at Microsoft
● Brigit Murtaugh: Principal Product Manager at Microsoft
● Elsie Nallipogu: VP Applied Research at Microsoft
● Shanku Niyogi: Former Visual Studio Director at Microsoft
● Addy Osmani: Former Director, Cloud AI at Google
● Benjamin Pasero: Founding VS Code Engineer at Microsoft
● Johannes Rieken: Founding VS Code Engineer at Microsoft
● Megan Rogge: Software Engineer at Microsoft
● Amanda Silver: CVP Product, M365 Core & Work IQ at Microsoft
● Bhavya U: Software Engineer at Microsoft
● Christian Weichel: Co-Founder at Ona
Chapters:
00:00 Meet Developers Where They Are
02:11 The Origin Story
09:04 Hello Zurich
12:42 TypeScript Collaboration
17:38 Monaco
22:53 The Monaco Workbench & Visual Studio Online Monaco
26:17 Node-Webkit, Electron & the Desktop
30:08 The Release of VS Code
34:05 Open Source & Extensions
42:23 Community Reception
46:33 Any Language: LSP
54:33 Hello Redmond
59:51 Any Environment: Remote Development
1:08:45 Any Developer: Accessibility
1:13:48 The AI Shift
1:15:07 GitHub Copilot
1:18:51 VS Code in the Age of AI
1:27:37 The Forks
1:33:48 Unless It Ships, It Doesn’t Exist
📲 Follow VS Code:
X:
Bluesky:
LinkedIn:
GitHub:
Instagram:
– Captions translated with GitHub Copilot in VS Code with GPT-5.6 Sol and reviewed and updated by Madoka Chiyoda, Julien Dubois, Bruno Capuano, Harald Kirschner, Justin Yoo, and Cynthia Zanoni.
#vscode #storyofvscode
source
The Story of VS Code was directed & produced by Stefan Kingham, with the help of a global team of videographers. Filming took place from November 2024 to mid-2026. Stefan would like to thank Microsoft, GitHub, Meta, Red Hat, GitKraken, Ona and AG Grid for helping bring this story to life.
And we would like to thank Stefan and everyone involved in the creation of the documentary, our amazing VS Code community, and you for watching it right now 💙
I use vscode daily I used visual studio for many years. But I have grown to really love vs code for all my daily scripting and automation and everything. The thousands upon thousands of plugins, the interface is just awesome. Now Microsoft has deprecated powershell ISE in favor of vs code
The idea is very impressive I really appreciate the effort.
I never expected to find a documentary about IDEs so captivating, but it’s easily the most inspiring thing I've watched all year. It perfectly captures the raw energy of the startup spirit. In an era dominated by AI, it’s a powerful reminder of what human engineers can achieve through pure imagination, passion, and determination.
i will be developper see you in september 2027
19:00 indeed.
Your explanation is underrated I did not expect it to be this good.
Thank you for creating VS Code!
Its thanks to this that i can learn coding!
This performance is outstanding This deserves recognition.
My Tribe!
No doubt, VS Code is the best IDE of all times. You nailed it, folks. Thanks to the MS Team who built it, and making it open source.
Top tier people with great vision. Still using VS Code every day from the earliest versions.
What really grind my gears about vs code, is inabillity to set font size in workbench (explorer). How this is even possible in year 2026? Option to set font sizes to custom parts of editor should be basic accessibility option. And no zooming whole vs code is not the same.
❤🫶🥹
"And good peple enjoy working with good people"
Having created the NLP++ language extension for VS Code, thanks for this documentary! I always was curious about its origin and we ourselves were not sure to go with VS Code but we are so glad we did! Congrats!
Can you guy's make 1 for Visual Studio also, and this was great documentary
Congratulations, since acquiring github and vscode atomic. A lot of progress and development has been done.
vscode is excellent, very sophisticated.
This exceeded my expectations.
Me, 18 months ago: "All I need is a terminal prompt and vi. I don't need none of that fancy IDE cap! I code the way God intended man to code!"
Me, today: "You can take away my VSCode when you pry it from my dead, cold, fingers."
I came for the title and stayed for the quality.
all to just end up an electron app running on top of a bloated JavaScript framework on top of a bloated browser instance
what a sad ending for some once great software
Whoever edits these videos deserves a raise.
I just miss atom and github pre microslop
This feels sooo outdated. AND I used to be in vscode 10hrs+ a day just a few months ago.