In this guide, you'll learn how to install and use Microsoft's Visual Studio Code on the Raspberry Pi. Visual Studio Code, often shortened to VS Code, is an integrated development environment (IDE) that has a bunch of handy features that make writing code more straightforward, such as syntax highlighting, code completion, easier refactoring, and git built-in.

Setting Up Your Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has excellent guides on how to set up your Raspberry Pi Computer to include the cabling, power, and software (Raspberry Pi OS).

• Raspberry Pi Board Computer Setup

Parts

You will want a Raspberry Pi computer, hooked up to a monitor along with a keyboard and mouse. To do this, it is easiest to use one of the full size models such as the Raspberry Pi 3, 3B, or 4. The installation can be on any Raspberry Pi but the newer models will run faster which means better response. The Pi Zero W works also but requires a USB hub to get the mouse and keyboard to both work at the same time. The Raspberry Pi 400 contains a keyboard, only needing a mouse and HDMI monitor.

Open the terminal with ctrl+alt+t, by clicking it from the taskbar, or by navigating through the menu (Raspberry Pi icon -> Accessories -> Terminal). In the terminal, enter:

sudo apt install code

sudo apt install code

The output should look something like this. A good way to make sure that something has been installed is to check the line that I circled below.

When you open it, it should look something like this, but as long as it opens and you don't get any error messages, you're probably fine.

If you'd like to install the CircuitPython extension, click the extensions tab (circled in red below), type CircuitPython into the search bar, and install CircuitPython v2 by wmerkens.

Now you should be ready to use VS Code on your Raspberry Pi. For more information about using VS Code, click on the link labeled "VS Code Documentation" on the sidebar.