Auto-Saving Serial Monitor Output in VS Code (PlatformIO)

When working on embedded systems — especially robotics, sensing, and control experiments — serial monitor logs are critical for debugging and data analysis.

Manually copying serial output is inefficient. So here’s how to automatically save serial monitor output to a file when using VS Code + PlatformIO.

Step 1: Install Required Extensions

First, install the following VS Code extensions:

• PlatformIO IDE (by PlatformIO)
• Serial Monitor (by Microsoft)

The PlatformIO extension provides the embedded development environment, while the Microsoft Serial Monitor extension offers an alternative serial terminal if needed.

Step 2: Access the Serial Monitor

You can access the Serial Monitor in VS Code (PlatformIO) by clicking the Serial Monitor in the bottom status bar.

Step 3: Chose a folder to save the log files.

Step 4: Before opening the serial port, click on this button,

Then the file will be saved in the logs folder.