DEV Community: Elison Frankowski

I Built a VS Code Extension That Brings the Visual Studio Experience to .NET Developers

Elison Frankowski — Fri, 15 May 2026 23:14:50 +0000

If you're a .NET developer forced to use VS Code instead of Visual Studio or Rider, you know the pain. The tooling just isn't there. No NuGet manager worth using, no EF migrations from the UI, no build/rebuild/clean on right-click, no proper file nesting.

So I built it.

Introducing .NET Essentials Toolbox

.NET Essentials Toolbox is a VS Code extension that brings the Visual Studio / Rider experience to .NET developers who live in VS Code.

Here's what it does:

NuGet Package Manager

Not the basic one. A full panel with:

Search across multiple sources simultaneously (nuget.org, Azure Artifacts, GitHub Packages, any NuGet v3 feed — reads your nuget.config automatically)
Package detail panel with authors, license, description, tags, and per-framework dependencies
Outdated package detection — highlights packages with newer versions available
Update All button to update everything in one click
Resizable panels

Build, Rebuild & Clean from the Context Menu

Right-click any folder, .csproj, or .sln (including the new .slnx format) to build, rebuild, or clean. Ctrl+Shift+B builds the solution from anywhere in the editor.

EF Core Migrations

Right-click your .csproj:

EF: Add Migration — auto-detects your DbContext, asks for startup project if needed
EF: Update Database
EF: Remove Migration

If dotnet-ef isn't installed, the extension offers to install it automatically.

New Item Templates

Right-click any folder and create:

Class, Interface, Enum, Record
Controller (API), Service, Repository, Middleware

Namespace is inferred automatically from the folder path. Moving a .cs file to another folder? The namespace updates automatically too.

New Project (`dotnet new`)

12 project templates from the Command Palette: Console, Web API, MVC, Class Library, Blazor, Worker, gRPC, xUnit, NUnit, MSTest, Minimal API. Optionally adds the project to your solution automatically.

Project References

Add Project Reference — shows only unreferenced projects (multi-select)
Remove Project Reference — shows existing references for removal

User Secrets

Opens secrets.json directly in the editor. Initializes UserSecretsId automatically if the project doesn't have one yet.

Launch Profiles

Run Project reads your launchSettings.json and lets you pick the profile — http, https, IIS Express, or any custom profile you defined.

Publish

Choose configuration, framework-dependent or self-contained, and runtime identifier (win-x64, linux-x64, osx-arm64, etc.).

Workspace Auto-Configuration

When you open a .NET workspace the extension automatically:

Enables file nesting (appsettings.*.json under appsettings.json, etc.)
Hides bin/ and obj/ folders
Applies a Rider-style icon theme for .cs, .csproj, .sln, .cshtml, .json

Status Bar

The active solution or project name is always visible in the bottom bar. Click it to trigger a build.

Install

Search for .NET Essentials Toolbox in the VS Code Extensions panel, or install from the Marketplace.

Source code is on GitHub — PRs and issues welcome.

This is v0.1.1. A lot more planned. If you're a .NET developer using VS Code, give it a try and let me know what's missing.

I built a CLI that writes my commit messages and PR descriptions for me

Elison Frankowski — Tue, 12 May 2026 17:47:46 +0000

For several years I've been writing commit messages like "fix stuff" and PR descriptions that say nothing useful. Last week I got tired of it and built graftai — a CLI that handles the annoying parts of git workflow after you finish coding.

What it does

graft commit   # analyzes your diff, suggests a commit message
graft pr       # generates a PR title and description from your commits
graft sync     # syncs with main, resolves merge conflicts with AI
graft config   # set your provider, model, language and API key

How it works

You run graft commit, it reads your diff, sends it to the AI model of your choice, and suggests a conventional commit message. You approve, edit, or cancel.

Analyzing diff...

Suggested commit message:
feat(auth): add JWT refresh token rotation with configurable expiry

? Use this message? (Y/n)

Same for PRs — it reads your commit history and writes a title and description that actually explains what changed and why.

graft sync is the interesting one: when your branch has diverged from main, it decides whether to rebase or merge (based on whether your branch is published), runs it, and for each conflicted file shows you the AI's proposed resolution with an explanation before applying anything.

It works with your own API key

No SaaS, no subscription. You bring your own key. Supported providers:

Provider	Models
OpenAI	gpt-4o-mini, gpt-4o, gpt-4.1
Anthropic	claude-haiku, claude-sonnet, claude-opus
Google	gemini-2.0-flash, gemini-2.5-pro
Groq	llama-3.3-70b, mixtral-8x7b (free tier available)

Config is saved locally at ~/.graft/config.json. You can also use env vars if you prefer.

Install

npm install -g graftai
graft config

That's it. Next time you finish a feature, instead of staring at a blank commit message box:

git add .
graft commit

The code

Open source on GitHub: github.com/elisonfrank/graft

Built with Node.js, TypeScript, and the Vercel AI SDK for provider-agnostic model switching.

SimCore: I built a social simulation engine where LLM agents live on a real map of your city

Elison Frankowski — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:04:16 +0000

The idea

Most agent simulations run on abstract grids. I wanted something that feels personal — so I anchored the simulation to a real map.

When you run SimCore, it detects your location and resolves scenario places to real POIs via OpenStreetMap. "Town Square" becomes the actual square in your city. "Farm District" becomes real farmland nearby.

How it works

Agents have Big Five personalities, memories, relationships, and goals. Every tick (1 simulated hour), each agent observes their surroundings, thinks via LLM, and decides what to do: move, speak, trade, work, or rest.

Parallel decisions. Emergent conversations. Real crises.

What it looks like

The dashboard renders agents as avatars on a live Leaflet map. A breaking banner appears when significant events fire. When the simulation ends, an LLM writes a narrative chronicle of what happened.

Stack

Python 3.11 + FastAPI + asyncio
LiteLLM (Ollama local, OpenAI, Anthropic — or demo mode, no key needed)
React + Vite + Leaflet
OpenStreetMap via Overpass API

4 scenarios included

Outbreak — epidemic hits a small town
Marketplace — competing shops face a discount chain moving in
Urban Life — protests, politics, infrastructure failures
High School — cliques, drama, social pressure

Try it

git clone https://github.com/elisonfrank/simcore
cd simcore
pip install -e ".[dev]"
cd dashboard && npm install && npm run dev &
cd ..
python -m simcore.cli run scenarios/epidemic/config.yaml --dashboard --demo --speed 3.0 --port 8420

GitHub: github.com/elisonfrank/simcore

Would love feedback — especially on scenario ideas and agent behavior.

DEV Community: Elison Frankowski

I Built a VS Code Extension That Brings the Visual Studio Experience to .NET Developers

Introducing .NET Essentials Toolbox

NuGet Package Manager

Build, Rebuild & Clean from the Context Menu

EF Core Migrations

New Item Templates

New Project (dotnet new)

Project References

User Secrets

Launch Profiles

Publish

Workspace Auto-Configuration

Status Bar

Install

I built a CLI that writes my commit messages and PR descriptions for me

What it does

How it works

It works with your own API key

Install

The code

SimCore: I built a social simulation engine where LLM agents live on a real map of your city

The idea

How it works

What it looks like

Stack

4 scenarios included

Try it

New Project (`dotnet new`)