A few weeks ago, I was deep in coding flow when I caught myself doing something annoying for the hundredth time:
open browser → search DevPromptly → copy a prompt → paste into VS Code → tweak → finally continue coding.
That’s when I thought: “Why am I breaking my flow just to grab prompts? What if I could bring them straight into VS Code?”
That was the spark.
The First Steps (a.k.a. the overconfidence phase 😅)
At first, I thought building a VS Code plugin would be simple. “Just show a list of prompts, add a button, done.”
Spoiler: it wasn’t.
The moment I opened the docs, reality hit. Extensions have their own lifecycle, APIs, constraints, and the UX expectations are high. If it feels clunky, devs won’t use it.
But I was stubborn. I wanted something that felt smooth — browse, search, and insert prompts in a couple of clicks, without leaving the editor.
The Tough Parts 💥
Authentication
This was the first real boss fight.
I wanted people to log in with their DevPromptly account, but OAuth inside a VS Code extension is… not fun. Redirect flows, tokens, browser windows, it was messy.
After a few late nights of trial and error (and a couple of “why isn’t this token refreshing?!” moments), I finally got it working. Logging in now feels almost invisible.
UX: Less is More
Extensions can easily end up bloated. I didn’t want DevPromptly to feel like a second app living inside VS Code.
So I experimented:
- A sidebar to browse prompts by category.
- A search that feels instant.
- A single-click insert into the editor or Copilot Chat.
The goal was simple: no distractions, no clutter. Just prompts, when you need them.
Keeping Things in Sync
Another challenge was making sure what you see in VS Code is always fresh. Prompts get added, rated, improved all the time on DevPromptly
.
I had to figure out caching, rate limits, and syncing favorites across devices. Tricky, but worth it, now it just works.
The Moment of Truth ✨
Finally, after a lot of testing, debugging, and polishing, I hit Publish.
And there it was:
👉 The DevPromptly VS Code Plugin on the Marketplace
https://devpromptly.com/tools
Seeing it live, searchable, and installable by anyone was a surreal moment.
Looking Back
What started as a small itch turned into one of the most fun (and challenging) side projects I’ve done. I learned that building for developers means obsessing over the little details: smooth login, snappy UI, zero-friction sync.
And most importantly, I now use it every day myself, which was the whole point.
What’s Next?
This is just v1. I’d love to add:
- Better search & filtering.
- Ratings and usage stats inside VS Code.
- Integrations with other IDE like Cursor
If you try it, I’d love your feedback for example: what works, what feels off, what would make it better.
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