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Mridu Dixit
Mridu Dixit

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🪄 5 VS Code Extensions That Instantly Made Me 10x Faster

#webdev #ai #javascript #programming

I used to spend hours switching files, formatting code, and searching for snippets.
Then I installed these 5 VS Code extensions — and my productivity skyrocketed. ⚡

1️⃣ Tabnine / GitHub Copilot — Your AI Pair Programmer

If you’re still typing every line by hand, you’re living in 2018 😅
AI autocompletion tools like Tabnine and Copilot don’t just predict — they understand your context.

🧠 What it does:

  • Auto-suggests full code blocks
  • Learns your coding style
  • Reduces boilerplate typing

💡 Pro Tip: Combine Copilot with your project’s snippets — it feels like magic when it auto-generates your component logic.

2️⃣ ES7+ React/Redux/Next.js Snippets

If you write React, Angular, or even plain JS — this one’s a must-have.

⚡ What it does:

  • Quickly create components, hooks, and imports using short triggers
  • Example: typing rfc → auto-creates a functional component

📦 Saves minutes per file, which adds up fast.

3️⃣ Prettier — Code Formatting Without Thinking

Ever argued with teammates about spacing, commas, or quotes? 😅
Let Prettier settle the debate for good.

✨ Why it matters:

  • Formats code automatically on save
  • Ensures consistent style across team
  • Integrates with ESLint easily

🔧 Setup tip:
Add this to your VS Code settings:

"editor.formatOnSave": true,
"editor.defaultFormatter": "esbenp.prettier-vscode"
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Now every time you hit save, it’s clean, consistent, and beautiful.

4️⃣ Path Intellisense — Never Guess File Paths Again

We’ve all been there:

import Component from "../../../components/common/ui/Component";
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One typo and it’s hours of debugging.
Path Intellisense auto-suggests file paths as you type — like autocomplete for imports.

🔍 Bonus: It even works with alias imports like @components/ or ~shared/.

5️⃣ Live Server — Instant Browser Reloads

Tired of switching tabs and manually refreshing your app?
With Live Server, you can run a local dev server and get real-time reloads.

🌐 Perfect for:

  • HTML/CSS/JS projects
  • Static prototypes or demos
  • Rapid frontend experiments

💥 Pro Tip: Combine it with Prettier and you’ll never have to press refresh again.

⚙️ Bonus: Honourable Mentions

  • 🧩 Bracket Pair Colorizer 2 — Colorful brackets = easier debugging
  • 🎨 Tailwind CSS IntelliSense — Smarter autocompletion for classes
  • 🕵️ GitLens — See who wrote that line (and when)
  • ⚡ Error Lens — Highlights errors inline without switching panels

🧠 Final Thoughts

You don’t need to code harder — just smarter.
These extensions helped me reduce context-switching, improve consistency, and focus on what actually matters — building great products.

🚀 Try them for a week — you’ll never go back.

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