Getting started

This guide takes you from a fresh install to your first clickable command.

1. Install

Install Buttons for your editor:

VS Code — Install from the Marketplace
VSCodium — Install from Open VSX

2. Open a project

Open a folder in VS Code that contains scripts — any project with a package.json, Makefile, composer.json, or justfile works.

3. Open Buttons

Click the Buttons icon in the Activity Bar on the left, or the Buttons icon in the editor title bar (top-right, near “split editor”). Both open the same launcher and stay in sync.

4. Generate your buttons file

Opening a project never writes anything on its own. Click Generate in the Project scripts tab to scan the project and create a .buttons.json file with every discovered script.

On a fresh project, the Project scripts tab shows every discovered script with its checkboxes disabled until you generate the file.

5. Fine-tune

In the Project scripts tab, uncheck scripts you don’t want, or check newly-discovered ones.
In the Buttons tab, add custom commands with + Add command, or add notes to any row.

See Using Buttons for details.

6. Run a command

Switch to the Buttons tab. Each row gives you:

Run — run in the current integrated terminal.
New Terminal — run in a fresh terminal named Buttons: <label>.
Copy — copy the exact command to the clipboard.

The working directory is set to the script’s folder, so a script in a monorepo package runs in the right place.

Next steps

Using Buttons — the two tabs and two surfaces in detail.
Custom commands — add commands that aren’t in a script file.
FAQ — common questions about scanning, storage, and Rescan.
Troubleshooting — empty panels, missing scripts, and parse errors.