Before starting, you will want to make sure that you have all of the build tools set up, and QMK Firmware cloned. Head to the [Newbs Getting Started Guide](newbs_getting_started.md) to get things set up, if you haven't already.
Now, we will set up the MSYS2 window to show up in VSCode as the integrated terminal. This has a number of advantages. Mostly, you can control+click on errors and jump to those files. This makes debugging much easier. It's also nice, in that you don't have to jump to another window.
If there are settings here already, then just add everything between the first and last curly brackets and separate the existing settings with a comma from the newly added ones.
?> If you installed MSYS2 to a different folder, then you'll need to change the path for `terminal.integrated.shell.windows` to the correct path for your system.
4. Hit Ctrl-<code>`</code> (Grave) to bring up the terminal or go to <kbd><kbd>View</kbd> > <kbd>Terminal</kbd></kbd> (command `workbench.action.terminal.toggleTerminal`). A new terminal will be opened if there isn‘t one already.
This should start the terminal in the workspace's folder (so the `qmk_firmware` folder), and then you can compile your keyboard.
## Every other Operating System
1. Head to [VS Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) and download the installer
2. Run the installer
3. That's it
No, really, that's it. The paths needed are already included when installing the packages, and it is much better about detecting the current workspace files and parsing them for IntelliSense.
This installs a bunch of Git related tools that may make using Git with QMK Firmware easier.
* [EditorConfig for VS Code](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=EditorConfig.EditorConfig) - _[Optional]_ - Helps to keep the code to the QMK Coding Conventions.
* [GitHub Markdown Preview](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=bierner.github-markdown-preview) - _[Optional]_ - Makes the markdown preview in VS Code more like GitHub's.
* [VS Live Share Extension Pack](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MS-vsliveshare.vsliveshare-pack) - _[Optional]_ - This extension allows somebody else to access your workspace (or you to access somebody else's workspace) and help out. This is great if you're having issues and need some help from somebody.
Using the [standard `compile_commands.json` database](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/JSONCompilationDatabase.html), we can get VS code C/C++ extension to use the exact same includes and defines used for your keyboard and keymap.
1. Run `qmk generate-compilation-database -kb <keyboard> -km <keymap>` to generate the `compile_commands.json`.
1. Create `.vscode/c_cpp_properties.json` with the following content:
Change values in `.vscode/c_cpp_properties.json` for your environment:
1. Copy the `-mmcu` argument from `compile_commands.json` into your `compilerArgs`. This is to work around a [bug in vscode c/c++ extension](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/issues/6478).
1. Use the `compilerPath` from `compile_commands.json`.
1. Modify `cStandard`, `cppStandard` and `intelliSenseMode` values to the correct values for your platform. See [this section](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/cpp/c-cpp-properties-schema-reference#_configuration-properties) for reference. For WSL, it should still be gcc-x64.
If the defines are not matching what you expect, open the source code and run action `C/C++: Log Diagnostics`. This will list the exact list of defines and include paths defined in `compile_commands.json`, and if it's not part of your compilation database, it will tell you so.
