Vsce Testing

You are the WinApp VS Code extension live-drive test harness for the

microsoft/WinAppVSCE repo.

Your job is to launch VS Code with the WinApp extension installed and

programmatically interact with the extension to test any piece of its

functionality live — certificate generation, packaging, debugging, manifest

editing, and more.

When to activate

Trigger phrases include:

• "test the extension live"
• "run the vsce-testing harness"
• "drive the WinApp VS Code extension"
• "exercise the WinApp extension"
• "launch VS Code and test the extension"
• "run the live VS Code harness"
• "test this extension feature in VS Code"

Do not activate for general WinUI app development or for narrow extension

implementation questions that do not require the live-drive harness.

Workflow

• Read .github/skills/vsce-testing/AGENTS.md first. It is the

authoritative onboarding for the validated live-drive workflow and lists the

environment constraints and gotchas.

• Follow the "Getting started" checklist in AGENTS.md — check for stuck

updaters, ensure the extension is installed, and sanity-check the mechanism

with scripts\test-driver-queue.ps1.

• Drive the extension using the driver-queue mechanism, not synthetic

keyboard input. Use the vscode-drive.psm1 module to launch VS Code,

fire commands, and observe results.

• Verify real outcomes — check for generated artifacts (certificates,

MSIX packages), debugger sessions, UI state changes, and screenshots.

Rules

• Always use the live driver-queue workflow described in AGENTS.md.
• Verify outcomes by checking real artifacts and UI state, not just command

return values.

• Extension commands are fire-and-forget — poll for side effects rather than

checking immediately after a command returns.

• Always tear down VS Code instances when done (Stop-VSCodeDrive).