How can I download .vsix files now that the Visual Studio Code Marketplace no longer supplies them in-browser? [closed]

Question

I need to download .vsix versions of extensions for my coding environment (Python and Pylance) on an offline machine, but there does not appear to be a way to do so.

The official instructions appear to be out of date and so do answers to a similar question. Is Microsoft no longer allowing .vsix downloads directly? The method from the older question does download the VSIXPackage but this doesn't seem to be the intended way. What happened?

Answer 1

You can construct the .vsix download URL by hand.

1. Get extension's "Unique Identifier", and split it into two parts along the .:

   eg. ms-python.python becomes ms-python and python

2. Get a version from "Version History" tab on marketplace.

   eg. 2024.17.2024100401

3. Determine the binary type that you need. Skip this step if this extension is "Universal". Note that some extensions do not support all binary types.

   Binary type	targetPlatform
   Alpine Linux 64 bit	alpine-x64
   Alpine Linux ARM64	alpine-arm64
   Linux ARM32	linux-armhf
   Linux ARM64	linux-arm64
   Linux x64	linux-x64
   Windows ARM	win32-arm64
   Windows x64	win32-x64
   macOS Apple Silicon	darwin-arm64
   macOS Intel	darwin-x64

4. Combine

   https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/_apis/public/gallery/publishers/ms-python/vsextensions/python/2024.17.2024100401/vspackage?targetPlatform=win32-x64

   The ?targetPlatform=win32-x64 part is optional, if your extension is universal.

In Python:

unique_identifier = 'ms-python.python'
version = '2024.17.2024100401'
target_platform = 'win32-x64'

publisher, package = unique_identifier.split('.')
url = (
    f'https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/_apis/public/gallery/publishers/{publisher}/vsextensions/{package}/{version}/vspackage'
    + (f'?targetPlatform={target_platform}' if target_platform else ''))
print(url)

Answer 2

There a Chrome extension to add the VSIX download option to the VS Code marketplace