Version: 1.1.0 | Author: Jadhav Shubhamm | License: MIT
VS Code Compatibility: ^1.90.0 | Publisher: codefox

A VS Code extension whose entire UI lives in a sidebar. It authenticates to a Dynamics 365 / Dataverse environment, exports (downloads) a solution through the Dataverse Web API, and unpacks it into source files with a self-managed SolutionPackager.exe — without ever deleting existing files.

Install

Install from the Visual Studio Marketplace:

Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=codefox.d365-solutions-unpacking-agent-vscode
Unique Identifier: codefox.d365-solutions-unpacking-agent-vscode

Or from the command line:

code --install-extension codefox.d365-solutions-unpacking-agent-vscode

Features

Sidebar-first experience — the entire workflow lives in a dedicated Activity Bar view; no extra windows or panels to manage.
Secure interactive sign-in — MSAL browser sign-in (authorization code + PKCE over a loopback redirect) with a session cached for up to 24 hours and reused across all API calls.
One-click solution export — list your environment's solutions and export any of them as Managed or Unmanaged via the Dataverse Web API.
Choose your download location — the exported .zip is written to the folder you select.
Non-destructive unpacking — extraction runs with /allowDelete:No, so existing files on disk that aren't in the zip are always preserved.
Self-managed tooling — automatically downloads and caches SolutionPackager.exe from the Microsoft.CrmSdk.CoreTools NuGet package, with in-sidebar version display, update checks, and one-click updates.
Bring your own packager — point the extension at an existing SolutionPackager.exe with a single setting override.
Native VS Code theming & security — the webview follows your VS Code theme and is locked down with a strict CSP + nonce, with no direct network or filesystem access of its own.

What it does & how

Authenticate — interactive browser sign-in (MSAL, authorization code + PKCE over a loopback redirect). The session is cached for up to 24 hours and reused for all API calls. It ends on manual sign-out, when the 24h limit is reached, or when Azure AD expires the refresh token (environment timeout).
Export — calls the Dataverse ExportSolution action for the selected solution as managed or unmanaged.
Download — writes the returned .zip to the folder you choose.

Unpack — runs:

SolutionPackager.exe /action:Extract /zipfile:<downloaded.zip> /folder:"<extract folder>" \
  /packagetype:<Managed|Unmanaged> /allowWrite:Yes /allowDelete:No /errorlevel:Info /nologo

/allowDelete:No guarantees that files already on disk but not present in the zip are preserved.

Self-managed SolutionPackager

The agent downloads the latest Microsoft.CrmSdk.CoreTools NuGet package from nuget.org and caches SolutionPackager.exe (plus its dependencies) in the extension's global storage. The sidebar shows the active version and lets you Check for updates and Download / Update at any time.

To use your own copy instead, set d365UnpackingAgent.solutionPackager.pathOverride to an absolute exe path.