Configuration and essential extensions

First launch

After installation, it's worth spending 15 minutes on configuration that will pay back in hours. In the Visual Studio Installer, for ZEUS work select these workloads:

ASP.NET and web development — backend and API.
.NET desktop development — supporting tools.
Data storage and processing — support for SQL/EF Core.

In VS Code you can automate extension installation via the .vscode/extensions.json file in the repository — then every new team member gets a prompt to install the same set.

{
  "recommendations": [
    "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint",
    "esbenp.prettier-vscode",
    "bradlc.vscode-tailwindcss",
    "ms-azuretools.vscode-docker",
    "github.vscode-pull-request-github"
  ]
}

Extensions — the ProfessNet standard

Extension	What for
ESLint	Linting the ZEUS frontend code
Prettier	Consistent formatting on save
Tailwind CSS IntelliSense	Class suggestions in Next.js
GitLens	Inline history and blame
Docker	Editing and inspecting containers
GitHub Pull Requests	Reviewing PRs without leaving the editor

For Visual Studio we recommend ReSharper or the built-in tools, plus EditorConfig (already supported natively) for a consistent style.

Format on save

Synchronize formatting across the whole team — no more diffs full of whitespace changes. In VS Code, in .vscode/settings.json:

{
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "editor.defaultFormatter": "esbenp.prettier-vscode",
  "editor.codeActionsOnSave": {
    "source.fixAll.eslint": "explicit"
  }
}

EditorConfig — a single source of truth

The .editorconfig file at the repo root works in both Visual Studio and VS Code. Keep it in Git so the rules apply to everyone.

root = true

[*]
charset = utf-8
indent_style = space
indent_size = 2
end_of_line = lf
insert_final_newline = true
trim_trailing_whitespace = true

[*.cs]
indent_size = 4

Tip: Settings in the .vscode/settings.json file (per-project) take precedence over your global ones. This way the repository enforces the style rather than relying on each person's configuration.

Theme and readability

Enable a font with ligatures (e.g. Fira Code, JetBrains Mono) and highlighting of the current line. These are small things, but over 8 hours a day they make a difference.

Summary

Keep configuration in the repository: .editorconfig, .vscode/settings.json and extensions.json. Then every clone of the ZEUS repo is ready to work in a few minutes, and the code style is uniform without manual setup.

Configuration and essential extensions#

First launch#

Extensions — the ProfessNet standard#

Format on save#

EditorConfig — a single source of truth#

Theme and readability#