How to Connect Visual Studio Code with Azure DevOps Git Repository

Visual Studio Code is a popular code editor that supports various languages and platforms. It has many features and extensions that make coding easier and faster. One of the features that Visual Studio Code provides is the integration with Git, which is a distributed version control system that allows you to track and manage your code changes.

Azure DevOps is a cloud service that offers various tools and services for software development, such as Azure Boards, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, Azure Test Plans, and Azure Artifacts. One of the services that Azure DevOps provides is Azure Repos, which is a cloud-hosted Git repository service that allows you to store and collaborate on your code.

In this blog post, we will show you how to connect Visual Studio Code with Azure DevOps Git repository using two methods: using the command line and using the Visual Studio Code extension.

Method 1: Using the Command Line

The first method is to use the command line to clone your Azure DevOps Git repository to your local machine and then open it in Visual Studio Code. Here are the steps to use this method:

Install and configure Git on your machine. You can follow this guide for more details: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git
Install and configure Visual Studio Code on your machine. You can follow this guide for more details: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/setup-overview
Log in to Azure DevOps and navigate to your project.
Select Repos from the left menu.
Select the Git repository that you want to clone from the drop-down menu at the top.
Click on Clone from the top menu.
Copy the HTTPS URL of your repository from the dialog box that appears.
Open a terminal or a command prompt on your machine and navigate to the folder where you want to clone your repository.
Run the following command:

git clone <your-repository-url>

git clone

This will clone your repository to your local folder.

Open Visual Studio Code and select File > Open Folder from the menu bar.
Browse to the folder where you cloned your repository and select it.
Click on Open to open your repository in Visual Studio Code.

You can now work on your code in Visual Studio Code and use the built-in Git features to commit, push, pull, merge, branch, etc.

Method 2: Using the Visual Studio Code Extension

The second method is to use the Visual Studio Code extension called Azure Repos, which allows you to connect to your Azure DevOps Git repository directly from Visual Studio Code. Here are the steps to use this method:

Install and configure Visual Studio Code on your machine if you haven’t done so already.
Install the Azure Repos extension from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. You can follow this guide for more details: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vsts.team
Open Visual Studio Code and select View > Command Palette from the menu bar.
Type “Team: Signin” in the command palette and press Enter.
Select “Azure Repos” from the list of options that appears.
A browser window will open where you can enter your credentials and authenticate with Azure DevOps.
After signing in, go back to Visual Studio Code and select View > Command Palette again.
Type “Team: Clone Repository” in the command palette and press Enter.
A list of your Azure DevOps projects will appear in a drop-down menu. Select the project that contains the Git repository that you want to clone.
A list of your Git repositories in that project will appear in another drop-down menu. Select the repository that you want to clone.
A dialog box will appear where you can choose a folder where you want to clone your repository. Select a folder or create a new one if needed.
Click on Clone to clone your repository to your local folder.

Your repository will be opened in Visual Studio Code automatically.

You can now work on your code in Visual Studio Code and use the built-in Git features or the Azure Repos extension features to commit, push, pull, merge, branch, etc.