Microsoft Reactor

​Erich Gamma once called VS Code an overnight success 10 years in the making.

​Those 10 years were pretty eventful. Before becoming one of the most widely used developer tools in the world, VS Code started with a small team building online developer tools out of Zurich, called itself Monaco, then Visual Studio Online Monaco, then Ticino (because why not?), became a desktop editor, went open source, became an ecosystem in its own right, went back to the browser, and helped establish a whole bunch of open protocols along the way.

​And just when it felt like the hard part was done, AI happened.

​This is the story of how VS Code got here, told by the people who built it and the developers who helped shape it. And now, how it’s adapting once again as AI changes what a code editor can be.

​The Story of VS Code was directed & produced by Stefan Kingham, with the help of a global team of videographers. Filming took place from November 2024 to mid-2026. Stefan would like to thank Microsoft, GitHub, Meta, Red Hat, GitKraken, Ona, and AG Grid for helping bring this story to life.

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