Best Visual Studio Code Tools for Laravel & Vue.js Projects

If you're building apps with Laravel + Vue.js, VS Code can become your powerhouse—but only if you use the right extensions. Let’s start with the most important ones.

⭐ Top Extensions You Need to Install First

These 7 essential extensions are the bare minimum to streamline your Laravel + Vue.js development experience. Install these before any others.

1. PHP Intelephense

Purpose: PHP auto-completion, go-to-definition, and linting
Install from Marketplace

2. Laravel Blade Snippets

Purpose: Blade syntax highlighting and snippets
Install from Marketplace

3. Laravel Extra Intellisense

Purpose: Autocomplete for Laravel routes, config, and facades
Install from Marketplace

4. Laravel Artisan

Purpose: Run php artisan commands from inside VS Code
Install from Marketplace

5. Volar (Vue 3) OR Vetur (Vue 2)

⚠️ Use only one: Volar (for Vue 3) or Vetur (for Vue 2)

6. Vue VSCode Snippets

Purpose: Type vbase, vmodel, vfor for instant Vue component scaffolds
Install from Marketplace

7. Prettier – Code Formatter

Purpose: Auto-format Vue, JS, Blade, PHP, CSS on save
Install from Marketplace

📦 Other Helpful Extensions (Optional but Recommended)

Icon	Name	Why Use It
📏	ESLint	Find and fix JS/Vue code errors
📂	Path Intellisense	Autocomplete file paths
🌱	DotENV	Highlight .env files
🔍	GitLens	Git blame, commit history
🟨	Bracket Pair Colorizer 2	Visualize nested brackets clearly

🛠 Recommended Settings

Update your settings.json In VS Code for smoother development:

{
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "files.autoSave": "onFocusChange",
  "intelephense.environment.phpVersion": "8.1",
  "volar.takeOverMode.enabled": true
}

✅ Conclusion

By installing these top Laravel + Vue.js VS Code extensions, you’ll:

🚀 Write faster, cleaner code
🧠 Avoid syntax and logic errors
🔧 Work efficiently across backend and frontend

Start with these essentials and scale up your dev environment like a pro.

Souy Soeng