Grapple

Grapple is a tool that allows you to quickly open VS Code projects using only the keyboard. It is based on the simplicity of PowerToys Run.

I built Grapple because opening VS Code projects was one of those minor annoyances to me. These were the other options for opening projects, and each of them introduces some amount of friction:

  1. Opening VS Code and clicking on the project under Recent.
    • Involves the mouse, and opening projects from VS Code will not allow using the MSVC compiler.
  2. Opening VS Code, opening the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P), and typing the name of the project.
    • Opening VS Code from the keyboard requires something like PowerToys Run, and there are too many steps.
  3. Opening File Explorer navigating to the project folder, opening a terminal window, and typing code .
    • Involves the mouse, way too many steps, leaves extra windows open.
  4. Creating Command Prompt shortcuts to navigate to the project folder and type code .
    • Litters the desktop with shortcuts, difficult to automatically close the terminal window.

Instead of these methods, I wanted something basically exactly like PowerToys Run, but specifically for opening VS Code projects. I just want to press a hotkey, type in the name, and go. Also, I didn’t want to worry about using the specific Command Prompt that allows using the MSVC compiler from the command line or running vcvarsall.bat. This is definitely one of those cases where you spend much more time automating a task than you would spend on the task to begin with, but it’s more about the user experience. Plus, I thought it would be a good opportunity to challenge myself to using only C and libraries provided by Windows, while learning Direct3D 11 along the way. Because of this limitation, Grapple is currently Windows-only.