handling-extension-errors

What problem does it solve?

Visual Studio extensions are prone to crashes if errors are not properly handled. This guidance provides patterns to consistently log, report, and recover from exceptions across both in-process (VSSDK) and out-of-process (VisualStudio.Extensibility) models, including the Community Toolkit.

Core Features & Use Cases

• Centralized logging to Output Window, Activity Log, and TraceSource for diagnostic visibility.
• Severity-aware user notifications that balance disruption and information (status, info bars, or message boxes).
• Clear guidance for handling OperationCanceledException, async flows, and cross-model error reporting in production extensions.

Quick Start

Implement a robust error handling pattern in a VS extension that logs exceptions, notifies users appropriately, and recovers gracefully.