MVC scaffolding for VS Code, Visual Studio-style

If you've ever worked on a .NET Core MVC project in VS Code, you already know the friction: Visual Studio users get a right-click → "Add New Scaffolded Item" wizard that generates a full controller and matching views in seconds; VS Code users get to type it all by hand. .NET Core MVC Scaffolding & Publishing (LeviBickel.net-core-mvc-scaffolding) closes that gap — and ships IIS Web Deploy publishing while it's at it. 1

Extension ID: LeviBickel.net-core-mvc-scaffolding · Publisher: LeviBickel (solo) · Version: v0.0.19 (2026-04-12) · IDE: VS Code · Language: C# / .NET Core · License: GPLv3 · Install from VS Code Marketplace

What the extension does

The Marketplace description puts it plainly: "Bring Visual Studio's powerful .NET Core MVC scaffolding and publishing capabilities to VS Code. This extension provides an intuitive right-click interface for generating MVC controllers, views, and publishing your applications to folders or IIS servers — just like in Visual Studio." 1

Three commands, all triggered from the Explorer context menu:

extension.scaffoldMVC — right-click a .cs model file to generate a scaffolded controller and CRUD views
extension.publishToFolder — right-click a .csproj to run dotnet publish to a local or network folder
extension.publishToIIS — right-click a .csproj to deploy to an IIS server via Web Deploy (MSDeploy)

Requirements: VS Code 1.95.0 or later, .NET SDK on PATH, and a .NET Core 6.0+ project structure. 1

MVC scaffold: right-click a model, get a controller and views

The scaffold command integrates with the dotnet-aspnet-codegenerator toolchain that ships with the ASP.NET Core SDK. Point it at a .cs model class and it generates a full CRUD controller plus five Razor views (Index, Create, Edit, Details, Delete) — the same output Visual Studio's scaffold dialog produces. 1

A typical session looks like this: you have a Product.cs model in Models/. Right-click it in the Explorer sidebar, select Scaffold MVC Controller/Views, and the extension prompts for a DbContext class name. Type AppDbContext (or the name from your project), confirm, and within a few seconds the project gains:

Controllers/
  ProductsController.cs   ← full CRUD with EF Core actions
Views/
  Products/
    Index.cshtml
    Create.cshtml
    Edit.cshtml
    Details.cshtml
    Delete.cshtml

The generated ProductsController.cs includes constructor injection of your DbContext, async LINQ queries for Index, and the [ValidateAntiForgeryToken] pattern on POST actions — the standard MVC boilerplate you'd otherwise write by hand or copy from a template. Early versions (v0.0.6+) also support supplying a custom DbContext name when your project has more than one. 1

Three-step workflow diagram: C# model file on the left, arrow to Controllers and Views folder structure in the center, arrow to IIS server icon on the right — AI-generated workflow diagram — C# model → scaffolded Controller + Views → IIS deployment.

IIS publish: a four-step wizard with credential isolation

The publish-to-IIS feature arrived in v0.0.17 and is where this extension earns its keep for teams that deploy to on-premises Windows Server. The release notes for that version describe it as "One-click deployment to IIS servers using Web Deploy (MSDeploy)" with "Secure credential storage using VS Code Secrets API (never stored in files)" and "Incremental deployment — only changed files are deployed." 1

Right-clicking a .csproj and selecting Publish to IIS gives you two paths:

Use an existing profile — the extension scans Properties/PublishProfiles/*.pubxml and lists any profiles already created, including those made in Visual Studio. Pick one, enter the password when prompted, and the deploy starts. 2

Create a new profile — a four-step interactive wizard collects:

Profile name (e.g. Production, Staging)
Server URL (e.g. https://yourserver:8172/msdeploy.axd)
IIS site name (e.g. Default Web Site/MyApp)
Username and password, with an optional "allow untrusted certificate" toggle

The resulting .pubxml file is safe to commit to source control — passwords never appear in it. Credentials are written to VS Code's Secrets API under the key iis-publish-{ProfileName}-password, encrypted at rest by the OS keychain. The documentation is explicit: "Never commit passwords to source control" / "Passwords stored in VS Code secure storage" / ".pubxml files safe to commit (no passwords)." 2

AI-generated illustration of the four-step IIS publish profile wizard.

The server side needs IIS with Web Deploy 3.6 or later and the Web Management Service (WMSvc) listening on port 8172. The extension also supports EnableMSDeployBackup for server-side snapshots and triggers an automatic IIS app pool restart after each deploy. For CI/CD, the project ships example workflows for both GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps Pipelines. 1

19 versions driven mostly by security patches

The version history reads less like a feature roadmap and more like a dependency audit log — and that's actually a mark of operational discipline for a production toolchain extension. 3

Since the initial v0.0.1 in 2024, at least 8 of the 19 releases were primarily security updates:

v0.0.10 (2025-01-13): patched 5 CVEs (tar-fs, js-yaml, glob, jws, qs) and compressed the extension package from 81.58 KB down to 8.08 KB — a 90% size reduction. 3
v0.0.13: fixed 7 dependency vulnerabilities
v0.0.15: addressed a minimatch ReDoS
v0.0.18 (2026-04-12): resolved 6 vulnerabilities including 4 rated High — flatted (Prototype Pollution/DoS), lodash (Code Injection/Prototype Pollution), picomatch (Method Injection/ReDoS), and multiple undici issues
v0.0.19 (2026-04-12): patched 5 more (fast-uri path traversal, brace-expansion DoS, qs null entry DoS, uuid buffer boundary check), with the Marketplace noting "Verified: Zero vulnerabilities detected" post-patch 1

The Marketplace page flags this directly: "This extension is actively maintained with regular security updates. All dependencies are kept up-to-date to ensure the safety of your development environment." 1

v0.0.16 is worth noting for a different reason: a cross-platform path bug where c:\ was being incorrectly serialized as c\: on Windows. The fix came with 28 automated tests covering Windows PowerShell, CMD, and Unix Bash/Zsh/Fish — the kind of test coverage that demonstrates the author takes edge cases seriously despite the zero-star GitHub status. 3

One honest caveat: the GitHub repository (34 commits, 0 stars, 0 forks, 0 issues) has zero community footprint. No third-party reviews, no forum threads, no known user base visible in public. The install count isn't retrievable — the shields.io Marketplace badge API was retired in 2026 and the Marketplace page doesn't display the figure directly. This is an early-stage, solo-maintained tool. The engineering quality holds up on inspection, but anyone deploying it to a production workflow should audit the generated scaffolding output before committing. 4

VS Code Explorer sidebar showing credential entries as asterisks, with a glowing padlock at the center and code fragments in the background — AI-generated illustration — IIS passwords stored as encrypted entries in VS Code's Secrets API, never written to disk.

Compatibility and requirements

Extension ID	`LeviBickel.net-core-mvc-scaffolding`
Current version	v0.0.19 (2026-04-12)
IDE	VS Code 1.95.0+
Target language	C# / ASP.NET Core MVC
Required runtime	.NET SDK on `PATH`, .NET Core 6.0+ project
Scaffold command	Right-click `.cs` model file
Publish commands	Right-click `.csproj` file
IIS server requirement	Web Deploy 3.6+, WMSvc on port 8172
Credential storage	VS Code Secrets API (OS keychain)
License	GPLv3
Pricing	Free
GitHub	34 commits, 0 stars (solo project)
Install count	Not publicly available

Sources: 1 4

Who should install this: VS Code users working on ASP.NET Core MVC projects who want the scaffolding shortcut Visual Studio offers — particularly on teams where some developers use VS Code and some use Visual Studio, since the shared .pubxml format means both sides can use the same publish profiles. The IIS Web Deploy workflow fills a gap that's not covered by the built-in .NET Install Tool or the official C# extension. The zero community footprint means you're adopting early. Test the scaffold output on a branch before wiring it into any CI pipeline. 1