asyncapi-preview

AsyncAPI Preview

Preview AsyncAPI documents inside VSCode.

AsyncAPI Preview was simplified and reworked from scratch to use the latest @asyncapi/asyncapi-react, removing old dependencies on Express, socket.io and js-yaml with better startup performance and bundle size.

You can open AsyncAPI Preview from the editor title/context menu. (If you don't see that button, you can use shift+command+P to open command palette and select Preview AsyncAPI)

Web Extension Compatibility

The extension now runs in the web version of VS Code i.e. directly in your browser on vscode.dev, github.dev, gitlab.com/-/ide, gitpod.io, and other cloud development environments, as well as a local browser host for development.

Key Benefits

• No install required: open a repo in your browser and preview AsyncAPI files without a desktop VS Code.
• Works on vscode.dev, github.dev, GitLab Web IDE, Gitpod & more: perfect for quick reviews during PRs or exploring examples.
• Consistent experience: same preview workflow on desktop and web.

Usage

A) On vscode.dev / github.dev

• Open your repo:
  • https://vscode.dev/github// (or use the . keyboard shortcut on GitHub to open github.dev).
• Install AsyncAPI Preview in that browser session (Command Palette → "Extensions: Install from VSIX…" if you're side-loading, or from Marketplace once the web-ready version is published).
• Open an *.yaml / *.yml (or JSON) AsyncAPI file.
• Run AsyncAPI: Preview Document from the Command Palette (⇧⌘P / Ctrl+Shift+P).

B) Locally in a browser (dev/test)

• Install dependencies & build:

npm install
npm run build

• Add a dev script to package.json to launch a web host:

{
  "scripts": {
    "open-in-browser": "vscode-test-web --extensionDevelopmentPath=. --port=8082 ."
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@vscode/test-web": "^1.x.x"
  }
}

Then:

npm run open-in-browser

This opens a web VS Code at http://localhost:8082. Open a workspace/folder that contains your AsyncAPI YAMLs, then run AsyncAPI: Preview Document.

Tip: If you don’t see the preview, ensure your file’s language mode is YAML (bottom-right of the status bar), and check Developer: Show Running Extensions to confirm activation.

Technical Changes

• Removed Node-only modules (e.g., direct path/fs usage).
• Introduced a lightweight pathUtils.ts for browser-safe path handling.
• Updated VS Code engine/types to enable web extension support.
• Removed unmaintained or web-incompatible pieces (e.g., legacy visualizer & Node-specific deps) to simplify the runtime and reduce bundle size.

Current limitations

• The web host cannot use Node APIs; all file access must go through vscode.workspace.fs.
• Auto-reload works on the active document save; changes to externally referenced files may not hot-reload yet.
• vscode.dev can’t read your local disk—open files from a GitHub repo or use File → Open File… (upload) for one-off files.

Automatic hot-reloading

Automatic hot-reloading on editor save, but currently, it doesn't reload when saving referenced external files.

Content Assistance

Available snippets

Open an empty or otherwise yaml file and start typing one of the following prefixes, you may need to press Ctrl+space to trigger autocompletion in some cases:

• add asyncapi skeleton: Adds an asyncapi skeleton for jump starting your API editing.
• add asyncapi subscribe to async request: Inserts a new subscribe operation, for listening to incoming async requests/commands.
• add asyncapi publish event operation: Inserts a new publish operation, for producing domain events.
• add asyncapi message: Inserts a new message, you can choose it to be either a Request or an Event.

Once snippets are inserted use the <TAB> key to travel between snippet placeholders.

Paste as Schema

You can also autogenerate an Schema object from a JSON example.

Right-click inside #/components/schemas section and choose AsyncAPI: Paste as Schema from the context menu.

Credits

AsyncAPI Viewer utilizes the following open source projects:

• @asyncapi/asyncapi-react

Contributors

Ivan Garcia Sainz-Aja ivangsa Ruchi Pakhle Ruchip16