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Installing the Extension

Install the Mobile Development Kit Editor extension in Visual Studio Code and to start developing or modifying your apps quickly and efficiently.

Prerequisites

To develop, modify or debug an app, you must have the following:

  • Mac or Windows environment
  • Visual Studio Code version higher than 1.68.0

To debug an app, you must have the following:

  • Xcode, which finds the corresponding iOS simulator. Debugging iOS requires running Visual Studio Code in Mac environment.
  • Android Studio, which finds the corresponding Android emulator. Debugging Android can be done both in Windows and Mac environment.
  • A mobile development kit client created using create-client command that can be run in an appropriate environment.
  • NativeScript installed. To ensure you have the correct version of NativeScript installed, please use the Dependency Installer. Link to Tutorial.

Procedure

  1. Launch Visual Studio Code.
  2. Install the Mobile Development Kit Editor extension directly from the Microsoft Visual Studio Code marketplace.
  3. You can also download and install the latest version of vsix package folder (vsc-extension-mdk) from the SAP Marketplace. This folder contains various releases of mobile development kit extension. To install the extension from a local file, select Extensions > Install from VSIX.
  4. Reload Visual Studio Code to enable the extension if prompted. A new language mode called mobile development kit is attached to any open mobile development kit metadata file.

After the extension is installed and activated, it automatically checks for all required prerequisites. If anything is missing, a Setup panel opens. The setup panel handles everything:

  • Missing VS Code extensions (Cloud Foundry Tools, Application Wizard) are installed with a single click.
  • The @SAP/generator-mdk package is installed automatically via an integrated terminal task running npm install -g @SAP/generator-mdk.
  • CF CLI guidance is tailored to your operating system (Windows or macOS).
  • After installation, the extension re-validates your environment automatically.

Once all prerequisites are in place, the Setup panel displays a status summary showing each prerequisite, its installed version, and whether updates are available. The MDK Ready indicator in the status bar confirms your environment is ready.

Commands

The mobile development kit extension provides the following commands for managing prerequisites. You can access them via View > Command Palette.

Command Description
MDK: Open Setup Opens the MDK setup wizard panel that guides you through installing and configuring all required prerequisites for the extension, such as CLI tools, dependencies, and environment setup.
MDK: Check Prerequisites Scans the system to verify which prerequisites are installed, checks for available updates, and displays a summary showing missing prerequisites (with a prompt to open setup), available updates for installed tools, or confirmation that all prerequisites are satisfied.

Note

The two commands work together: use MDK: Check Prerequisites to identify what is missing or outdated, and MDK: Open Setup to install or configure the required prerequisites through an interactive wizard.

Last update: September 24, 2026