The problem with opening Finder folders in VS Code
The typical way to open a project folder in VS Code from Finder involves either dragging the folder to VS Code's Dock icon, running code . in the terminal after navigating there, or using VS Code's File → Open dialog. None of these feel native to Finder. PowerClick adds Open in Editor directly to Finder's right-click context menu so the action is always one right-click away.
How to open in VS Code from Finder
- Install PowerClick from the Mac App Store and enable the Finder extension.
- Right-click any file or folder in Finder.
- Choose Open in Editor from the PowerClick submenu.
- VS Code (or your configured editor) opens the file or folder immediately.
No need to install the code shell command. PowerClick uses macOS's native app launch mechanism.
Supported editors
PowerClick detects which code editors are installed on your Mac and lists them in the Open in Editor submenu. Supported editors include:
- Visual Studio Code
- VS Code Insiders
- Cursor
- Zed
- Sublime Text
- Atom
- TextEdit
- Any other app registered as a text editor on your Mac
Works on files and folders
Open in Editor works for both individual files and entire folders. Right-clicking a folder opens it as a workspace in VS Code. Right-clicking a file opens just that file. This makes it easy to jump from browsing a project in Finder to editing it in VS Code without any intermediate steps.
Setting a default editor
If you use one editor most of the time, set it as the default in the PowerClick dashboard's Editor settings. Open in Editor then launches straight into that app with a single click instead of showing the full list of installed editors every time. You can still access the full editor list from the submenu when you occasionally need to open a file in a different app.
Open in Editor vs. the "code ." command
Developers who already have the VS Code code command installed in their shell PATH can type code . from Terminal to open the current directory. Open in Editor covers the same result without needing Terminal open at all, without needing the shell command installed, and without leaving Finder — useful when you're browsing files rather than already in a terminal session, or when working on a Mac where the code command was never set up.
Troubleshooting Open in Editor
If an editor doesn't appear in the Open in Editor submenu, PowerClick likely hasn't detected it as a registered text editor on your Mac. Reopening the PowerClick dashboard refreshes the detected editor list. If the PowerClick submenu is missing entirely from the right-click menu, confirm the Finder extension is enabled in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Extensions → Finder Extensions, then relaunch Finder from Activity Monitor.