How to use Visual Studio Code with Premake and Clangd

created: 2026-1-23

If you hate using CMake then Premake is a much better alternative.
I've made a Premake module that generates a visual studio code project:
https://github.com/Enhex/premake-vscode

Microsoft blocked its vscode C++ development extensions on
versions of vscode that aren't theirs like code-oss and vscodium
to hurt their AI competition.
So to have fully featured C++ code editor other extensions can be used,
specifically Clangd for code editing and LLDB for debugging.

Install the Clangd extension:
https://open-vsx.org/extension/llvm-vs-code-extensions/vscode-clangd

For Clangd to work it needs to be given a compile_commands.json file.
to generate it use:
https://github.com/Enhex/premake-export-compile-commands

For LLDB install the following vscode extension:
https://open-vsx.org/extension/vadimcn/vscode-lldb