Streamline gitlab-vscode-extension development setup

Problem Statement

Engineers working on GitLab's editor extensions (gitlab-vscode-extension and gitlab-lsp) have to set up their development environment manually. They need to build gitlab-lsp separately and configure the extension to use the locally built artifacts. Based on a frontend engineer interview, initial setup can take around 2 hours.

Links

• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/editor-extensions/gitlab-lsp
• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-vscode-extension

Impact

The setup process involves multiple manual steps. It's not integrated into GDK like other GitLab components.

Proposal

Improve the editor extension development setup to reduce manual steps and setup time.

Options to explore:

• Add a setting in gdk.yml that enables and configures both gitlab-vscode-extension and gitlab-lsp
• Create a separate standalone development kit specifically for editor extension development (since editor extensions rarely need local GDK running and typically connect to gitlab.com for backend services)

Expected Outcome

• Setup time reduces to under 10 minutes
• Engineers can start editor extension development with a single configuration setting or dedicated development kit

Impacted categories

The following categories relate to this issue:

• gdk-reliability - e.g. When a GDK action fails to complete.
• gdk-usability - e.g. Improvements or suggestions around how the GDK functions.
• gdk-performance - e.g. When a GDK action is slow or times out.