Explorer View

Thursday, the 26th of February, 2026
Mickaël CANOUIL, Ph.D. ORCID
Independent Contractor

The Quarto Wizard Explorer View provides a dedicated interface for managing installed Quarto extensions across your workspace folders, including extension metadata, compatibility, schema contributions, and snippets.

Opening the Explorer View

There are two ways to open the Explorer View:

  1. Click the Quarto Wizard icon in the Activity Bar (sidebar).
  2. Use the Command Palette: Quarto Wizard: Focus on Extensions Installed View.

Interface Overview

The Quarto Wizard Explorer View showing workspace folders, installed extensions, extension details (including Quarto compatibility), and nested Schema and Snippets nodes. The Quarto Wizard Explorer View showing workspace folders, installed extensions, extension details (including Quarto compatibility), and nested Schema and Snippets nodes.

The Explorer View displays:

  • Workspace folders: Each folder in your workspace that can contain extensions.
  • Installed extensions: Extensions found in the _extensions directory.
  • Extension details: Metadata rows such as title, author, version, quarto-required, compatibility, contributes (filters, shortcodes, formats, etc.), repository, and source.
  • Schema contributions: A Schema node when the extension provides a valid _schema.yml, _schema.yaml, or _schema.json.
  • Extension snippets: A Snippets node when snippets are declared via _snippets.json.
  • Version information: Current version and available updates.
  • Action buttons: Quick access to common operations.

Extension Status Indicators

Extensions may display different indicators:

  • Update available: A cloud icon indicates a newer version is available.
  • Warning state: A warning icon indicates an _extension.yml parse error, missing source information, or an incompatible quarto-required constraint.

Compatibility Status

When an extension is expanded, the details include:

  • Quarto required: The extension quarto-required constraint from _extension.yml.
  • Compatibility: One of compatible, incompatible, not specified, or unknown (Quarto unavailable).

If compatibility is incompatible, Quarto Wizard adds a warning on the extension item and details in the tooltip.

An expanded extension showing a warning icon, metadata rows including Quarto required and Compatibility set to incompatible, and a tooltip with the version mismatch message. An expanded extension showing a warning icon, metadata rows including Quarto required and Compatibility set to incompatible, and a tooltip with the version mismatch message.

Schema and Snippet Nodes

If an extension includes schema contributions, the Explorer View shows a Schema node with grouped sections:

  • Options.
  • Shortcodes.
  • Formats.
  • Projects.
  • Element Attributes.

If the schema file cannot be parsed, the tree displays Schema (invalid) with a warning.

An expanded extension showing a Schema node with grouped sections for Options, Shortcodes, Formats, and Element Attributes, each listing their fields and types. An expanded extension showing a Schema node with grouped sections for Options, Shortcodes, Formats, and Element Attributes, each listing their fields and types.

If an extension includes snippets, the Explorer View shows a Snippets node with one item per snippet definition. Each snippet entry displays its namespace-qualified trigger prefix. Hovering over a snippet item shows a tooltip with its description and a preview of its content. Selecting a snippet inserts its content into the active editor. If no editor is open, a prompt asks you to open a file first. If snippets cannot be parsed, the tree displays Snippets (invalid) with a warning.

An expanded extension showing a Snippets node with snippet entries and a tooltip previewing the snippet content. An expanded extension showing a Snippets node with snippet entries and a tooltip previewing the snippet content.

Available Actions

Workspace Folder Actions

For each workspace folder, you can:

  • Install Extensions: Add new extensions to the folder.
  • Use Template: Install a template and copy its files.
  • Remove Multiple: Select and remove multiple extensions at once.

Extension Actions

For each installed extension, you can:

  • Update: Download and install the latest version (if outdated).
  • Remove: Delete the extension from the _extensions directory.
  • Open Source: View the extension’s GitHub repository (if source is available).
  • Reveal in Explorer View: Open the extension folder in the file explorer.

Snippet Actions

For each snippet entry shown under an extension, you can:

  • Insert Snippet: Insert the selected snippet at the cursor position in the active editor.

Toolbar Actions

The view toolbar provides:

  • Install Extensions: Open the extension browser.
  • Use Template: Open the template browser.
  • Update All: Update all outdated extensions in the workspace.
  • Refresh: Reload the list of installed extensions.

The tree updates automatically after installations, updates, removals, and local file changes. Use Refresh when you need to force a manual reload.

Update Detection

Quarto Wizard can detect when updates are available for your installed extensions.

Important

Extensions can only be updated if they were installed by Quarto Wizard or have source: <owner>/<repository> in their _extension.yml file. You can manually add the source field to enable update detection.

Visibility

The Explorer View panel is only visible when at least one workspace folder is open. If no extensions are installed, the view displays a welcome message with links to install extensions, use a template, or browse the extensions directory.

Context Menu

Right-click on an extension to access additional options:

  • Update (if available).
  • Remove.
  • Open Source (if source is available).
  • Reveal in Explorer View.

The context menu showing Quarto Wizard options for installing extensions and using templates. The context menu showing Quarto Wizard options for installing extensions and using templates.

You can also access Quarto Wizard commands from the editor context menu:

The editor context menu showing Quarto Wizard options for installing extensions and using templates. The editor context menu showing Quarto Wizard options for installing extensions and using templates.

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