JetBrains: C# tool ReSharper now also in the Open VSX Registry

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The software company JetBrains has announced that it has published its editor extension ReSharper in the Open VSX Registry. Previously, ReSharper was available for Microsoft's development environment Visual Studio via the Visual Studio Marketplace. Now, the code analysis and productivity tool for C#, Razor, Blazor, and XAML can also be downloaded and updated via the Open VSX Registry for Visual Studio Code, Cursor, and other editors.

Automatic Updates

JetBrains decided to take this step according to the announcement to make it easier for users of Cursor, Windsurf, and VSCodium to use ReSharper. While these could use ReSharper under certain circumstances, they had to download a platform-specific .vsix file and manually install a new ReSharper version with each update. Due to a lack of update notifications, users often remained on older versions.

ReSharper in the Open VSX Registry

The Open VSX Registry is an open-source project by the Eclipse Foundation, serving as an alternative to Microsoft's Visual Studio Marketplace. The Open VSX Working Group has been responsible for it since June 2023. Now, ReSharper joins the existing extensions there, currently marked as "Public Preview". Among other things, ReSharper offers the ability to detect and fix code issues with real-time suggestions and to enforce consistent analysis rules across the entire development team.

As long as the preview phase is ongoing, ReSharper will be available free of charge. Thereafter, it will become part of the dotUltimate subscription, with a free edition for non-commercial use also being an option.

Streamlined Binaries

Since a published binary in the Open VSX Registry can be a maximum of 256 MB, an architectural change was necessary. The ReSharper .vsix file for Windows ARM64 had a size of 275 MB, and other versions were also close to the limit and could quickly exceed it in the future. Therefore, JetBrains decided to develop a more lightweight core that downloads larger components from the JetBrains download server on the first start. These include the ReSharper Language Server and the .NET Runtime.

The disadvantages resulting from this are a longer initial startup of the extension and the one-time necessity of an existing internet connection with unrestricted access to the server https://download.jetbrains.com. After the components have been successfully downloaded, the extension is fully functional even without an internet connection, according to the provider.

The community can leave feedback under the JetBrains blog entry or in the issue tracker on YouTrack.

(mai)