Part 9: VSCode as the GitOps Cockpit

The whole point of the pipeline is that the interface to my infrastructure is a text editor. Edit a file, commit, and the fleet rebuilds. So VSCode is worth setting up deliberately, and its config is itself version-controlled in an itg-infra repo.

Config lives in git, not just on the laptop

I keep the workspace file, extension list, and user settings in itg-infra/vscode/ (ITG.code-workspace, extensions.json, user-settings.json). The subtlety: putting JSON in a repo does not mean VSCode reads it. VSCode reads from its own profile directory, so the git-controlled copies are the source of truth and I sync them into the live profile.

On a Mac, the live files are under ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/ (for example settings.json). There is a settings.json there, but note there is no matching extensions.json in that folder, extensions are tracked differently, so keeping a git-controlled extensions.json as a recommended-extensions manifest is the pragmatic move rather than expecting VSCode to consume it directly.

Commit-triggered push

The magic that makes it feel like a cockpit is auto-push on commit. VSCode's git integration has a git.postCommitCommand setting; set it to push (or sync) and every commit fires the push, which trips the Forgejo webhook, which runs the pipeline. Commit becomes deploy.

While you are in here: nano to vim, and the clock

Two small quality-of-life fixes that came up:

• systemctl edit opening nano drove me up a wall. Setting EDITOR and SYSTEMD_EDITOR=vim in /etc/environment (baked into the base, Part 1) fixes it fleet-wide.
• Pinning the timezone with the /etc/localtime symlink (also Part 1) means log timestamps and systemctl edit and everything else read in local time instead of UTC.

The naming convention

Somewhere in here I standardized on calling my specific Forgejo instance forge, not a generic "the git server." Small thing, but naming your own instance makes the runbooks and the mental model click.

Lessons

• Git-controlled editor config is the source of truth; sync it into VSCode's profile, do not assume VSCode reads your repo.
• git.postCommitCommand = push turns commit into deploy.
• Fix EDITOR/SYSTEMD_EDITOR in the base so the whole fleet stops handing you nano.