Official Kotlin Support for Visual Studio Code Is Now Available in Alpha

Today at KotlinConf 2026, we announced the Alpha release of the official Kotlin extension for Visual Studio Code.

IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio remain the most complete environments for Kotlin development. But not every Kotlin developer works there every day. Some prefer VS Code, or already have it as part of their setup. Kotlin by JetBrains is an extension for those developers: official Kotlin language support in VS Code, powered by the Kotlin Language Server, with core features for reading, writing, and navigating Kotlin code.

What you get

The Kotlin by JetBrains extension connects VS Code to the Kotlin Language Server built on IntelliJ IDEA’s code-insight infrastructure and the Kotlin plugin implementation.

In practice, this means Kotlin-aware features in VS Code are backed by the same foundation we use for Kotlin support in IntelliJ IDEA. The Alpha release includes core editor support such as code completion, diagnostics, navigation, quick fixes, formatting, and project import.

For the full list of supported features, see the Kotlin by JetBrains extension page on the Visual Studio Marketplace.

To get started, install the extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace, open a Kotlin project, and start coding.

Part of a broader Kotlin tooling effort

This release is part of our ongoing work to support Kotlin developers across different tools and workflows.

Earlier this year, we introduced the Java to Kotlin Converter extension for VS Code, which helps developers convert Java files to Kotlin without leaving their editor. Kotlin by JetBrains continues that effort by bringing language-aware Kotlin editing support to VS Code.

Developers using other editors that support the Language Server Protocol can also try the Kotlin Language Server, but setup is manual and requires an editor with pull-based diagnostics support.

Help shape Kotlin support in VS Code

This is an Alpha release, so your feedback is especially important at this stage. Try it in your own projects and let us know what works well, what breaks, and what’s missing from your workflow. 

Please report any issues or share your feedback in our GitHub repository.