Publish an Azure DevOps extension from the command line

Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server | Azure DevOps Server 2022

Use the Cross-platform CLI for Azure DevOps (tfx-cli) to publish your extension to the Visual Studio Marketplace. For more information, see the overview of publish, install, and share.

Prerequisites

Acquire the Cross-platform CLI for Azure DevOps

1. If you don't have it, download and install NodeJS. During set up, ensure that you leave Add to PATH chosen.

2. Open a Command Prompt and enter npm i -g tfx-cli.

If you already have the TFX CLI installed, you can update to the latest release by running npm up -g tfx-cli.

Install the Cross-platform CLI for Azure DevOps

npm install -g tfx-cli

Publish with a Microsoft Entra token as a service principal

You can publish an extension as a service principal.

1. Add the service principal as a member to a publisher account. Get the service principal's ID through the REST API by signing in via the Azure CLI and querying the service principal's profile:

az login --service-principal --username <appId> --password <password> --tenant <tenant-id>
# 499b84ac-1321-427f-aa17-267ca6975798 specifies azure devops as a resource
az rest -u https://app.vssps.visualstudio.com/_apis/profile/profiles/me --resource 499b84ac-1321-427f-aa17-267ca6975798

# Variable block
$tenantId = "<tenant-id>"
$appId = "<appId>"
$password = "<password>"
$resource = "499b84ac-1321-427f-aa17-267ca6975798" # specifies azure devops
$url = "https://app.vssps.visualstudio.com/_apis/profile/profiles/me"

Connect-AzAccount -ServicePrincipal -Tenant $tenantId -ApplicationId $appId -Credential (New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($appId, (ConvertTo-SecureString $password -AsPlainText -Force)))

$accessToken = (Get-AzAccessToken -ResourceUrl $resource).Token
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Headers @{Authorization = "Bearer $accessToken"}
$response

Then, use the ID from the previous step to add the service principal as a member to the publisher.

1. Publish an extension via TFX CLI using a service principal. Run the following TFX CLI command to use its access token:

tfx extension publish --publisher my-publisher --vsix my-publisher.my-extension-1.0.0.vsix --auth-type pat -t <ENTRA_TOKEN>

Publish with a personal access token

Create a personal access token (PAT) with Marketplace (publish) scope.

After you install tfx-cli and have your PAT, package and publish your extension.

1. Open a command prompt to the root directory of your extension.
2. Run the following command to publish your extension. When prompted, enter your token to authenticate.

tfx extension publish --publisher <YOUR_PUBLISHER_ID> --manifest-js <YOUR_EXTENSION_MANIFEST> --share-with <ACCOUNT_NAME>

Potential errors

You might receive the following error if your extension is already published:

Failed Request: Internal Server Error(500) - Version number must increase each time an extension is published. Extension: fabrikam.my-extension  Current version: 0.1.9  Updated version: 0.1.9

Add the --rev-version flag to automatically increment the patch version of your extension. This flag also saves the new version to your manifest.

Example

C:\vso-team-calendar>tfx extension publish --publisher publishFabrikam --manifest-js fabrikam.config.js --share-with fabrikam --rev-version
Copyright Microsoft Corporation
> Personal access token:
Checking if this extension is already published
It is, update the extension
Waiting for server to validate extension package...
Sharing extension with fabrikam.

=== Completed operation: publish extension ===
 - Packaging: C:\vso-team-calendar\fabrikam.team-calendar-0.2.6.vsix
 - Publishing: success
 - Sharing: shared with fabrikam