---
title: Use Hen in VS Code
description: Author `.hen` files with validation, completions, hovers, and inspect-powered tooling.
---
The VS Code extension provides a rich authoring experience for `.hen` files.
## What you get
- semantic highlighting for core Hen constructs
- hover help for directives and response-path accessors
- context-aware completions for imports, request references, schema targets, auth or session names, and response roots
- document links and go-to-definition for fragments and named references
- continuous import diagnostics, including missing targets and cycles
- Hen file icons for `.hen` files
## Install locally
From the repository root:
```bash
cd editors/vscode-hen
npm run package
```
That produces a `.vsix` bundle in `editors/vscode-hen/`. Install it from VS Code with
**Extensions: Install from VSIX...**.
## How it fits with the CLI
Use the extension for day-to-day authoring, then use:
- `hen verify` for authoritative validation
- `hen inspect --output json` when tooling needs machine-readable authoring data