Keyboard shortcuts for AL in Visual Studio Code

2025-10-01

This article lists commonly used Visual Studio Code keyboard shortcuts for AL development—covering navigation, editing, building, publishing, debugging, and profiling. For the full, platform‑wide set of bindings, go to Key bindings for Visual Studio Code.

General in Visual Studio Code

Keyboard Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`P`	Show all commands
`Alt`+`F6`	Download source code.
`Alt`+`A`+`L`	AL Go! Generates a HelloWorld project.
`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`B`	Compile and package.
`F5`	Compile, Package, and Publish (with debugging).
`Ctrl`+`F5`	Build and publish without debugging. Note: The keyboard shortcut has a different meaning when debugging.
`F6`	Publish and open Designer.
`Ctrl`+`F2`	Update the compiler used by the service tier(s).

Note

With runtime 16, you can cancel an in‑progress publish. Hit the Cancel button in the dialog in the lower right corner. The operation stops packaging/upload steps as soon as possible; partial artifacts aren’t applied to the server.

Editing in Visual Studio Code

Keyboard Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl`+`Space`	Look up suggestions for the current object.
`Ctrl`+`X`	Cut.
`Ctrl`+`C`	Copy.
`Ctrl`+`V`	Paste.
`Ctrl`+`F2`	Select all occurrences.
`F12`	Go to definition
`Alt`+`F12`	Peek definition.
`Shift`+`F12`	Show references.
`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Space`	Look up parameter hints.
`Ctrl`+`K Ctrl`+`C`	Add line comment.
`Ctrl`+`K Ctrl`+`U`	Remove line comment.
`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`P`	Show all commands.
`F2`	Rename (use Enter to rename, use `Shift`+`Enter` to preview).
`Shift`+`Alt`+`E`	Look up events and insert event subscriber in code for a selected event.

Errors in Visual Studio Code

Keyboard Shortcut	Action
`F8`	Move to the next error or warning.
`Shift`+`F8`	Move to the previous error or warning.

Compile and publish in Visual Studio Code

Keyboard Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`B`	Compile and build the solution.
`Ctrl`+`F5`	Build and deploy.
`Shift`+`Alt`+`W`	Publish full dependency tree for the active project.

Debugging in Visual Studio Code

For articles on debugging in AL, see Debugging and Snapshot Debugging.

Keyboard Shortcut	Action
`F5`	Start debugging session
`Ctrl`+`F5`	Publish without building. Note: The keyboard shortcut has a different meaning when not debugging.
`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`F5`	Start RAD publishing without debugging.
`Alt`+`F5`	Start RAD with debugging.
`F7`	Start a snapshot debugging session.
`Shift`+`F7`	List all available snapshots.
`Alt`+`F7`	Finish a snapshot debugging session.

Profiling in Visual Studio Code

For more information about profiling, see AL Profiler Overview.

Keyboard Shortcut	Action
`Enter`	Expand and collapse a node.
`Left arrow`	Collapse a node.
`Right arrow`	Expand a node.
`-` (minus)	Collapse all nodes.
`*` (star)	Expand one level for all nodes. Consecutive keystrokes expand to the next level.

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