Bruin VS Code Extension

What is this? A guide to installing and using the Bruin VS Code extension. The extension provides a visual interface for managing your data pipelines directly inside VS Code - run pipelines, view asset lineage, preview query results, and manage connections without leaving your editor.

What you'll learn: How to install the extension, run pipelines from the editor, view asset dependencies with the lineage graph, and preview SQL query results.

What you'll build: Nothing to build - this tutorial gets you set up with the extension and walks you through its key features so you can use it alongside the CLI in your daily workflow.

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Full tutorial

Below is the complete tutorial you can read through, or use the step-by-step version above.

Install the extension

1. Open VS Code
2. Go to the Extensions panel (click the Extensions icon in the sidebar or press Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X)
3. Search for Bruin
4. Click Install

The extension activates automatically when you open a folder containing a .bruin.yml file.

Run a pipeline

Once installed, you'll see a Bruin icon in the VS Code sidebar. Click it to open the Bruin panel.

From the panel:

• Set the start date and end date for your data ingestion
• Select Run from the dropdown to execute the entire pipeline

The extension runs the pipeline using the Bruin CLI under the hood, so you get the same behavior as running bruin run from the terminal.

View lineage

Open any asset file (SQL or YAML) and click Lineage in the Bruin panel. This shows a visual graph of the asset's dependencies - which assets feed into it and which assets depend on it.

Lineage helps you understand the impact of changes. Before modifying an asset, check its lineage to see what downstream assets might be affected.

Preview query results

Open a SQL asset and click the play icon in the Query Preview section. The extension runs the SQL query and displays the results in a table directly inside VS Code.

This is useful for iterating on SQL transformations - you can edit the query, preview the results, and see the impact immediately without switching to a terminal or database client.

Add connections

The extension provides a visual interface for managing connections. Instead of editing .bruin.yml manually, you can add PostgreSQL, DuckDB, BigQuery, and other connections through a form interface.