Panel Views

The nRF Connect for VS Code extension pack provides several custom Views and terminal profiles in this area that are specific to the nRF Connect for VS Code extension pack, alongside the standard VS Code Views (such as Problems, Output, and Debug Console).

The options in the Panel Toolbar change depending on which Panel View you have selected.

nRF Connect and nRF Terminal profiles

The extension comes with several custom options that are available from the Launch Profile... drop-down list (the arrow next to the plus sign icon) located in the Panel Toolbar area.

The following custom options are available:

Action	Description
nRF Connect	Opens an nRF Connect terminal profile that is configured to work with west and the rest of the nRF Connect Toolchain and nRF Connect SDK environment. Alternatively, run the nRF Connect: Create Shell Terminal command from the Command Palette.
nRF RTT Terminal	Establishes a connection to the board through RTT if it is supported on the selected device. Selecting this option frees a UART port that the serial port would use. However, you always need a SEGGER J-Link debugger connected for RTT to work.
nRF Serial Terminal	Establishes a connection to the board through the serial port if it is supported on the selected device.

The RTT and serial connection options correspond to the options available from Connected Devices View. You can also start them from the Command Palette using nRF Terminal commands. Regardless of how you start them, the connections use the default configuration value presets.

If you lose your serial connection, for example when your device loses power, it will be automatically restored when the cause of the interruption is solved, as long as you do not close the connection window. This functionality is not available for the RTT terminal, which has to be reconnected manually.

Serial connection monitoring

Once connected, you can monitor the RTT or serial connection status from the Status Bar. You can start several connections at a time and move the connection windows to different parts of the UI.

nRF Connect terminal profile dependencies

The version of the nRF Connect SDK used depends on the value of the nrf-connect.toolchain.path setting at the time the terminal is created. Changes to this value are not picked up by existing terminal instances, so you need to create a new terminal to use the new environment.

All changes to the terminal environment are limited to this profile, so the default integrated terminal profile works as before.

nRF Debug

The nRF Debug View appears in the Panel View area when you start debugging an application.

The View is an integral part of the nRF Debug tool and provides dedicated Thread and Memory viewers.

Thread Viewer

The Thread Viewer shows information about specific threads in your application.

See the following table for the description of the UI element and possible actions.

UI element (column)	Description	Actions
State icons	Current state of the thread, based on Zephyr's thread states.	Hover over to read the tooltip.
Name	Name of the thread.	Hover over to reveal the address. Click to open the source code location in the Editor, if known.
Priority	Priority of the thread configured by the user, based on Zephyr's thread priorities.
Stack Usage	Number of bytes used by the thread and the maximum number of bytes that can be allocated to the thread.
Entry	Name of the thread entry point function in the code.	Click to open the source code location in the Editor, if known.
User Options	Binary value associated with the thread. The numbers in this column represent bit fields which are based on Zephyr's thread options. Colors are for readability only.	Hover over to reveal a tooltip that describes the value.

Memory Viewer

The Memory Viewer shows the memory content on your device. You can review different regions of memory data by clicking on the different buttons in the tab titled flash and ram. You can also create a custom region section.

Memory Viewer tooltips

You can hover your mouse over a symbol to reveal a tooltip that includes more information about the selected symbol.

The tooltip provides information about symbol name, start address, symbol size, cursor address, symbol encoding, and others.

You can interact with the tooltip in the following ways:

• Click on the tooltip to make it stay in place.
• Click on the Symbol Show Symbol in File button within the tooltip to open the symbol's file and location.

Memory Viewer Toolbar

The Memory Viewer's toolbar features several buttons, listed in the following table.

Button	Icon	Description
Go to symbol		Opens a drop-down menu with the list of symbols represented by the Viewer. The menu provides information about the symbol's name, its file, and start address.
Go to address		Displays an input line to enter an address to jump to.
Show symbols and Hide symbols		Toggles color groupings of the symbols presented in the Viewer on and off, respectively.
Show ASCII and Hide ASCII		Toggles the associated ASCII on the right side of the Viewer on and off, respectively.