How to Config Prettier in Vs Code

Seven years ago, I was that developer. You know the one – spending way too much time manually fixing indentation, arguing with my IDE about where to put brackets, and getting roasted in code reviews for “inconsistent spacing.”

My breaking point? A 2 AM debugging session where I spent 45 minutes fixing formatting issues instead of actually solving the bug. That’s when my coworker Sarah mentioned this thing called Prettier.

Okay, so Prettier is basically this code formatter that automatically fixes your messy code. But here’s what makes it different from other tools I’ve tried – it actually works without being a pain in the ass.

Before Prettier, my JavaScript looked like it was written by someone having a caffeine withdrawal. After Prettier? Even my most chaotic coding sessions produce clean, readable code that doesn’t make my teammates cringe.

The best part? It integrates seamlessly with Visual Studio Code, which is what most of us use anyway. No complicated setup, no learning curve from hell – just install and forget about formatting forever.

I’m going to walk you through exactly how I got Prettier working in VS Code. Took me maybe 5 minutes total.

First things first – get the extension:

Open up VS Code (obviously). Then look for that little blocks icon on the left side – that’s your Extensions panel. Click it, or just press Ctrl+Shift+X if you’re into keyboard shortcuts.

Now search for “Prettier – Code Formatter” and hit enter. You’ll see it at the top of the results – it’s got like 20 million downloads or something crazy like that. Click “Install” and you’re halfway done.

Next up – make it work for you:

Here’s where most tutorials get boring, but stick with me. You need to configure this thing or it might not match your style.

Hit Ctrl+, to open settings (or go File > Preferences > Settings if you’re old school). Search for “Prettier” and you’ll see all the options.

The settings I actually care about:

• Tab width: I use 2 spaces because that’s what my team decided after a very heated Slack discussion
• Semicolons: I keep them on because old habits die hard
• Quote style: Single quotes, because double quotes feel too formal for JavaScript

Pro tip: Don’t overthink these settings. Pick what feels right and move on. You can always change them later.

Let me tell you what happened after I started using Prettier regularly:

My code actually looks professional now. Before, opening an old project was like looking at code written by 5 different people with 5 different opinions about formatting. Now everything looks consistent, even when I’m coding at 3 AM on energy drinks.

Code reviews stopped being about formatting. My team lead Dave used to leave comments like “fix indentation on line 47” all the time. Now he actually reviews the logic and functionality because the formatting is always perfect.

I stopped making stupid syntax errors. When you’re not worried about where to put spaces and brackets, you make fewer mistakes. It’s like having one less thing to think about.

Collaboration became actually pleasant. Remember those merge conflicts caused by different formatting preferences? Gone. Everyone’s code looks the same, so Git doesn’t freak out about whitespace changes.

Let me share what happened at a couple companies I know:

Acme Software Solutions – My friend Jake works there as a senior dev. They had this massive problem with code consistency across their team of 15 developers. Every pull request turned into a formatting debate instead of focusing on actual code quality.

After Jake convinced his manager to standardize on Prettier, their code review time dropped by almost half. The junior developers especially loved it because they could focus on learning programming concepts instead of memorizing style guidelines.

NovaTech Industries – This smaller tech company was struggling with onboarding new developers. Every new hire had to learn their specific formatting conventions, which was honestly a waste of everyone’s time.

Once they implemented Prettier in their VS Code workflow, new developers could contribute meaningful code from day one. The CTO told me it reduced onboarding time by weeks.

Look, Prettier is just one piece of the puzzle. If you’re serious about improving your development workflow and productivity, there are tons of other DevOps solutions that can help.

Struggling with development workflow optimization? Our team has helped hundreds of companies – from bootstrapped startups to enterprise teams – streamline their development processes. We don’t just install tools and disappear. We actually understand the daily frustrations developers face because we’ve been there ourselves.

Whether you’re flying solo or managing a team, we can help you build a development environment that actually makes your life easier, not harder.

Installing Prettier in VS Code won’t solve every problem in your development life. But it will eliminate one really annoying daily frustration – inconsistent, ugly code formatting.

My advice? Just try it. Install the extension, play with the settings for a few minutes, and see what happens. I guarantee that within a week, you’ll wonder how you ever coded without it.

Seriously, I wish someone had told me about Prettier two years ago. Would’ve saved me countless hours of manual formatting and probably prevented a few late-night debugging sessions caused by formatting-related syntax errors.

Give it a shot. Your code will look better, your teammates will thank you, and you’ll have more time to focus on actually building cool stuff instead of fixing indentation.