Power Automate Utility VS Code

Power Automate Utility

A VS Code extension providing IntelliSense for Power Automate and Logic App expressions (great for scratch padding expressions to copy/paste into ui), along with the ability to edit cloud flows directly from VS Code via the Dataverse API.

Features

Expression IntelliSense

• Auto-complete for all Power Automate / Logic App expression functions in .json, .jsonc, and .txt files

• Hover documentation showing function signatures, descriptions, and examples

• Signature help displaying parameter info as you type inside function parentheses

Copilot Skill

• Skill files — load custom expression definitions to extend copilot capability

Flow Editing (Dataverse API)

Edit Power Automate cloud flows directly from VS Code by reading and writing the clientdata field of the Dataverse workflows table.

edit flow

Note: Only solution-aware flows (flows added to a Solution) are supported. Flows created under "My Flows" outside of a solution are not accessible via this method.

Prerequisites

• A Power Platform environment with Dataverse

• A browser for the OAuth2 sign-in prompt

• The environment URL (e.g. https://yourorg.crm.dynamics.com)

• Your tenant ID (e.g. contoso.onmicrosoft.com or a GUID)

Commands

Command	Description
Power Automate Utility: Sign In to Environment	Prompts for tenant ID and environment URL, then opens a browser for OAuth2 sign-in. Tokens are cached in memory for ~55 minutes.
Power Automate Utility: List Flows	Fetches all solution-aware cloud flows from the environment and displays them in a QuickPick. Selecting a flow opens its clientdata for editing.
Power Automate Utility: Open Flow ClientData	Downloads the clientdata JSON for a specific flow and opens it in the editor as a .clientdata.json file.
Power Automate Utility: Update Flow ClientData	Reads the active .clientdata.json file and PATCHes it back to Dataverse. A cloud-upload button also appears in the editor title bar when editing these files.

Workflow

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P)

2. Run Sign In to Environment — enter your tenant ID and environment URL, then complete the browser sign-in

3. Run List Flows — pick a flow from the list

4. The flow's clientdata opens as a JSON file in the editor

5. Make your edits

6. Run Update Flow ClientData (or click the ☁↑ icon in the editor title bar) to save changes back to Dataverse

Tip - Use AutoReview VS Code Extension to see diagram view of the flow

Bash Script (Alternative)

A standalone bash script is also provided at scripts/flow-commands.sh for use outside VS Code. It requires Python 3 and a browser.

source scripts/flow-commands.sh

# Sign in (opens browser for OAuth2)
flow_sign_in "contoso.onmicrosoft.com" "https://yourorg.crm.dynamics.com"

# List all solution-aware flows
flow_list "https://yourorg.crm.dynamics.com"

# Open a flow's clientdata as a JSON file in VS Code
flow_open "https://yourorg.crm.dynamics.com" "<workflow-guid>"

# Update a flow's clientdata from a local file
flow_update "https://yourorg.crm.dynamics.com" "<workflow-guid>" "myflow.clientdata.json"

Admin Commands

Command	Description
Power Automate Utility: Toggle IntelliSense	Turns intellisense ON/OFF
Power Automate Utility: Show Function Count	Displays the total number of loaded expression functions
Power Automate Utility: View Skill File	Opens a skill file for viewing
Power Automate Utility: Delete Skill File	Removes a custom skill file

Known Limitations

• Only solution-aware cloud flows are supported for flow editing

• OAuth2 tokens expire after ~60 minutes; re-run Sign In to refresh

• The local callback server uses port 5500 — ensure it is available during sign-in