Install VS Code
Visual Studio Code is your editor. Free, cross-platform, and the dominant development environment for IBM i since roughly 2020. If you already have it installed, skip to the next chapter.
What to do
Download from code.visualstudio.com and run the installer.
On Windows: accept the defaults. The “Add to PATH” option is useful — check it. Also useful is the “Open with Code” right-click context menu option.
On macOS: drag the downloaded app into your Applications folder. On first launch, you may need to approve it in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
When you’re done
VS Code opens on your machine. You see the Welcome tab with “Get Started” panels on the right. You don’t need to configure anything else here — we’ll set up themes, keybindings, and other preferences later if you want to.