Making VS Code and OmniSharp Open the Browser to a Specific URL for a .NET Application

I use VS Code a lot, but I’m not a fan of how it ignores the launchUrl property in the launchSettings.json file.

If you don’t know what I mean, create a new project -

dotnet new webapi -o MyWebApi

Open the launchSettings.json file, you will see something like -

"profiles": {
    "http": {
        "commandName": "Project",
        "dotnetRunMessages": true,
        "launchBrowser": true,
        "launchUrl": "weatherforecast",
        "applicationUrl": "http://localhost:5289",
        "environmentVariables": {
        "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development"
        }
    },

In VS Code press F5 to run the application. The browser opens to https://localhost:5289/.

I want it to open to https://localhost:5289/weatherforecast.

Here’s the fix.

Open the .vscode/launch.json file, and look for the section serverReadyAction. Add the uriFormat -

"serverReadyAction": {
    "action": "openExternally",
    "pattern": "\\bNow listening on:\\s+(https?://\\S+)",
    "uriFormat": "%s/weatherforecast"
},

Now when you launch the project, it will open to https://localhost:5289/weatherforecast.

My default browser is Firefox, but if I want the application to open in Chrome or Edge, I can change the action to one of the following -

• debugWithChrome
• debugWithEdge