Remapping the media keys to VS Code debug keys on MacOS

README.md

Remapping the media keys to VS Code debug keys on MacOS

I wanted to directly use the media keys to start debugging and stepping when working inside VS Code. This can be achieved using the app BetterTouchTool.

In BetterTouchTool I create a special

Essentially I create the following mapping:

• ⏯ → F5 (Continue / Pause)
• ⏩ → F10 (Step Over)
• ⏪ → F11 (Step Into)
• ⇧⏪ → ⇧F11 (Step Out)
• ⌘⏯ → ⇧⌘F5 (Restart)
• ⇧⏯ → ⇧F5 (Stop)

I'd still like to be able to control the music which is achieved by using the function modifier. I.e. fn⏯ will play/pause. This corresponds to the mapping:

• F7 → ⏪
• F8 → ⏯
• F9 → ⏩

Installation

In BetterTouchTool, create a new keyboard shortcut pane just for VS Code and then copy and paste the json data from the file below.

mappings.json

[
  {
    "BTTGestureNotes" : "⏯ Start debugging \/ Continue",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 0,
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeKeyboardShortcut",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : -1,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "No Action",
    "BTTLayoutIndependentActionChar" : "F5",
    "BTTAutoAdaptActionToKeyboardLayout" : true,
    "BTTShortcutToSend" : "96",
    "BTTAdditionalConfiguration" : "0",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutScope" : 0,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutKeyboardType" : 2302,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "75D7D405-0DCE-4B55-99CD-73D793CBEC82",
    "BTTTriggerOnDown" : 0,
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTLayoutIndependentChar" : "",
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTShortcutKeyCode" : 1016,
    "BTTShortcutModifierKeys" : 0,
    "BTTOrder" : 0,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTAutoAdaptToKeyboardLayout" : 0
  },
  {
    "BTTGestureNotes" : "⏩ steps over",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 0,
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeKeyboardShortcut",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : -1,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "No Action",
    "BTTLayoutIndependentActionChar" : "F10",
    "BTTAutoAdaptActionToKeyboardLayout" : true,
    "BTTShortcutToSend" : "109",
    "BTTAdditionalConfiguration" : "0",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutKeyboardType" : 2302,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "72EEF438-5F57-4EB2-BF59-47B618F3363D",
    "BTTTriggerOnDown" : 1,
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTLayoutIndependentChar" : "",
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTShortcutKeyCode" : 1019,
    "BTTShortcutModifierKeys" : 0,
    "BTTOrder" : 1,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTAutoAdaptToKeyboardLayout" : 0
  },
  {
    "BTTGestureNotes" : "⏪ steps into",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 0,
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeKeyboardShortcut",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : -1,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "No Action",
    "BTTLayoutIndependentActionChar" : "F11",
    "BTTAutoAdaptActionToKeyboardLayout" : true,
    "BTTShortcutToSend" : "103",
    "BTTAdditionalConfiguration" : "0",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutKeyboardType" : 2302,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "CF865696-355D-4E16-B6D4-76697DF58715",
    "BTTTriggerOnDown" : 1,
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTLayoutIndependentChar" : "",
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTShortcutKeyCode" : 1020,
    "BTTShortcutModifierKeys" : 0,
    "BTTOrder" : 2,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTAutoAdaptToKeyboardLayout" : 0
  },
  {
    "BTTGestureNotes" : "⇧⏪ steps out",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 0,
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeKeyboardShortcut",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : -1,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "No Action",
    "BTTLayoutIndependentActionChar" : "F11",
    "BTTAutoAdaptActionToKeyboardLayout" : true,
    "BTTShortcutToSend" : "56,103",
    "BTTAdditionalConfiguration" : "131072",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutKeyboardType" : 2302,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "1F0C5282-0113-4FBE-8D02-42214C1633C8",
    "BTTTriggerOnDown" : 1,
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTLayoutIndependentChar" : "",
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTShortcutKeyCode" : 1020,
    "BTTShortcutModifierKeys" : 131072,
    "BTTOrder" : 3,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTAutoAdaptToKeyboardLayout" : 0
  },
  {
    "BTTGestureNotes" : "⇧⏯ stops execution",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 0,
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeKeyboardShortcut",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : -1,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "No Action",
    "BTTLayoutIndependentActionChar" : "F5",
    "BTTAutoAdaptActionToKeyboardLayout" : true,
    "BTTShortcutToSend" : "56,96",
    "BTTAdditionalConfiguration" : "131072",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutKeyboardType" : 2302,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "5AB478A5-8F16-4012-916C-FBEDA703C640",
    "BTTTriggerOnDown" : 1,
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTLayoutIndependentChar" : "",
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTShortcutKeyCode" : 1016,
    "BTTShortcutModifierKeys" : 131072,
    "BTTOrder" : 4,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTAutoAdaptToKeyboardLayout" : 0
  },
  {
    "BTTGestureNotes" : "⌘⏯ restarts execution",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 0,
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeKeyboardShortcut",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : -1,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "No Action",
    "BTTLayoutIndependentActionChar" : "F5",
    "BTTAutoAdaptActionToKeyboardLayout" : true,
    "BTTShortcutToSend" : "56,55,96",
    "BTTAdditionalConfiguration" : "1048576",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutKeyboardType" : 2302,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "F1C0613A-FF9F-4578-B1DA-B49C8CB267C5",
    "BTTTriggerOnDown" : 1,
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTLayoutIndependentChar" : "",
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTShortcutKeyCode" : 1016,
    "BTTShortcutModifierKeys" : 1048576,
    "BTTOrder" : 5,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTAutoAdaptToKeyboardLayout" : 0
  },
  {
    "BTTGestureNotes" : "Fn ⏪ (F7) is Previous",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 0,
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeKeyboardShortcut",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : 26,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "Previous",
    "BTTAdditionalConfiguration" : "8388608",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutScope" : 0,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutKeyboardType" : 2302,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "E54910AC-97C1-4D47-A7B6-CBB46D187D1A",
    "BTTTriggerOnDown" : 1,
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTLayoutIndependentChar" : "F7",
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTShortcutKeyCode" : 98,
    "BTTShortcutModifierKeys" : 8388608,
    "BTTOrder" : 6,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTAutoAdaptToKeyboardLayout" : 0
  },
  {
    "BTTGestureNotes" : "Fn ⏯ (F8) is Play\/Pause",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 0,
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeKeyboardShortcut",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : 23,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "Play\/Pause",
    "BTTAdditionalConfiguration" : "8388608",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutScope" : 0,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutKeyboardType" : 2302,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "BAB57BFB-47E1-47B9-A513-5078E800B98B",
    "BTTTriggerOnDown" : 1,
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTLayoutIndependentChar" : "F8",
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTShortcutKeyCode" : 100,
    "BTTShortcutModifierKeys" : 8388608,
    "BTTOrder" : 7,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTAutoAdaptToKeyboardLayout" : 0
  },
  {
    "BTTGestureNotes" : "Fn ⏩ (F9) is Next",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 0,
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeKeyboardShortcut",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : 27,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "Next",
    "BTTAdditionalConfiguration" : "8388608",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutScope" : 0,
    "BTTKeyboardShortcutKeyboardType" : 2302,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "88891F9D-1EA8-4B61-B0C2-381542DDC823",
    "BTTTriggerOnDown" : 1,
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTLayoutIndependentChar" : "F9",
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTShortcutKeyCode" : 101,
    "BTTShortcutModifierKeys" : 8388608,
    "BTTOrder" : 8,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTAutoAdaptToKeyboardLayout" : 0
  }
]