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Install the Sauce Labs IDE Plugin

This page walks you through installing the Sauce Labs plugin in your IDE, signing in, and starting your first live device session.

Prerequisites​

  • A supported IDE: VS Code 1.85 or newer, or a VS Code-based editor such as Cursor or Antigravity. IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio support is coming soon.
  • A Sauce Labs account in one of the supported data centers (US West, US East, or EU Central).
  • Your Sauce Labs username and access key. Both are available from Sauce Labs user settings. See Managing User Information.
  • FFmpeg on your PATH (optional). Only required for MP4 session recording. Screenshots, log streaming, and everything else work without it.
    • macOS: brew install ffmpeg
    • Linux: sudo apt install ffmpeg (or the equivalent for your distribution)
    • Windows: download from ffmpeg.org and add bin/ to your PATH

To start live device sessions you also need private (dedicated) devices and Real Device Access API concurrency on your account. See Requirements and entitlements.

Install the plugin​

  1. Open VS Code and go to the Extensions view (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + X).
  2. Search for Sauce Labs and open the listing from the verified publisher Sauce Labs.
  3. Click Install.
  4. After installation, the Sauce Labs icon appears in the Activity Bar. Reload VS Code if prompted.
The Sauce Labs extension listing in the VS Code Extensions view, showing the Real Device Cloud and AI Test Authoring feature descriptions

Sign in​

Before you sign in, the Activity Bar shows a single Sauce Labs icon. That is where you log in.

  1. Click the Sauce Labs icon in the Activity Bar to open the login view.
  2. Pick the data center region that matches your account from the dropdown.
  3. Enter your User Name and Access Key, then click Log in.
The Sauce Labs sign-in form in the sidebar with a region dropdown, user name and access key fields, and a log in button

Once you sign in, the single Sauce Labs icon is replaced by two product icons in the Activity Bar: Real Device Cloud and Sauce Labs Test Authoring.

Your credentials are stored in the editor's secret store, backed by the operating system keychain (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, or libsecret on Linux). They are never written to your workspace or settings files.

To sign out, open the Real Device Cloud view and click Sign Out in the Account section, or run Sauce: Sign Out from the Command Palette.

tip

If you switch from an account without an entitlement to one that has it, reload the editor window so entitled views (such as the test case list) populate correctly.

Select a data center region​

All three Sauce Labs data centers are supported:

RegionHost
US West (California)api.us-west-1.saucelabs.com
US East (Virginia)api.us-east-4.saucelabs.com
EU Central (Frankfurt)api.eu-central-1.saucelabs.com

You can switch regions two ways, whichever is more convenient:

  • Click a region row in the sidebar's Region section.
  • Pick one in the region dropdown on the sign-in form.

Switching re-validates your credentials against the new region and refreshes the device and session lists automatically.

Take your first step​

After signing in, both products are one click away in the Activity Bar.

Start a real device session​

  1. Open the Real Device Cloud view and wait for the Real Devices list to populate.
  2. Click the play icon next to an available device (green dot).
  3. A new tab opens showing the live device screen. The first frame arrives 15 to 30 seconds after allocation.

See Real Device Cloud in Your IDE for everything you can do in a live session.

Generate your first test with AI​

  1. Open the Sauce Labs Test Authoring view and click Create Test Script.
  2. Choose a target: a website and browser, or an app build and a device.
  3. Describe what you want to test in plain English and submit. The AI runs it on a live session and gives you back runnable test code.

See AI Test Authoring in Your IDE for the full authoring workflow. This feature requires the Sauce AI for Test Authoring entitlement.