Note
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try signing in or changing directories.
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try changing directories.
Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019
Visual Studio 2019 | Visual Studio 2022
You use Team Explorer to coordinate your code efforts with other team members to develop a software project. Team Explorer is a plug-in that installs with Visual Studio. You can manage any work assigned to you, your team, or your projects. Developers can effectively collaborate with Team Explorer connected to projects hosted on Azure DevOps Services or an on-premises Azure DevOps Server.
Prerequisites
Prepare one of the following configurations to start working with Team Explorer:
Connect to a project in Azure DevOps without running Visual Studio by installing the free Visual Studio Community.
Install the latest version of Visual Studio clients from the Visual Studio downloads page.
As needed, explore the following options for connecting to Azure DevOps Services:
For more information about compatibility across client and server versions, see Requirements and compatibility.
Permissions for Team Explorer
To work with projects in Team Explorer, you need the following access permissions:
| Category | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Project access | Project member. |
Connect to a project or repository
Team Explorer connects Visual Studio to projects in Azure DevOps. You can manage source code, work items, and builds. The operations available to you depend on the source control option you select to manage your source code when you create the project. The options are Git or Team Foundation version control (TFVC).
Tip
If you open Visual Studio and don't see the Team Explorer pane, select View > Team Explorer.
From the Team Explorer Connect page, you can select the projects you want to connect to and quickly switch connection to a different project or repository. For details, see Connect to a project.
The Git and TFVC repos support different pages and functions. For a comparison of the two version control systems, see Choosing the right version control for your project.
Support projects with the Web Portal and Task Board
Team Explorer provides the Web Portal and Task Board features to support team member collaboration for your projects. These features are available under the Project group in Team Explorer.
Web Portal: Project users can connect to the Azure DevOps web portal by using a supported web browser. For more information, see Navigate the Azure DevOps web portal.
Task Board: Project members can manage work items and tasks by using the project Taskboard. The board is hosted on Azure DevOps Services or an on-premises Azure DevOps Server. For more information, see Update and monitor your Taskboard.
Access Work Items and Builds for projects
Project users can access specific content in the Work Items and Builds sections. These features are available under the Project group in Team Explorer.
Builds: Project members can work with builds for your project based on their access-level permissions. For more information, see the following resources:
Work Items: Project members can track features, requirements, known issues or bugs, and more by using work items. In Visual Studio 2019 and later, you can switch between the Default and Legacy views of the Team Explorer Work Items page. The default view aligns with the web portal Boards > Work Items page. The legacy view retains the familiar layout from earlier versions of Visual Studio. For more information, see the following resources:
For Visual Studio 2019 and later (Default), see the following resources:
For all Visual Studio versions (Legacy), the following resources are available:
Use Git version control and Git repositories
In Visual Studio 2022, the Git features are located on separate panes from Team Explorer. You can open the Git Changes and Git Repository panes from Team Explorer:
You can also open the panes from the View menu or by using the keyboard shortcuts: Git Changes (Ctrl+O, Ctrl+G) and Git Repository (Ctrl+O, Ctrl+R).
In Visual Studio 2019 and earlier, the Git features are available on the Team Explorer Home pane:
Note
Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8 and later provide a Git menu for managing the Git workflow with less context switching than Team Explorer. Procedures in this article under the Visual Studio tab describe how to use the Git experience and also Team Explorer. For more information, see Side-by-side comparison of Git and Team Explorer.
Visual Studio supports the following Git actions for use with Team Explorer:
- Git Changes: Save work with commits
- Git Branches: Create work in branches
- Pull Requests: Review code with pull requests
- Sync: Update code with fetch and pull
- Tags: Work with Git tags
To learn more about working with Git for version control, see the following articles:
Use TFVC features for your project
If you prefer to use TFVC for centralized control of your project, you can access the TFVC features on the Team Explorer Home pane:
Visual Studio supports the following features when you connect to a TFVC repository:
- My Work: Configure your workspace, Suspend, or resume work, Conduct a code review
- Pending Changes: Manage pending changes, Find shelvesets, Resolve conflicts
- Source Control Explorer: Add/View files and folders, Add check-in policies,
To learn more about working with TFVC for version control, see the following articles:
Manage Settings for Team Explorer
You can configure administrative features for a project or project collection by selecting Settings on the Team Explorer Home pane:
The following sections provide links to resources for configuring settings for your project or project collection.
Note
Not all settings are available from the Team Explorer plug-in for Eclipse.
For more information, see About team, project, and organizational-level settings.
Project settings
For more information about managing settings for your project, see the following articles:
- Security, Group membership
- Security, Source Control (TFVC)
- Work Item areas
- Work Item iterations
- Portal settings
- Project alerts
Project collection settings
For information about managing settings for a collection of projects, see the following articles:
Git settings
If you use Git source control for your project, the following settings are available:
Refresh Team Explorer
Sometimes you need to refresh Team Explorer to ensure that the visible data for the current project is up-to-date across all clients and Azure DevOps.
Refresh the current project view
If data doesn't appear as expected in Team Explorer, refresh your client, which updates the local cache with any changes made in other clients or in Azure DevOps.
To refresh Team Explorer, try the following actions:
To refresh the current page, select
Refresh (or use the keyboard shortcut F5).To refresh the selected project, select
Home, and then select
Refresh or F5.To refresh the set of teams defined for the selected project, select Connect, and then select
Refresh or F5.
To avoid potential errors, you should refresh your client application in the following scenarios:
- Process change applied
- Work item type definition added, removed, renamed, or updated
- Area or iteration path added, removed, renamed, or updated
- User added or removed in security groups, or user permissions updated
- New shared query added or existing shared query updated
- Build definition added or deleted
- Team or project added or deleted
Resolve images that don't display in Team Explorer
You might see an image in the web portal that doesn't display as expected within a work item form in Visual Studio Team Explorer. Expired credentials are a common cause of this issue.
You can try resolving the issue with the following steps:
In Visual Studio, select View > Other Windows > Web Browser (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+R).
In the web browser, locate your organization.
Sign in with your credentials.
Refresh your work item in Team Explorer.