Before you can use Coactive for Visual Studio, you should have already signed up as an alpha user.  Once you've done that we'll send you and your team(s) login credentials.  You must also be using Visual Studio 2017.


To install Coactive, follow the steps below:

  1. Open Visual Studio and open Tools -> Options.
  2. Find the Environment -> Extensions and Updates section of the options dialog.
  3. Add a new item under Additional Extension Galleries.
  4. For the name, enter Coactive MyGet.
  5. For the URL, enter:

Finally, click Apply and then close the options dialog.  You will only have to do this once.

You can now install Coactive as you would any other extension, from the Tools -> Extensions and Updates menu:

Before you can start using Coactive, you will need to log in. After installing Coactive you will have a new "Coactive" menu in Visual Studio. Use this to launch the Coactive Activity Browser:

Click "Sign up or sign in" and a browser window will open which will allow you to log in.  Enter your username and password provided by us and then you will be directed to close the browser window and return to Visual Studio.  Once logged in, you'll stay logged in until your login token expires (6 months at the time of writing).

The Coactive Activity Browser, or "CAB" for short, is the central hub which shows you what files your teammates are working on in real time.  After loading a solution, Coactive will load a list of files which any of your teammates are currently working on.  You will also see an eye icon next to the file which your teammate is looking at right now.

To get the most out of the CAB, ensure you have it docked in a position where you can see it all the time.  We like to have it below the Solution Explorer.

Protip: Double-click on a file in the CAB to open your copy of the file (if it's in your branch too).

While editing a file, if someone else on your team is also editing that file you will see the Coactive in-editor actions button in the top-right of the document. Hovering over the button tells you that others are also looking at that file.

If you click on the button, you will see a list of your teammates who have that file open, and a further sub-menu with actions you can perform with that teammate.

The button will automatically appear and disappear on files when others start or stop editing files.