The way the VSCode extension works (doesn't just rely on SFTP to sync files and doesn't require anything to be preinstalled on the remote server) is closest to

The way the VSCode extension works (doesn't just rely on SFTP to sync files and doesn't require anything to be preinstalled on the remote server) is closest to Transparent Remote Access, Multiple Protocols in Emacs. Emacs' version is more flexible and a little more quirky. I would guess that like many VSCode features, Emacs was the inspiration here. https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TrampMode https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TrampMode Tons of IDEs and editors have SFTP sync plugins that can work sort of automatically, but that's pretty different.