Extension takes a long time to activate

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Type: Performance Issue

Launch vscode; click on Remote Explorer tab on the left bar; the Remote Explorer tab takes > 3 minutes to load and show my remote hosts configured in .ssh/config. During the wait, VSCode shows "activating extension" and a loading icon.

Extension version: 0.123.0
VS Code version: Code 1.121.0 (Universal) (f6cfa2ea2403534de03f069bdf160d06451ed282, 2026-05-19T11:51:53+02:00)
OS version: Darwin arm64 25.5.0
Modes:
Remote OS version: Linux x64 5.15.0-139-generic
Remote OS version: Linux x64 5.15.0-139-generic

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Apple M4 (10 x 2400)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled GPU0: VENDOR= 0x106b [Google Inc. (Apple)], DEVICE=0x0000 [ANGLE (Apple, ANGLE Metal Renderer: Apple M4, Version 26.5 (Build 25F71))], DRIVER_VENDOR=Apple, DRIVER_VERSION=26.5 ACTIVE Machine model name: Mac Machine model version: 16.13 direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: enabled_on trees_in_viz: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	3, 2, 3
Memory (System)	24.00GB (0.09GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 946e31a3-9d16-41f3-87fa-939fc2740a7d
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Item	Value
Remote	SSH: spur
OS	Linux x64 5.15.0-139-generic
CPUs	AMD EPYC 9454 48-Core Processor (96 x 1517)
Memory (System)	251.40GB (242.30GB free)
VM	0%

Item	Value
Remote	SSH: spur
OS	Linux x64 5.15.0-139-generic
CPUs	AMD EPYC 9454 48-Core Processor (96 x 1495)
Memory (System)	251.40GB (242.32GB free)
VM	0%

Process Info

CPU %	Mem MB	   PID	Process
    8	82331430688	 20494	code
    3	31665934880	 20497	   gpu-process
    0	18999560928	 20498	   utility-network-service
    0	50665495808	 20539	shared-process
    0	     0	 26429	     /bin/ps -ax -o pid=,ppid=,pcpu=,pmem=,command=
    0	132996926496	 20724	window [2] (bfs_warmup_sweep.ipynb — vectordb-baselines [SSH: spur])
    0	56998682784	 26204	extension-host [2]
    0	18999560928	 26246	     electron-nodejs (localServer.js)
    0	     0	 26257	       ssh -v -T -D 53873 -o ConnectTimeout=60 spur
    0	18999560928	 26229	file-watcher [2]
    7	183662422304	 26267	window [3] (inplace_backend.h — vectordb-bench [SSH: spur])
    0	50665495808	 26300	   window
    0	25332747904	 26322	pty-host
    0	56998682784	 26328	extension-host [3]
    0	18999560928	 26338	file-watcher [3]
Connection to 'ssh-remote+spur' could not be established
Connection to 'ssh-remote+spur' could not be established

Workspace Info


Connection to 'ssh-remote+spur' could not be established
Connection to 'ssh-remote+spur' could not be established;

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Start by reproducing the delay with VS Code 1.121.0 and extension 0.123.0: launch VS Code, open Remote Explorer, and observe activation while hosts from .ssh/config load. The report names no source file or test, so identify the activation path responsible for loading remote hosts and verify that Remote Explorer loads without the reported multi-minute wait.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

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