March 10, 2026 · siemenssimatic-axplc-programmingindustrial-automation
SIMATIC AX expects you to open your IDE in the AX project root — where apax.yml lives.
But what if your AX code is just one subfolder inside a larger engineering project?
I work from a root project directory in VS Code — all my documents, datasheets, specifications, and code in one workspace. Opening AX Code IDE in the AX subfolder meant losing access to everything else. Not great.
The CLI Is All You Need
So I started checking — can I just use the CLI instead? And I found that you actually don’t need AX Code IDE for most of development work.
SIMATIC AX is fully CLI-driven. The apax package manager handles everything — creating projects, installing dependencies, building, testing, deploying. And it works from any terminal.
How It Works
So in my normal VS Code workspace, I just open the integrated terminal, navigate to the AX subfolder, and run apax commands from there. apax install, apax build, apax test — all from a regular Git Bash terminal. No AX Code IDE involved. Build — 0 errors. Tests — all passed.
Just simple like that.
The Takeaway
SIMATIC AX is not tied to its IDE. The real power is in the CLI. So if you don’t want to leave your main workspace — you don’t have to.
Originally published on LinkedIn.
