PreTeXt-tools in VS is excellent! It would be helpful, though, to add a "New file..." action. It could also branch to have a choice of chapter or section.
I suggest this only so that the correct xml header information is populated in the file.
Also, I was having strange issues with text not appearing in Live Preview when that text included an xref to a figure or table. That problem started happening when tools automatically updated to 1.3.0. I reverted to 1.2.1, and everything was fine again.
With much gratitude,
Charles