This summer as part of their GSoC project, Sam Heckle built the L5lua extension for Visual Studio Code and VS Codium (open source non-telemetry alternative) to make it easy to get started using the L5 creative coding library (in Lua). You can install it by opening up the extensions and searching for L5lua.
There are now step by step install guides for Mac, Win, PC, with video tutorials for Windows and Mac. It adds a Run L5 and Stop buttons to the VS Code editor, so you can play your L5 projects easily within the editor.
Hooray and thanks to Sam for building this! Feel free to ask questions, give feedback or file bug reports.