Pull every string value out of the current file in one keystroke
JSON, YAML, CSV, TOML, INI, and Environment files
Useful? A star or rating is how other developers find it — ★ GitHub · ★ Open VSX · ★ Marketplace
Open a file, press Ctrl+Alt+E (Cmd+Alt+E on Mac), and every string value in the document lands in a new editor — deduplicate and sort it from there. Works in VS Code and in VS Code–based editors like Cursor and VSCodium (installable from Open VSX).
- i18n prep — flatten locale files (JSON/YAML) into a clean list of translatable values
- Config review — see every string value in a TOML/INI/.env file at a glance
- CSV mining — pull one column, several, or all of them; stream very large files
The same engine runs as an MCP server, so an agent can call it directly instead of you running a command.
| Editor | How |
|---|---|
| VS Code 1.101+ | Nothing to install — the extension registers extract_strings with agent mode |
| Zed | No listing yet — add the MCP server by hand |
| Claude Code | claude mcp add string-le -- npx -y string-le-mcp |
| Cursor, Windsurf, anything else | point it at npx string-le-mcp |
extract_strings(content, format?, filename?, dedupe?, maxResults?)
Returns the values in document order, capped at 500 by default with meta.truncated. A format is optional — any unrecognised format falls back to quoted strings.
The server takes content and returns data — it reads no files and makes no network requests of its own. Published as string-le-mcp on npm and as io.github.nolindnaidoo/string-le in the MCP registry.
Configuring it by hand — any host with an MCP config file
Most hosts read a JSON config. Add one entry:
{
"mcpServers": {
"string-le": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "string-le-mcp"]
}
}
}-y skips the install prompt on first run. Pin a version if you would rather not track releases — string-le-mcp@2.2.1.
Prefer not to go through npx on every launch? Install it once and point at the binary instead:
npm install -g string-le-mcp{
"mcpServers": {
"string-le": { "command": "string-le-mcp" }
}
}It speaks MCP over stdio and needs no environment variables, no API key and no configuration of its own. To check it before wiring it into anything:
echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}' | npx -y string-le-mcpThat prints the tool list and exits — if you see extract_strings, the server works.
| Format | Language IDs | What gets extracted |
|---|---|---|
| JSON | json |
String values (parsed; keys, numbers, and booleans excluded) |
| YAML | yaml |
String values including unquoted plain scalars, block/folded scalars, and multi-document files |
| CSV | csv |
Cells, with optional header handling, column selection, and a streaming mode for large files |
| TOML | toml |
String values including multiline strings; dates and numbers are excluded as typed values |
| INI | ini |
Values (INI is untyped, so numeric-looking values are extracted as strings) |
| Environment | dotenv, env |
Values (export prefixes, quotes, and inline comments handled) |
| Anything else | — | Fallback scan for "double", 'single', or `backtick` quoted strings on a single line |
Values are trimmed; empty values are dropped; keys are never extracted. The fallback scan cannot see unquoted or multi-line strings — that is why the six formats above get real parsers. Parse errors are silent unless string-le.showParseErrors is on.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
String-LE: Extract Strings (Ctrl+Alt+E / Cmd+Alt+E) |
Extract all string values from the active document |
String-LE: Deduplicate Strings |
Remove duplicate lines from the active document |
String-LE: Sort Strings |
Sort lines alphabetically or by length |
String-LE: Toggle CSV Streaming |
Enable/disable streaming for large CSV files |
String-LE: Open Settings |
Open String-LE settings |
String-LE: Help & Troubleshooting |
Built-in documentation |
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
string-le.openResultsSideBySide |
true |
Open results beside the current editor |
string-le.postProcess.openInNewFile |
true |
Post-process commands write to a new file instead of editing in place |
string-le.copyToClipboardEnabled |
false |
Also copy results to the clipboard (disabled for CSV output) |
string-le.dedupeEnabled |
false |
Deduplicate results automatically after extraction |
string-le.sortEnabled |
false |
Sort results automatically after extraction |
string-le.sortMode |
off |
alpha-asc, alpha-desc, length-asc, length-desc |
string-le.csv.streamingEnabled |
false |
Stream CSV results into the editor incrementally |
string-le.showParseErrors |
false |
Show parse errors as notifications |
string-le.notificationsLevel |
silent |
all = every notification, important = warnings + errors, silent = errors only |
string-le.safety.enabled |
true |
Guardrails for very large files/outputs |
string-le.safety.fileSizeWarnBytes |
1000000 |
Warn before extracting above this file size |
string-le.safety.largeOutputLinesThreshold |
50000 |
Offer Open/Copy/Cancel above this result count |
string-le.safety.manyDocumentsThreshold |
8 |
Confirm before opening this many result documents (CSV multi-column) |
string-le.statusBar.enabled |
true |
Show the status bar item |
string-le.telemetryEnabled |
false |
Local-only event log (see Privacy) |
Twelve languages besides English:
German · Spanish · French · Indonesian · Italian · Japanese · Korean · Portuguese (Brazil) · Russian · Ukrainian · Vietnamese · Chinese (Simplified)
Both halves are covered — the manifest (command titles, setting names and descriptions) and everything shown while the extension runs (notifications, the status bar, quick-picks and prompts). The extension follows VS Code's display language, so it matches whatever the editor is already set to; no setting of its own.
- No network access. The extension never sends data anywhere. The
telemetryEnabledsetting only writes events to a local Output Channel you can inspect (String-LE). - The MCP server holds the same line. It takes content as an argument and returns data: no filesystem access, no network calls, no telemetry. Your agent already has file-read tools, so duplicating them inside the server would add a path-traversal surface for no capability.
check:mcp-bundlefails the build if the server ever imports something that could reach either. - Error notifications redact home directories and credential-shaped fragments.
bun install
bun run build # esbuild bundle -> dist/extension.js
bun run typecheck # tsc --noEmit (includes tests)
bun run test # vitest unit suite
bun run test:integration # real VS Code extension host
bun run lint # biome
bun run package # VSIX into release/Architecture and conventions live in AGENTS.md. Changes are tracked in CHANGELOG.md.
| Input | Size | Found | Time | Rate | Scan speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JSON locale file | 1.77 MB | 40,000 | 9.53 ms | 4,198,116/sec | 185.9 MB/s |
| YAML locale file | 1.01 MB | 30,000 | 13.33 ms | 2,250,169/sec | 75.7 MB/s |
| CSV strings | 1.35 MB | 80,002 | 28.29 ms | 2,827,438/sec | 47.8 MB/s |
Median of 7 runs after warmup, on Apple M5 Pro, 24 GB RAM, Node 24.3.0. Inputs are generated
by scripts/benchmark.ts rather than checked in, so the sizes above are
exactly what was measured. Reproduce with bun run benchmark.
These are machine-specific and are not asserted in CI — a benchmark that gates a build only tells you how busy the runner was.
| Metric | Coverage |
|---|---|
| Statements | 88.69% |
| Branches | 78.30% |
| Functions | 96.55% |
| Lines | 90.08% |
250 test cases across 22 files, plus an integration suite that runs
in a real VS Code extension host and an end-to-end test that installs the
built .vsix into a clean profile.
Generated from coverage/coverage-summary.json by
scripts/coverage-readme.js; CI fails if this section drifts from a fresh
run. Reproduce with bun run test:coverage.
Every tool in the family, one page: letools.dev
All ten also ship as MCP servers — npx <name>-mcp gives any agent the same engine. Five go further and ship a Rust CLI: Paths-LE, Secrets-LE, URLs-LE, Regex-LE and Scrape-LE, each installed with cargo install <that-name>.
- Paths-LE - Extract file paths from JS/TS imports, JSON, HTML, CSS, TOML, CSV, and .env
- Numbers-LE - Extract numeric values from JSON, YAML, CSV, TOML, INI, and .env
- EnvSync-LE - Spot missing keys across your .env files, with a markdown report
- Regex-LE - Find, test, and validate regular expressions with ReDoS screening
- Secrets-LE - Detect and sanitize credentials locally, before you commit
- Scrape-LE - Check whether a page is scrapeable before you write the scraper
- Colors-LE - Extract and analyze colors from CSS, SCSS, LESS, Stylus, HTML, JS/TS, and SVG
- URLs-LE - Extract URLs from documentation, configs, and code
- Dates-LE - Extract and analyze dates from logs, configs, and code
Rust — pixelcoords and pixelactions are one loop: pixelcoords answers where, pixelactions acts there. The five LE crates are the terminal half of the extensions they sit in — the same detection, held to the extension's own corpus, and an exit code instead of a results editor.
- pixelcoords — Freeze your screen, mark regions, get pixel-exact coordinates and crops pixelcoords.dev · crates.io · docs.rs
- pixelactions — Consume human-verified coordinates, perform the interaction, confirm it landed pixelactions.dev · crates.io · docs.rs
- paths-le — Find every path in a codebase and report whether it still points at anything crates.io
- secrets-le — Find hardcoded credentials, and never print one crates.io
- urls-le — Extract every URL from a codebase, with its protocol and exact position crates.io
- regex-le — Find every regex in a codebase and report which can be driven into catastrophic backtracking crates.io
- scrape-le — Check whether a page is scrapeable before the scraper is written crates.io
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