Language Configuration Guide

The contributes.languages Contribution Point allows you to define a language configuration that controls the following Declarative Language Features:

• Comment toggling
• Brackets definition
• Autoclosing
• Autosurrounding
• Folding
• Word pattern
• Indentation Rules

Here is a Language Configuration sample that configures the editing experience for JavaScript files. This guide explains the content of language-configuration.json:

Note: If your language configuration file name is or ends with language-configuration.json, you will get autocompletion and validation in VS Code.

{
  "comments": {
    "lineComment": "//",
    "blockComment": ["/*", "*/"]
  },
  "brackets": [
    ["{", "}"],
    ["[", "]"],
    ["(", ")"]
  ],
  "autoClosingPairs": [
    { "open": "{", "close": "}" },
    { "open": "[", "close": "]" },
    { "open": "(", "close": ")" },
    { "open": "'", "close": "'", "notIn": ["string", "comment"] },
    { "open": "\"", "close": "\"", "notIn": ["string"] },
    { "open": "`", "close": "`", "notIn": ["string", "comment"] },
    { "open": "/**", "close": " */", "notIn": ["string"] }
  ],
  "autoCloseBefore": ";:.,=}])>` \n\t",
  "surroundingPairs": [
    ["{", "}"],
    ["[", "]"],
    ["(", ")"],
    ["'", "'"],
    ["\"", "\""],
    ["`", "`"]
  ],
  "folding": {
    "markers": {
      "start": "^\\s*//\\s*#?region\\b",
      "end": "^\\s*//\\s*#?endregion\\b"
    }
  },
  "wordPattern": "(-?\\d*\\.\\d\\w*)|([^\\`\\~\\!\\@\\#\\%\\^\\&\\*\\(\\)\\-\\=\\+\\[\\{\\]\\}\\\\\\|\\;\\:\\'\\\"\\,\\.\\<\\>\\/\\?\\s]+)",
  "indentationRules": {
    "increaseIndentPattern": "^((?!\\/\\/).)*(\\{[^}\"'`]*|\\([^)\"'`]*|\\[[^\\]\"'`]*)$",
    "decreaseIndentPattern": "^((?!.*?\\/\\*).*\\*/)?\\s*[\\)\\}\\]].*$"
  }
}

Comment toggling

VS Code offers two commands for comment toggling. Toggle Line Comment and Toggle Block Comment. You can specify comments.blockComment and comments.lineComment to control how VS Code should comment out lines / blocks.

{
  "comments": {
    "lineComment": "//",
    "blockComment": ["/*", "*/"]
  }
}

The lineComment property supports two formats for backwards compatibility:

• A string value for simple line comment definitions.
• An object value that enables configuring the indentation behavior of comment lines.

{
  "comments": {