string-le

<p align="center">
  <img src="src/assets/images/icon.png" alt="Strings-LE Logo" width="96" height="96"/>
</p>
<h1 align="center">Strings-LE: Zero Hassle String Extraction</h1>
<p align="center">
  <b>Pull every string value out of the current file in one keystroke</b><br/>
  <i>JSON/JSONC, YAML, CSV/TSV, TOML, INI, Environment files, and ten source languages</i>
</p>

<p align="center">
  <a href="https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=nolindnaidoo.string-le">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Install%20from-VS%20Code-blue?style=for-the-badge&logo=visualstudiocode" alt="Install from VS Code Marketplace" />
  </a>
  <a href="https://open-vsx.org/extension/OffensiveEdge/string-le">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/open-vsx/dt/OffensiveEdge/string-le?style=for-the-badge&label=Open%20VSX&color=blue" alt="Open VSX downloads" />
  </a>
  <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/string-le-mcp">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/v/string-le-mcp?style=for-the-badge&label=MCP%20server&color=blue&logo=npm" alt="string-le-mcp on npm" />
  </a>
  <a href="https://crates.io/crates/string-le">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/crates/v/string-le?style=for-the-badge&label=Rust%20CLI&color=blue&logo=rust" alt="string-le on crates.io" />
  </a>
  <a href="https://letools.dev/tools/string-le">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/LE%20Tools-letools.dev-blue?style=for-the-badge" alt="LE Tools" />
  </a>
</p>

---

<p align="center">
  <img src="src/assets/images/demo.gif" alt="String-LE Demo" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;" />
</p>

> **Useful?** A star or rating is how other developers find it —
> [★ GitHub](https://github.com/nolindnaidoo/string-le) ·
> [★ Open VSX](https://open-vsx.org/extension/OffensiveEdge/string-le/reviews) ·
> [★ Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=nolindnaidoo.string-le&ssr=false#review-details)

## What it does

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

## Install

| Where | What you get | Install |
|---|---|---|
| **VS Code** | The same extraction, in your editor, on a keystroke | [Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=nolindnaidoo.string-le) |
| **Cursor, VSCodium, Windsurf** | The same extension | [Open VSX](https://open-vsx.org/extension/OffensiveEdge/string-le) |
| **A terminal or a CI step** | The same run over a whole tree, with exit codes | `cargo install string-le` · [crates.io](https://crates.io/crates/string-le) |
| **Any MCP agent, via Node** | `extract_strings` over stdio | `npx string-le-mcp` · [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/string-le-mcp) |
| **Zed** | The MCP server as a context server | [add it by hand](https://zed.dev/docs/ai/mcp) *(no listing yet)* |

## Use it from an AI agent

The same engine runs as an [MCP](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) 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](https://zed.dev/docs/ai/mcp) |
| **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?, multiline?, 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`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/string-le-mcp) on npm and as `io.github.nolindnaidoo/string-le` in the [MCP registry](https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io).

<details>
<summary><b>Configuring it by hand</b> — any host with an MCP config file</summary>

Most hosts read a JSON config. Add one entry:

```json
{
  "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@2.4.1`.

Prefer not to go through `npx` on every launch? Install it once and point at the binary instead:

```bash
npm install -g string-le-mcp
```

```json
{
  "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:

```bash
echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}' | npx -y string-le-mcp
```

That prints the tool list and exits — if you see `extract_strings`, the server works.

</details>

## Supported formats

| 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) |
| Python | `python` | Triple-quoted docstrings as one string, f-strings, `r`/`b`/`u` prefixes |
| Rust | `rust` | Raw strings `r"…"`, `r#"…"#`, `r##"…"##` as one string with their inner quotes; byte strings |
| Go | `go` | Backtick raw strings as one string, across lines |
| Shell | `shellscript` | Heredocs (`<<EOF`, `<<'EOF'`, `<<-EOF`) as one string |
| PHP, Ruby, Perl | `php`, `ruby`, `perl` | Heredocs and nowdocs (`<<<EOT`, `<<<'NOW'`, `<<~EOS`) as one string |
| C# | `csharp` | Verbatim `@"…"` where `""` is one quote; interpolated `$"…"` |
| JavaScript, TypeScript | `javascript`, `typescript` (+ the react ids) | Template literals as **one** string, interpolation and nesting included |
| Markdown, anything else | `markdown` | Fallback scan for `"double"`, `'single'`, or `` `backtick` `` quoted strings on a single line |

Values are trimmed; empty values are dropped; keys are never extracted — one rule, shared by every extractor above. The fallback scan cannot see unquoted strings, which is why the parsed formats and the source languages get real readers; it reads a quoted run across lines when `string-le.fallback.multiline` is on (the MCP tool's `multiline`). Parse errors are silent unless `string-le.showParseErrors` is on.

## The CLI

The same extraction runs from a terminal or a shell pipeline: a Rust CLI
in [`crate/`](crate/README.md), sharing one corpus with the extension —
[`crate/fixtures/`](crate/fixtures/) — so the two can never read a
document differently.

```bash
string-le .                      # every string in the tree, as JSON
string-le --values src/          # just the values, one per line
string-le --dedupe --values .    # each distinct string once
string-le mcp                    # the same extraction over MCP on stdio

# the point of the whole thing:
string-le --values --dedupe src/ | sort > after.txt
diff before.txt after.txt        # what changed in the copy this release
```

**The reader is not the author.** The extension answers for the buffer
you have open. Someone still has to read every user-visible string before
a release — a QA lead, a compliance reviewer, a localisation owner — and
they do not have the editor open, and several of them cannot be handed a
checkout at all. The CLI puts the whole repository into one file they can
read.

**Source files are the main event there.** A `.ts` or `.py` file is where
the user-facing copy lives, so each language is read by its own literal
syntax and anything still unrecognised falls through to quoted-string
extraction rather than being refused.

**Exit codes follow grep** — 0 strings found, 1 none found, 2 the
question was malformed — so finding nothing is an answer rather than an
error.

## Commands

| 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 |

## Settings

| 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 notific