DelphiSense
Free, lightweight code-review and static-analysis extension for Embarcadero Delphi / Object Pascal — works on any Delphi version, no configuration required.
DelphiSense scans your Delphi source and flags common code-quality and correctness issues — unused units, overly long methods, silently swallowed exceptions, unreachable code, deep nesting, and TODO markers — directly in the editor (Problems panel + squiggles), and generates a polished, shareable HTML report in the style of classic tools like Pascal Analyzer.
It ships as a single, self-contained VS Code extension: no external services, no background processes, no required internet connection.
Features
- Analyze at any scope — a single
.pas file, a folder, a whole .dpr/.dpk project, or the entire workspace.
- Inline diagnostics — findings show up as squiggles in the editor and in the Problems panel, same as any built-in linter.
- Professional HTML report — a self-contained, downloadable report with a quality score, severity/category breakdowns, a per-file summary table, and full findings detail — easy to attach to a PR, email, or code-review ticket.
- Works on any Delphi version — the analyzer is a version-agnostic structural scanner, not tied to a specific compiler release. It degrades gracefully on syntax it doesn't fully recognize rather than failing the whole file.
- Extensible with your own rules — drop a
.delphisense/rules.json file in your workspace to add project-specific pattern checks (e.g. "flag hardcoded connection strings") with no coding required.
Built-in checks (v0.1)
| Rule |
What it flags |
unusedUses |
A unit listed in uses but never referenced in the file |
longMethod |
A procedure/function body longer than the configured max (default 60 lines) |
emptyExceptFinally |
An empty except (silently swallowed exception) or empty finally block |
deadCodeAfterExit |
A statement that can never execute after Exit/raise/Abort |
deepNesting |
Control-flow nesting deeper than the configured max (default 4) |
todoComment |
TODO / FIXME / HACK / XXX markers in comments |
longLine |
Lines longer than the configured max (default 120 chars) |
More checks (cyclomatic complexity, cross-references, memory-leak detection) are planned for a future release once the full grammar parser lands — see Roadmap below.
Usage
Run any of these from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P), or right-click a file/folder in the Explorer:
- DelphiSense: Analyze Current File
- DelphiSense: Analyze Folder...
- DelphiSense: Analyze Project (.dpr/.dpk)...
- DelphiSense: Analyze Workspace
Each run opens an HTML report in a panel and offers a Save Report As… button to download it anywhere on disk.
Adding your own rules
Create .delphisense/rules.json in your workspace root:
{
"rules": [
{
"id": "noHardcodedConnStr",
"pattern": "Password\\s*=",
"message": "Possible hardcoded password in a connection string.",
"severity": "error"
},
{
"id": "noShowMessageInLoop",
"pattern": "ShowMessage\\s*\\(",
"message": "Avoid ShowMessage in production code paths — prefer logging.",
"severity": "hint"
}
]
}
Each rule is a regular expression run line-by-line — no code execution, so it's safe to share and version-control alongside your project.
Configuration
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
delphisense.longMethod.maxLines |
60 |
Max body lines before longMethod fires |
delphisense.deepNesting.maxDepth |
4 |
Max nesting depth before deepNesting fires |
delphisense.maxLineLength.max |
120 |
Max line length before longLine fires |
delphisense.rules.disabled |
[] |
Rule IDs to turn off, e.g. ["unusedUses"] |
delphisense.customRulesPath |
.delphisense/rules.json |
Workspace-relative path to your custom rules file |
How it works
DelphiSense uses a lightweight, single-pass structural scanner rather than a full compiler-grade AST parser. It extracts the structural facts each rule needs — the uses clause, routine boundaries, comments — while tolerating unfamiliar syntax gracefully. This is what lets it work uniformly across Delphi 7 through the latest RAD Studio release without version-specific configuration.
Roadmap
- Full recursive-descent AST parser (cyclomatic complexity, call graphs, cross-references)
- CSV/JSON export alongside HTML
- Standalone CLI sharing the same analysis engine, for CI/pre-commit use
- DFM form-file analysis
License
MIT — free for personal and commercial use.
