Epoch Highlighter automatically detects Unix epoch timestamps in supported files and displays them as human-readable date and time formats directly in the editor, helping developers quickly interpret logs, database values, and debugging output.
Installation
Launch VS Code Quick Open (Ctrl+P), paste the following command, and press enter.
A Visual Studio Code extension that detects Unix epoch timestamps in any file and displays them as human-readable ISO 8601 dates — directly inline in the editor.
Features
On-demand highlighting — Run the command only when you need it; no background processing.
Supports both formats:
10-digit epochs (seconds) — e.g. 1699459200 → 2023-11-08T16:00:00.000Z
11–13-digit epochs (milliseconds) — e.g. 1699459200000 → 2023-11-08T16:00:00.000Z
Inline annotation — The human-readable date appears right next to the timestamp in purple.
Summary notification — Shows how many timestamps were found and highlighted.
Works on any file type — logs, JSON, plain text, source code, etc.
Usage
Open any file containing Unix epoch timestamps.
Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux, Cmd+Shift+P on macOS).
Type and select Epoch Highlight.
All epoch timestamps in the active file are annotated with their human-readable equivalent.
Running the command again will refresh the highlights (e.g. after editing the file).
Commands
Command
Description
Epoch Highlight
Highlight all epoch timestamps in the currently active file
Requirements
Visual Studio Code ^1.90.0
No external dependencies
Extension Settings
This extension does not contribute any configurable settings at this time.
Known Issues
Numbers with 11 or 12 digits that are not epoch timestamps may be incorrectly annotated. Epoch detection is based on digit count (10 or 13 digits match most standard formats).
Release Notes
0.0.1
Initial release.
On-demand epoch timestamp highlighting via Command Palette.
Supports 10-digit (seconds) and 13-digit (milliseconds) Unix timestamps.
