ChartForgeX Markup for VS Code

Author ChartForgeX visual blocks from Markdown-friendly markup, preview them while you write, export SVG, PNG, or HTML, and generate C# builder code for topology diagrams.

What You Get

Syntax highlighting for chartforgex <kind> v1 fenced blocks.
Markdown diagnostics that point back to the original source line.
Live preview backed by ChartForgeX.Markup.Cli.
Export commands for SVG, PNG, and standalone HTML.
C# builder generation for moving a diagram into application code.

Quick Start

Create a native visual block in Markdown:

```chartforgex chart v1 {#trend title="Trend" type="line"}
labels Jan Feb Mar
values 12 18 16
```

Run ChartForgeX Markup: Open Preview from the command palette.

Native v1 snippets are available for topology, flow, sequence diagrams, table-backed topology, charts, multi-series charts, timelines, and Gantt plans. Mermaid fences are scanned by the language, while semantic Mermaid parsing is provided by the optional ChartForgeX Mermaid adapter used by the packaged CLI.

The extension package includes schemas/chartforgex-markup-v1.schema.json, the same machine-readable v1 grammar schema packed by ChartForgeX.Markup, so editor tooling can discover supported fence families and table sections without scraping docs.

Commands

ChartForgeX Markup: Open Preview
ChartForgeX Markup: Validate
ChartForgeX Markup: Export SVG
ChartForgeX Markup: Export PNG
ChartForgeX Markup: Export HTML
ChartForgeX Markup: Generate C#
ChartForgeX Markup: Generate C# File
ChartForgeX Markup: Open Output Folder

Supported Files

The extension activates for:

.cfx.md
.chartforgex.md
Markdown files that contain fenced chartforgex <kind> v1 blocks

Requirements

Packaged installs include a bundled ChartForgeX.Markup.Cli for:

win-x64
win-arm64
linux-x64
linux-arm64
osx-x64
osx-arm64

The package also includes a portable .NET fallback. Development installs fall back to the sibling ChartForgeX.Markup.Cli project when the bundled CLI is not present.

Set chartforgexMarkup.cliPath to use a custom executable, DLL, or .csproj.

Settings

chartforgexMarkup.cliPath: custom CLI executable, DLL, or project path.
chartforgexMarkup.validateDebounceMs: validation delay after edits.
chartforgexMarkup.previewAutoRefresh: refresh previews while editing.
chartforgexMarkup.previewDebounceMs: preview refresh delay.
chartforgexMarkup.outputDirectoryMode: write exports beside the Markdown file or into the workspace.
chartforgexMarkup.outputSubfolderName: output folder name.
chartforgexMarkup.defaultExportFormat: default export format.

Development

npm install
npm run compile

Install the extension as a linked development build:

.\scripts\dev-install.ps1 -Insiders -Force

Reload VS Code after compiling changes.

Package

Package the VSIX and refresh bundled CLI assets with:

npm run package

This runs scripts/package-vsix.cjs, publishes ChartForgeX.Markup.Cli, copies portable and self-contained runtime assets into tools/ChartForgeX.Markup.Cli, compiles the extension, and creates a VSIX under dist/.

PowerShell and CI callers can use the equivalent script directly:

.\scripts\package-vsix.ps1

Install a packaged build into VS Code Insiders:

.\scripts\install-insiders.ps1 -Force

Marketplace Publishing

Set VSCE_PAT and publish:

$env:VSCE_PAT = '<token>'
npm run publish:marketplace

The GitHub workflow packages the extension on pull requests and pushes that touch ChartForgeX markup, runtime dependencies, or the workflow itself. It uploads the VSIX as the chartforgex-markup-vsix artifact.

Release publishing follows the OfficeIMO-style flow:

Normal package release tags such as ChartForgeX-v1.0.3 stamp the extension version from UTC publication time as three SemVer-safe numeric components: year.(month*100+day).(hour*10000+minute*100+second). For example, 2026-07-21 10:58:09 UTC becomes 2026.721.105809.
Legacy ChartForgeX-vYYYYMMDDHHMMSS release tags remain supported and map to the same unpadded numeric components.
Release publishing is allowed only from commits contained in origin/main.
Existing Marketplace versions are skipped, while the VSIX is still attached to the GitHub Release.
Pre-release GitHub releases and workflow-dispatch pre_release runs package as VS Code pre-release extensions.
Marketplace publishing requires the repository secret VSCE_PAT.

Support

Use the ChartForgeX issue tracker for bugs, diagram syntax ideas, and extension packaging problems.

ChartForgeX Markup

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