File Grid Open

Save groups of files as named sets and open any set side by side in one click, laid out in the columns and rows you choose.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.85 or later (or VSCodium)

Install

• VS Code: install from the Visual Studio Marketplace, or search for File Grid Open in the Extensions view.

• VSCodium and other editors: install from Open VSX.

• From a file: download the .vsix from the releases page, open the Extensions view, choose the ... menu, and select Install from VSIX.... Or from a terminal:

  code --install-extension FileGridOpen.vsix
  

  Use codium instead of code for VSCodium. Each release's notes list the .vsix SHA-256 checksum (sha256sum FileGridOpen.vsix to check it).

Getting started

1. Click the File Grid Open icon in the Activity Bar.
2. Create a set: right-click a file in the Explorer or on its editor tab and choose Add to File Grid Open Set... (or run File Grid Open: Add Current File to Set...), or use Edit Configuration in the view's title bar. You can also arrange your editors the way you like and run File Grid Open: Save Current Layout as File Set....
3. Click a set in the sidebar to open its files side by side.

The sidebar

Sets are listed in the sidebar (the same list in every window, with or without a folder open) and expand to show their files; click a file to open just that file. A file that no longer exists is marked with a warning icon, and its set shows how many are missing.

• Right-click a set to open, edit, rename, duplicate, pin to the status bar, update from the current layout, copy as JSON, move to a group, or delete it (with confirmation).
• Right-click a file to remove it from its set, or open just that file in a chosen editor group: its configured position, the active group, beside it, or any open group.
• Groups are sidebar folders. Use Move to Group... to file a set under one, then right-click the folder to rename it or remove it (the sets are kept).
• Drag and drop: drag files from the Explorer onto a set to add them, drag sets to reorder them or onto a folder to group them, and drag files within a set or onto another set to move them.
• Status bar: a button for the set you opened last, plus one for each set you pinned. The last-opened set is remembered across windows.

Commands

The set actions in the screenshot are in the sidebar's right-click menu. These commands are in the Command Palette:

• File Grid Open: Open File Set: open a set, choosing from a list if there is more than one.
• File Grid Open: Open Last File Set: reopen the set you opened last (also a status bar button).
• File Grid Open: Save Current Layout as File Set...: create a set from the files open in the editor grid, keeping their columns and rows.
• File Grid Open: Import File Set from Clipboard: add sets from JSON copied with Copy File Set as JSON.
• File Grid Open: Edit Configuration: open the configuration editor.
• File Grid Open: Add Current File to Set...: add the file in the active editor to a set (also in the editor tab's right-click menu).
• File Grid Open: Edit Configuration (JSON): open the raw config file, creating it if it doesn't exist.
• File Grid Open: Refresh: reload the sidebar.

Save Current Layout and Import are also in the ... menu of the sidebar's title bar. None of the commands have default keybindings; bind any of them in Keyboard Shortcuts.

The configuration editor

Edit Configuration opens a form for your sets. It saves automatically as you type, and Edit as JSON opens the raw file for anything the form doesn't cover.

• Add, remove and reorder sets and files with the arrow buttons, duplicate sets, and browse for a path.
• Set each file's column, row and newest (see below). If two files would land in the same cell, the change isn't saved and the conflicting rows are highlighted.
• Per-set options: Close other editors on open, Open on startup, Pin to status bar, and Group.
• Duplicate set names get a number appended ("New set 2").
• Paths that don't exist are highlighted. The editor updates itself when the config changes elsewhere.

The config file

File sets live outside your project, in one JSON file named sets.json in your user config directory. There is a single list of sets, identical in every window, and nothing depends on which folder (if any) is open:

• Linux: ~/.config/FileGridOpen/sets.json (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/FileGridOpen/sets.json)
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/FileGridOpen/sets.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\FileGridOpen\sets.json

Edit Configuration (JSON) opens the right file for you. To store it somewhere else (for example in a synced folder), set File Grid Open: Config Path (fileGridOpen.configPath). It is an application setting, so it applies to every window: ~ expands to your home directory, and a relative value resolves against your home directory. sets.json can also be a symbolic link into a synced or dotfiles folder; saving updates the file it points to and keeps the link in place.

The file is a JSON array of sets:

[
  {
    "id": "61341f68-a226-4422-914f-f752e91a84d8",
    "name": "component with test below",
    "group": "Frontend",
    "pinned": true,
    "paths": [
      { "path": "~/projects/app/src/components/Button.tsx", "column": 0, "row": 0 },
      { "path": "~/projects/app/src/components/Button.test.tsx", "column": 0, "row": 1 },
      { "path": "~/projects/app/src/components/Button.css", "column": 1 }
    ]
  }
]

A path can also be written as a plain string ("~/projects/app/src/components/Button.css"), but the extension saves it back as { "path": ... } whenever it rewrites the file. Optional fields are left out when they aren't set.

The file is checked when it's read. Invalid JSON, a set without name or paths, a negative column or row, a newest below 1, or a non-boolean flag shows an error, and the sidebar stays empty until it's fixed.

Layout

• With no column or row, files open left to right in the order listed, one per column.
• column values are sort keys, not literal slots, so 0 and 2 with no 1 still give two adjacent columns.
• row stacks files vertically within a column. Leave it out, or give every file in a column the same row, to keep that column to a single row.
• VS Code allows up to 9 editor groups; extra files are skipped with a warning.
• A set that uses row rebuilds the whole editor grid, which closes any other open editor groups in the window. A set that only uses column opens new columns alongside whatever is already open.

Glob patterns and dates

A path containing *, ? or { is a glob pattern, such as ~/projects/app/src/components/Button.*. * matches within one folder level, ** matches any number of folders, ? matches one character and {a,b} matches either alternative. When the set opens, the pattern is replaced by the matching files (up to 100) in natural order, so log.2 comes before log.10. The search walks the folder before the first glob segment, skips .git and node_modules (unless the pattern names them), doesn't follow symbolic links, and stops with a warning if it covers more than 50,000 entries. Your files.exclude setting isn't applied. Without a column the matches go into successive columns; with one they stack as rows in that column, starting at the entry's row (or 0). A pattern that matches nothing shows a warning. Brackets aren't special, so pages/[id].tsx is a literal name.

Set "newest": N on a glob entry to open only the N most recently modified matches, still laid out in name order: { "path": "/var/log/app/All_*.log", "newest": 1 }.

Brace groups made only of YYYY, MM, DD and the separators -, _ and . are replaced with today's local date before the pattern runs: {YYYY-MM-DD} becomes 2026-10-03 and {YYYYMMDD} becomes 20261003. So /var/log/app/All_{YYYY-MM-DD}*.log matches today's All_2026-10-03.log and any rotations like All_2026-10-03.1.log. Add a day offset to move the date: {YYYY-MM-DD-1} is yesterday and {YYYYMMDD+7} is a week from now. Other braces, like {a,b}, work as normal glob alternatives.

In the sidebar, a glob entry lists the files it matches right now, with a count ("3 matches", or "1 of 7 matches" when newest limits it). The list refreshes when you refresh the view or the config changes, not when files appear on disk.