Copy Dynamic Breadcrumb

A Visual Studio Code extension that copies the editor's dynamic breadcrumb to the clipboard — the file path combined with the symbol hierarchy at the current cursor position.

Instead of sharing only a file name, you paste precise context: where the file lives and which code region the cursor is in. This is especially useful when working with AI tools, because it reduces unnecessary exploration, saves context, and lowers the chance of analyzing the wrong part of a file.

What gets copied

The breadcrumb always reflects the active editor and the current selection. There is no cache: every run recalculates the result from the current state.

For the text format and for JSON with a single-line selection (cursor or partial line), the primary cursor position (selection.active) drives symbol lookup. When more than one line is selected and you copy in JSON format, the output uses a selection range instead of a single line.

Two output formats are available:

Text format

Copied by Relative Path and Absolute Path:

{file_path}:{code_path}

When no symbols are recognized at the cursor position, only the file path is copied (no :).

JSON format

Copied by JSON Relative Path and JSON Absolute Path.

Single line (cursor or selection on one line) — includes line:

{ "file_path": "packages/actions/src/Action.php", "code_path": ["Action", "getSchemaComponentState"], "line": 605 }

Multiple lines selected — includes selection instead of line:

{ "file_path": "/home/dev/projects/filament/packages/actions/src/ImportAction.php", "code_path": ["ImportAction"], "selection": { "start_line": 528, "end_line": 533 } }

That JSON points an AI (or a human) straight at the maxRows method — no need to open the file and hunt for it.

When no symbols are recognized, code_path is an empty array ([]). For multi-line selections, start_line is always ≤ end_line, even when the user selects bottom-up.

Usage

Editor context menu

Right-click in the editor and open the Copy Dynamic Breadcrumb submenu:

Copy Dynamic Breadcrumb  ▶
                          ├── Relative Path
                          ├── Absolute Path
                          ├── ─────────────
                          ├── JSON Relative Path
                          └── JSON Absolute Path

Command Palette

• Copy Dynamic Breadcrumb: Relative Path
• Copy Dynamic Breadcrumb: Absolute Path
• Copy Dynamic Breadcrumb: JSON Relative Path
• Copy Dynamic Breadcrumb: JSON Absolute Path

Copy options

Text

Relative Path

Uses the file path relative to the workspace folder that contains the file (supports multi-root workspaces).

Example:

data/feeds/catalog.xml:rss > channel > item > customfields

Absolute Path

Uses the file's absolute path on the system.

Example:

/home/dev/projects/my-app/data/feeds/catalog.xml:rss > channel > item > customfields

JSON

JSON Relative Path / JSON Absolute Path

Uses file_path (relative or absolute) and code_path as a symbol array. The location field depends on the selection:

• One line — line with the cursor's 1-based line number.
• Multiple lines — selection with start_line and end_line (1-based, inclusive).

Single-line example:

{ "file_path": "packages/actions/src/Action.php", "code_path": ["Action", "getSchemaComponentState"], "line": 605 }

Multi-line example:

{ "file_path": "/home/dev/projects/filament/packages/actions/src/ImportAction.php", "code_path": ["ImportAction"], "selection": { "start_line": 528, "end_line": 533 } }

Examples

Text format

JSON format

How it works

VS Code does not expose a public API to read the breadcrumb shown in the editor title bar. This extension reconstructs it using public APIs only:

1. File path — relative to WorkspaceFolder or absolute via Uri.fsPath
2. Cursor symbols — DocumentSymbolProvider (vscode.executeDocumentSymbolProvider)
3. Location (JSON only) — line from selection.active when the selection spans one line; selection.start_line / selection.end_line (1-based) when it spans multiple lines. Symbol lookup uses the cursor for single-line selections and the top of the range for multi-line selections.

It works for any language that provides document symbols (TypeScript, PHP, XML, etc.), without language-specific parsing and independent of theme or VS Code UI.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code ^1.125.0
• Windows, Linux, or macOS

Development

npm install
npm run compile
npm test

To test locally, open the project in VS Code and press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.

License

See LICENSE.