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 primary cursor position (selection.active). There is no cache: every run recalculates the result from the current state.

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:

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

When no symbols are recognized at the cursor position, code_path is an empty array ([]).

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

Uses a relative file_path and includes code_path as a symbol array plus the cursor line.

Example:

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

JSON Absolute Path

Uses an absolute file_path with the same JSON structure.

Example:

{ "file_path": "/home/dev/projects/my-app/data/feeds/catalog.xml", "code_path": ["rss", "channel", "item", "customfields"], "line": 125 }

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. Line number — selection.active.line + 1 (JSON format only)

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.