Markdown Region Buddy for Visual Studio

A Visual Studio 2022 extension that helps authors manage markdown regions — monikers, zone pivots, and tabs — with outlining (folding), hover previews, focus commands, and optional background decorations. Built for Microsoft Learn content authors and anyone working with regional markdown syntax.

This is the Visual Studio port of the Markdown Region Buddy VS Code extension.

Features

Region outlining

Collapse and expand moniker, zone pivot, and tab sections directly in the editor margin. The extension also provides standard markdown outlining for headings, fenced code blocks, tables, front matter, blockquotes, HTML blocks,  markers, and lists.

Hover previews

Hover over a collapsed section's start line to see a QuickInfo preview of up to 20 lines of content without expanding it.

Focus mode

Use the Focus on Section command to expand sections of a specific type/name while collapsing everything else — great for isolating the content you're working on.

All operations are available from a Markdown Region Buddy submenu in the right-click context menu when editing markdown files.

Background decorations (optional)

Enable subtle, theme-aware background colors to visually distinguish moniker (blue), zone pivot (green), and tab (pink) regions. Configure under Tools → Options → Markdown Region Buddy.

Supported section types

Type	Start syntax	End syntax
Moniker	`::: moniker range="..."`	`::: moniker-end`
Zone Pivot	`:::zone pivot="..."`	`::: zone-end`
Tab	`# [Label](#tab/id)`	`---` or next tab header

Tab headers support any heading level (# through ######) and optional dependent-tab syntax: # [Label](#tab/tab-id/tab-condition).

Getting started

Install the extension by double-clicking the .vsix file or via the Visual Studio Marketplace.
Open any .md file — the extension activates automatically.
Look for outlining indicators in the margin next to region start lines.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+Alt+[`	Toggle current section
`Ctrl+Alt+]`	Expand current section
`Ctrl+Alt+F`	Focus on section (opens picker)

Commands

Command	Description
Toggle Current Section	Collapse or expand the section at the cursor
Expand Current Section	Expand the section at the cursor
Collapse Current Section	Collapse the section at the cursor
Expand All Regions	Expand all moniker, zone pivot, and tab sections
Collapse All Regions	Collapse all moniker, zone pivot, and tab sections
Expand Named Section	Expand all sections matching the current section's name
Collapse Named Section	Collapse all sections matching the current section's name
Focus on Section	Pick a section type/name to focus; others collapse
Toggle Section Background Colors	Enable or disable background decorations

Configuration

Settings are available under Tools → Options → Markdown Region Buddy.

Setting	Type	Default	Description
Enable Decorations	boolean	`false`	Enable background colors for different section types
Decoration Opacity	number	`0.05`	Opacity for section background colors (0.01–0.3)

Requirements

Visual Studio 2022 version 17.14 or later

Building from source

# Restore and build
msbuild vs-md-extension-buddy.slnx /p:Configuration=Debug /restore

# Run tests
dotnet test vs-md-extension-buddy.Tests

Press F5 to launch the Visual Studio Experimental Instance for debugging.

Documentation

Architecture — Technical design and component overview
Testing Guide — Manual and automated testing instructions
Sample File — Example markdown with all supported section types

License

MIT

Markdown Region Buddy

alvinashcraft