vscode-ibmi-languages

Syntax highlighting for IBMi languages such as RPG, CL, DDS, MI, and RPGLE fixed/free.

Please consider downloading IBM i Development Pack. This extension pack includes this extension, Code for IBM i, COBOL support, RPGLE language server, and more.

There are probably a few syntax bugs left. Please open an issue or a pull request if you see something amiss.

Contributors

• @barrettotte
• @worksofliam
• @chrjorgensen
• @GajenderI
• @lildude
• @richardm90
• @JH-JTBaldwin

Features

• Syntax highlighting for RPG III and RPG/400 - H,F,E,L,I,C,O specs
• Syntax highlighting for Control Language (CL)
• Syntax highlighting for Command Definition (CMD)
• Syntax highlighting for UIM Panel Group (PNLGRP)
• Syntax highlighting for DDS files - physical, logical, display, printer, and ICF
• Syntax highlighting for Machine Interface (MI)
• Syntax highlighting for RPGLE fixed - H,F,D,I,C,O,P specs
• Syntax highlighting for RPGLE free
• Syntax highlighting for embedded SQL in SQLRPG and SQLRPGLE
• Support for a mix of RPGLE free and fixed format
• Support for binder language
• Support for DB2 SQL keywords in embedded SQL

Last updated to July 2026 PTF enhancements for 7.6 and 7.5

File Types (case insensitive)

For each source type, I lumped legacy (system/38) source types together with the regular source types.

Screenshots

See screenshots/ for more examples of syntax highlighting.

RPG/400

RPGLE Fixed Format

RPGLE Free Format

RPGLE Free with Embedded SQL

Control Language (CL)

Command (CMD)

UIM Panel Group (PNLGRP)

Data Description Specification - Physical File (DDS)

Machine Interface (MI)

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to build, test and change a grammar, and tests/README.md for how the snapshot tests work.

npm ci
npm test              # tokenize every fixture, compare against its snapshot
npm run lint          # repository checks
npm run format:check  # prettier

Hints & Tips

tmLanguage Scope Names

The colours used in VS Code are determined by the scope names assigned in the relevant tmLanguage file, which are then mapped to colors by the active colours theme.

To see the actual scope at a cursor position:

1. Place your cursor on the word (e.g. TIME)
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+P on Mac)
3. Type and select: Developer: Inspect Editor Tokens and Scopes
4. This shows you the exact scope name and the colours applied by your theme

Releasing

Publishing a GitHub release packages the extension and publishes it to the VS Code Marketplace and to Open VSX. See docs/RELEASING.md.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md

Known Bugs / Future Improvements

See issues.

References

IBM language references

The grammars are built from these. Each is the authoritative keyword and positional reference for one of the languages this extension highlights. The PDF editions are linked because they are complete in one file and can be searched offline, which is how the keyword lists are checked for omissions.

Other

• Derived from an existing RPG extension
• Repo used to test older RPG
• Regex tool
• VS Code Language extensions