smarttab
SmartTab is a lightweight Visual Studio Code extension. Main behavior:
- Pressing Tab jumps out of the current bracket or quote (e.g., parentheses, brackets, braces, or quotes) when the caret is immediately before the closing character.
Main behavior
When the cursor is directly before a configured closing character (for example ) or "), pressing Tab moves the cursor after that character instead of inserting a tab character.
Features
- Jump out of parentheses, brackets, braces and quotes using Tab.
- Configurable list of closing characters.
- Command:
tabout (activation). Tab is bound to tabout by default in typical editor focus conditions (see package.json).
Development / Install
Install dependencies:
npm install
Run in watch mode for development:
npm run watch
Press F5 in VS Code to open the extension development host.
Usage
After installing the extension, when the caret is immediately before a configured closing character (for example ) or "), pressing Tab will move the caret after that character. This reduces manual cursor movement when typing paired characters.
Settings
Configuration is declared in package.json under contributes.configuration. Current keys (name, type, default):
smarttab.enable (boolean, default true) — Enable or disable SmartTab.smarttab.pairCharacters (array of objects) — Characters treated as closing/pair boundaries. Each item is an object with a close string property.
Default values (from package.json):
{
"smarttab.enable": true,
"smarttab.pairCharacters": [
{ "close": "\"" },
{ "close": "'" },
{ "close": "`" },
{ "close": ")" },
{ "close": "]" },
{ "close": "}" },
{ "close": ">" },
{ "close": "," },
{ "close": "." },
{ "close": ":" },
{ "close": ";" }
]
}
Example settings.json snippet:
{
"smarttab.enable": false,
"smarttab.pairCharacters": [
{ "close": ")" },
{ "close": "," }
]
}
Commands & Keybindings
tabout — Primary command used by the extension; Tab is bound to it via the extension keybinding when the editor conditions match.toggle — Toggle SmartTab in workspace (declared in package.json).
Contributing
PRs and issues are welcome. When submitting a PR, follow the repository style, include tests if applicable, and describe changes in the PR.
Release Notes
