Open Markdown in Constly

This extension requires Constly, the byte-faithful WYSIWYG Markdown editor, to be installed on this machine (placing the cursor needs Constly 4.7.0 or later). Open in Constly saves the file if it has unsaved changes, then opens it in Constly at the same line and column; nothing else happens without you asking. Constly saves on ⌘S / Ctrl+S — it does not autosave to disk — so press save in Constly to see a change back in VS Code. A file that is dirty in another VS Code window is not saved by this extension; VS Code's own "newer on disk" prompt protects that window's edits. The extension makes no network requests and collects no data (Constly's own privacy policy covers Constly). After a hand-off the VS Code tab is closed by default, because Constly edits the file in place rather than previewing it; set constly.afterOpen to keep to leave it open.

Using it

Editor title bar — the Open in Constly button on any .md, .markdown or .mdx file (hide it with constly.showEditorTitleButton).
Right-click in the editor, on the editor tab, or on files in the Explorer (select several to open them all, in order).
Command Palette — Constly: Open in Constly, Constly: Locate Constly…, Constly: Install Constly….

No keyboard shortcut is bound by default. To add one, open Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON) and add, for example:

{ "key": "ctrl+alt+o", "command": "constly.open", "when": "editorLangId == markdown" }

Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
`constly.path`	`""`	Explicit path to Constly: `Constly.app` on macOS, the `constly` executable elsewhere. Overrides detection. Machine-scoped — a workspace cannot set it.
`constly.afterOpen`	`close`	`close` the VS Code tab after handing the file over, or `keep` it (VS Code reloads it when Constly saves).
`constly.passCaret`	`true`	Put Constly's cursor where VS Code's was (Constly ≥ 4.7.0).
`constly.showEditorTitleButton`	`true`	Show the title-bar button on Markdown files.

How Constly is found

Detection runs only when you invoke a command, never at start-up, and a positive result is remembered for the session. If Constly is not found you are offered Download Constly and Locate…; once installed, the next command finds it without a reload.

OS	Looked at, in order
macOS	`/Applications/Constly.app`, `~/Applications/Constly.app`, then Spotlight (`mdfind`, scoped to those two folders) by bundle id
Windows	the installer's Uninstall registry entry (per-user, then per-machine), then `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Constly\constly.exe`, then `where constly`
Linux	`which constly`, then `/usr/bin/constly`; inside a Flatpak-sandboxed VS Code, the same through `flatpak-spawn --host`

Constly: Locate Constly… lets you pick the app or executable yourself and stores it in constly.path. On macOS, point it at Constly.app: a bare constly binary also works, but runs as a child process of VS Code instead of being launched by the system (the "degraded" mode).

What it does not do

Remote workspaces (SSH, WSL, containers, Codespaces): Constly opens files on this machine, so files in a remote workspace are refused with a message.
Untitled files: save the file first so Constly has something to open.
The browser (vscode.dev): not available.
Write your file: the extension only saves what you already typed, and never touches the file otherwise.

The command line Constly accepts is documented at constly.com/docs/ide.

Privacy

This extension makes no network requests and collects no data. The Install Constly… command opens constly.com/download in your browser; that is the only link it follows, and only when you choose it.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.