Curvenote for VS Code

Write MyST Markdown with an editor that knows it: suggestions for directives, roles, options and frontmatter, documentation on hover, checks as you type, ORCID and ROR records looked up for your authors, and formatting on save. The same language tools run Curvenote's web editor, so a page reads the same in both.

The image directive's options, each with its documentation

Features

Suggestions as you type

Directives after :::{ or ```{: picking one on an empty line writes the whole directive, with the cursor in its body. Roles after {, with the cursor between the backticks. Each cite: variant says what it writes, so {cite:p} and {cite:t} are easy to tell apart.

Directive names after :::{

Each cite variant with what it writes

Options inside a {name …} header are written as key="", with the cursor between the quotes, for directives and roles. A directive's :key: lines suggest its own options first, and leave out the ones already written.

The image directive's options on a :key: line

Frontmatter and `myst.yml`

Keys that fit where the cursor is, each with a one-line summary: a page's keys at the top, a person's keys inside an authors item, a license's content and code. After key:, the values there's a known set of: SPDX licenses with the common ones first, true and false, a key's choices, and the ids of the people and affiliations in the same file.

Frontmatter keys with their summaries

SPDX licenses after license:

Frontmatter keeps your theme's YAML colors. Hover a key for its documentation, or a value for what it reads as.

ORCID and ROR, checked against their records

Each author's ORCID iD and each affiliation's ROR ID is looked up in the public ORCID and ROR APIs:

an iD or ID with no record is an error;
a name, city or country that isn't the record's is a warning, and a name comes with a quick fix that writes the record's;
hovering an iD shows the record: the person's name and affiliations, or the organization's type, location, founding year and website.

A name that isn't the ORCID record's, with a quick fix

Hovering a ROR ID shows the organization

A failed lookup (offline, say) shows nothing, never a false error. Turn the lookups off with curvenote.frontmatter.checkRecords.

Checks and quick fixes

Every message lands on the exact key or value it's about, with a code you can look up: unknown and duplicate options, invalid values, unknown frontmatter keys (faded, as they're ignored), YAML syntax errors. Many come with a quick fix: quoting a value with a colon in it, closing a bracket, writing CC-BY as the SPDX id CC-BY-4.0, using the name on an ORCID or ROR record.

The quick fix that writes CC-BY as CC-BY-4.0

Highlighting, folding and formatting

Highlighting for MyST's constructs (directives, roles, math, targets, comments, citations) on top of Markdown, inside lists and blockquotes too.
Folding for directives, code, blockquotes, lists, tables and heading sections.
Formatting on save, to the canonical form, with a hint and a quick fix when a file isn't formatted.

Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
`curvenote.checkFormatting`	`true`	Hint when a file isn't in its canonical formatting.
`curvenote.frontmatter.checkRecords`	`true`	Look up ORCID iDs and ROR IDs, check names and places against them, and show them on hover.
`curvenote.frontmatter.forms`	`{}`	Whether a picked key is written as a string (`license:` ) or opens its fields; see below.
`curvenote.trace.server`	`off`	Trace the communication with the language server.

curvenote.frontmatter.forms takes keys by type.key, by key, or * for every key and *[] for every list: { "person.name": "object" } writes a person's name as given and family, { "*": "object" } opens every key's fields. Settings from before the rename (remyst.*) are still read.

File association

The extension owns the .myst extension and myst.yml / curvenote.yml. To treat .md files as MyST too, add to your settings:

{
  "files.associations": { "*.md": "myst" },
}

This is off by default, so the extension doesn't take over every Markdown file in every workspace.

Issues and releases

Report a bug or ask for a feature in curvenote/curvenote-vscode. Every release is on the Marketplace, on Open VSX, and as a .vsix in the repository's releases, with the changelog.

Made with love by Curvenote.

Curvenote