Variable Name Therapist

A gentle, respectful linter that spots low-quality variable names and suggests more meaningful alternatives.

What it does

Analyzes the active file when you change, save, or switch editors
Flags vague or suspicious variable names with friendly diagnostics
Focuses on JS/TS without breaking other languages

Supported languages

TypeScript
JavaScript
TSX/JSX
Python (optional via regex fallback)
Go (optional via regex fallback)

Example messages

"Let's talk about this name: 'data' — what is it really?"
"Temp is not a plan. Consider a more specific name."

Commands

Variable Name Therapist: Toggle Enabled
Variable Name Therapist: Analyze Current File Now
Variable Name Therapist: Show Naming Summary

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`variableNameTherapist.enabled`	boolean	`true`	Enable or disable the extension.
`variableNameTherapist.severity`	string	`warning`	Diagnostic severity (`warning` or `info`).
`variableNameTherapist.debounceMs`	number	`500`	Debounce time in ms.
`variableNameTherapist.allowSingleLetterInLoops`	boolean	`true`	Allow i/j/k in loops.
`variableNameTherapist.ignoredPrefixes`	array	`['_','$']`	Prefixes to ignore (e.g. `_private`, `$cache`).
`variableNameTherapist.ignoredNames`	array	`['ok','id']`	Names to ignore.
`variableNameTherapist.allowedLanguages`	array	`['typescript','typescriptreact','javascript','javascriptreact']`	Language IDs to analyze.
`variableNameTherapist.enableRegexFallback`	boolean	`false`	Use regex when AST parsing isn't available.
`variableNameTherapist.useDefaultNameLists`	boolean	`true`	Use built-in name lists and patterns.
`variableNameTherapist.genericNames`	array	`[]`	Extra generic names to flag.
`variableNameTherapist.genericPatterns`	array	`[]`	Extra regex patterns for generic names.
`variableNameTherapist.keyboardMashNames`	array	`[]`	Extra keyboard-mash names to flag.
`variableNameTherapist.versionedPatterns`	array	`[]`	Extra regex patterns for versioned names.
`variableNameTherapist.locale`	string	`auto`	Message language (`auto`, `en`, `es`).

To enable Python or Go, add the language IDs to allowedLanguages and set variableNameTherapist.enableRegexFallback to true.

You can also customize which names are flagged:

{
  "variableNameTherapist.useDefaultNameLists": false,
  "variableNameTherapist.genericNames": ["payload", "stuff"],
  "variableNameTherapist.genericPatterns": ["^data_.*$"],
  "variableNameTherapist.versionedPatterns": ["^legacy_.*$"]
}

Development

From the repo root:

cd extensions/variable-name-therapist
npm install
npm run watch

Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.

Testing

cd extensions/variable-name-therapist
npm test

Variable Name Therapist

devflorez

Variable Name Therapist

What it does

Supported languages

Example messages

Commands

Settings

Development

Testing