Prompteur

• Local, Git-friendly Markdown prompts for developers who reuse prompts across projects.
• Category/tag organization and full-text search.
• Copy or preview generated text with selection, clipboard, filename, and workspace variables.
• User library in profile storage; Workspace library in .vscode/prompts.
• No Prompteur account, direct network service, AI provider, or telemetry. User prompts sync through VS Code Settings Sync by default. Workspace writes, generation, and preview require Trust.
• Stable release. Prompt file format version: 1.

Install and Run

• Desktop VS Code 1.96+.
• Development: Node.js 22.12+.

npm ci
npm run build
npm run package
code --install-extension prompteur-1.0.0.vsix

• Press F5 to open Extension Development Host.
• Packaging creates local VSIX; it does not publish. Publishing a GitHub release triggers Marketplace publication after CI passes.

Daily Workflow

1. Open Prompteur > New Prompt; choose User or Workspace.
2. Edit/save Markdown in VS Code's text editor.
3. Browse categories or Filter Prompts; combine text and exact tags (for example, tag:security review).
4. Select source text, then run Copy from the tree or Command Palette.
5. Paste generated text into Chat or another app/window. Copy never edits source or inserts into Chat.

• Generation reads selection from the current or last active non-library, non-preview editor in the same window.

• Selecting a placeholder in a prompt body does not provide context.

• VS Code windows do not share selections; copy in the source window, then paste in the target window.

• Prompt menu: Edit, Duplicate, Delete, Copy Prompt, Preview.

• Copy Prompt stores a window-local record; Paste Prompt creates a file on User/Workspace scope or category. Category target overrides category; source remains.

• Copy generates text to the OS clipboard. Workspace source/destination requires Trust.

• Commands: Command Palette > Prompteur. Clear Filter resets search; Reload Libraries rescans.

• View gear opens settings:

  • Default Scope: User, Workspace, or Ask for untargeted New Prompt/Add Starter Library/Paste Prompt. Ask shows the picker when both libraries exist; otherwise it selects User. Explicit tree targets win.
  • Preferred Category: preselect approved category; user confirmation remains required.
  • Show Tags: show/hide row labels; default On. Search and tooltips remain unchanged.
  • Category Count Mode: Filtered (default), Total, or Hidden. Search still controls which categories appear.
  • Group by Category: On by default; turn off for a flat prompt list.
  • Sync User Prompts: On by default; uses VS Code Settings Sync between instances. Incoming changes apply on activation or Reload Libraries. Workspace prompts do not sync.

• Built-in virtual categories: Explain, Plan, Implement, Review, Test, Debug, Document.

• Add profile-wide categories only after confirmation. Remove unused categories with Remove Prompt Category; reassign prompts first.

• Tags cross categories; Show Tags controls row labels. Tooltip links filter exact tags/categories or open the Markdown file.

• Filters use AND semantics; quote values with spaces (for example, tag:"security review").

• Search covers names, descriptions, tags, content, and paths. Results sort alphabetically.

Prompt Files

---
version: 1
name: Inspect Change
description: Look for defects in the selected code.
category: review
tags: [inspection, security]
---

Inspect {{filename}} in {{workspace}}.

{{selection}}

• Frontmatter fields: version, name, description, category, tags. Markdown body is prompt content.

• Required: version: 1, nonempty name, approved category. Description/tags default empty.

• Reject unknown fields, unsupported versions, malformed YAML, and aliases.

• File path is identity; names may repeat. Filenames use readable slugs and numeric collision suffixes.

• Variables: selection, clipboard, filename, workspace.

• Expand once; collapse repeated blank lines. Empty selection is allowed; other empty values warn.

• Unknown/malformed placeholders block generation. Read clipboard only when requested.

• Preview opens an editable plaintext snapshot; it does not update. Reopen to regenerate. Never render images/HTML.

Libraries

• Workspace root: .vscode/prompts/prompts/ in the first local workspace.
• User root: prompts/prompts/ in this extension's profile storage, typically <user-data>/User/globalStorage/dmundt.prompteur/prompts/prompts/.

.vscode/prompts/
  prompts/
    review-code.prompt.md
    engineering/
      incident.prompt.md

• Discover nested .prompt.md files; browse by category. Ignore legacy .yaml/.yml files without changing them.

• No remote/virtual libraries.

• Approved categories are profile-wide across User/Workspace.

• Workspace writes/generation/preview require Trust; User prompts work in untrusted workspaces.

• No library-settings file or usage records. Preserve existing settings.yaml, rules, Favorites/MRU, and other files.

• Do not load/convert YAML prompts; create .prompt.md files.

• Unapproved categories appear as repairable items. Move prompts from old custom directories into prompts/ manually.

Starters

Add Starter Library copies 16 editable prompts:

• Explain: Explain Selected Code.

• Plan: Clarify Requirements; Plan Smallest Useful Implementation; Plan Behavior-Preserving Refactor.

• Implement: Implement Scoped Change.

• Review: Review Code; Review Complexity; Review Architecture; Review Security; Audit Release Readiness; Audit Implementation Completeness; Audit Accessibility.

• Test: Generate Focused Unit Tests.

• Debug: Triage Production Incident; Analyze Root Cause.

• Document: Document Feature Usage.

• Installation is opt-in. Rerun after updates to add missing starters.

• Never replace existing files, including invalid ones. Writes are safe per-file, not transactional; failures report completed count.

• No import/export or bundles. In-app copies use a temporary window-local buffer; use the filesystem across windows/apps.

Validation and Safe Writes

• Invalid frontmatter appears as a repairable item and editor diagnostic; unrelated files remain usable.

• Ordinary saves preserve formatting/body. No format-on-save hook.

• Writes use expected-source checks, exclusive locks, synced temp files, atomic replacement, and no-overwrite creation.

• Reject symlink/junction paths. Bound file, library, YAML depth/node, and generated output.

• External writers ignore extension locks; no filesystem sandbox or distributed transaction.

• Docs: storage, architecture, commands, scope, verification, icons.

• Historical audit/remediation records and older changelog entries describe prior designs.