Yet Another TODO Highlighter (YATH)

Highlight TODO, FIXME, HACK, and any other keywords you define — in the editor and in a sidebar panel that lists them all, organized by keyword.

Features

In-editor highlighting with per-keyword foreground and background colors
Sidebar panel (activity bar) listing every TODO across the workspace, grouped by keyword type
Click-to-navigate from any sidebar item to its source location
Hierarchical configuration — .todo-highlighter.json files merge from outer to inner directories, so a monorepo can define shared keywords at the root and let individual packages add or override their own
Include/exclude glob patterns to control which files are scanned
Per-user view preferences (line wrap) stored in your VS Code settings, not the shared config file
Theme-aware UI that adapts to your VS Code color theme

Quick start

Install the extension.
Create a .todo-highlighter.json file in your project root (see below).
Open the YATH panel from the activity bar (checklist icon).

Project configuration (`.todo-highlighter.json`)

This file defines what to highlight — keywords, colors, and which files to scan. It is meant to be checked into version control so the whole team shares the same keyword set.

{
  "keywords": {
    "TODO": { "foreground": "#ffff00", "background": "#ffff0022" },
    "FIXME": { "foreground": "#ff1493", "background": "#ff149322" },
    "HACK": { "foreground": "#ff8c00", "background": "#ff8c0022" }
  },
  "includePattern": "**/*.{ts,js,svelte,py,go,rs}",
  "excludePattern": "**/node_modules/**",
  "debounceDelay": 200
}

Fields

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
`keywords`	`Record<string, { foreground, background }>`	yes	—	Map of keyword → colors. Keys are matched case-insensitively, displayed uppercase
`includePattern`	`string` (glob)	yes	—	Files to scan for TODOs
`excludePattern`	`string` (glob)	no	`""`	Files to exclude from scanning
`debounceDelay`	`number` (ms)	no	`200`	Delay before refreshing decorations after a document change

Hierarchical merging

When you open a file, YATH walks from that file's directory up to the filesystem root, collecting every .todo-highlighter.json it finds. Configs are then merged outermost → innermost:

Scalar fields (includePattern, excludePattern, debounceDelay) — inner values replace outer ones
keywords — deep-merged. Inner entries override outer entries with the same name; unique keywords from both levels are preserved

This lets a monorepo define a baseline at the root and let individual packages add their own keywords or tweak colors locally without duplicating the shared set.

User settings (`settings.json`)

These control how the panel displays results. Because they're personal preferences, they live in your VS Code user/workspace settings rather than the shared .todo-highlighter.json.

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`yath.wrap`	`boolean`	`false`	Wrap long TODO lines in the panel and add spacing between items

You can edit these in settings.json directly, via the Settings UI (search for "yath"), or with the toolbar buttons in the panel header (see below).

The YATH panel header has these buttons:

Icon	Action
Fold	Toggle line wrap (`yath.wrap`)
Refresh	Re-scan the workspace

Toggling line wrap from the toolbar updates your workspace settings.json, so the choice persists across sessions.

Commands

Command	ID	Description
Refresh	`yath.refresh`	Re-scan the workspace for TODOs
Toggle Line Wrap	`yath.toggleWrap`	Flip `yath.wrap` on/off

All commands are available from the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P).

Behavior notes

Scanning runs at startup and whenever the config file changes. The sidebar always reflects the most recent scan; use Refresh to force a re-scan.
Editor decorations update on document edits, debounced by debounceDelay.
Switching files can change which config applies if a deeper .todo-highlighter.json exists in the new file's directory tree. The panel reloads automatically when this happens.

Development

Built with TypeScript and the VS Code Webview API.

pnpm install        # from the monorepo root
pnpm compile        # one-shot tsc build
pnpm watch          # tsc --watch
pnpm check          # type-check
pnpm lint           # eslint
pnpm package        # build a .vsix
pnpm preflight      # check + lint + compile (runs before release)

To test a local build, install the generated .vsix:

code --install-extension ./yath-X.Y.Z.vsix --force

Then run Developer: Reload Window in VS Code.

Releasing

Releases are automated via pnpm release and publish to the Visual Studio Marketplace.

One-time setup

Register the publisher. Sign in at marketplace.visualstudio.com/manage with a Microsoft account and create the element30 publisher (the ID must match the publisher field in package.json).
Generate a Personal Access Token. At dev.azure.com → User → Personal access tokens, create a token with:
- Organization: All accessible organizations
- Scopes: Custom defined → Marketplace → Manage
Save the token in the synced env folder. Add this line to ~/Sync/env/yath.env (create the file if it doesn't exist):
```
VSCE_PAT=<paste-token-here>
```
Link the env file into the package. From this directory:
```
pnpm env:link
```
This creates a .env symlink to ~/Sync/env/yath.env. The token is read from there at release time and never committed to the repo.

Per-release flow

pnpm release

This will:

Verify the working tree is clean and you're on (or merging to) main
Verify VSCE_PAT is loaded from .env
Run preflight (check + lint + compile)
Prompt for a semver bump (patch / minor / major / skip)
Verify CHANGELOG.md has an entry for the new version
Commit package.json + CHANGELOG.md as chore(yath): release version X.Y.Z
Tag yath-vX.Y.Z
Publish to the Marketplace via vsce publish
Prompt to push the commit and tag to origin

Update CHANGELOG.md before running pnpm release — the script will abort if it can't find a section for the new version.

Requirements

VS Code 1.115.0 or later.

License

MIT

Yet Another TODO Highlighter

element30