NExplorer

NExplorer is a focused, AI-friendly file explorer for VS Code.

VS Code's built-in Explorer is powerful, but most of its convenience controls — folder icons, colors, per-file-type visibility, hide-from-view rules — live deep inside settings, scattered across multiple JSON keys and Settings UI pages. NExplorer gathers a curated subset of those controls into a calm, AI-friendly tree in the Activity Bar, and lets you hand a file or folder location to whichever AI tool you already use.

NExplorer doesn't replace VS Code's Explorer. It distills it for AI workflows.

Status

NExplorer is in active development.

The Explorer in the Activity Bar is the main surface. Copy and paste commands for AI workflows hang off it, and a small Options page exposes the most useful Explorer settings inline. Features ship gradually and the surface is intentionally kept small.

Installation

Install from the VS Code Marketplace:

• Open the Extensions view in VS Code (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X), search for NExplorer, and click Install.

• Or run from a terminal:

  code --install-extension fujigraphics.nexplorer
  

After install, the NExplorer entry appears in the Activity Bar.

Why

VS Code's Explorer is great, but the small actions around it — and around handing context to an AI — still feel scattered.

Common friction points:

• Folder icons, folder colors, per-file-type visibility, and hide-from-view rules are spread across separate settings, JSON keys, and the Settings UI.
• You want to hide certain folders or file types only in your own view, without touching files.exclude for the whole workspace.
• You want to share a file or folder location with an AI tool, but you end up typing or massaging the path by hand.
• You want to share only the selected code, but end up copying too much.
• You manually add file paths, line numbers, and language names every time.

NExplorer focuses on these small but frequent moments.

Philosophy

NExplorer is intentionally small.

It is not an AI IDE, not a chat client, and not a model wrapper. The goal is to make everyday context-copying workflows fast, predictable, and hard to mess up.

Core principles:

• Explorer-first: the Activity Bar Explorer is the home surface; commands hang off it, not the other way around.
• AI-neutral: no dependency on a specific model, provider, API, or chat UI.
• Clipboard-first: work with the tools and AI surfaces users already have.
• Low interruption: prefer commands, shortcuts, context menus, and status feedback.
• Precise context: preserve file paths and line ranges without copying unnecessary code.
• Small surface area: ship a few sharp features instead of many shallow ones.
• Safety by default: make copied scope visible and reduce accidental over-copying.

Features

NExplorer Explorer

The Explorer is the main surface. Open it from the NExplorer entry in the Activity Bar.

It mirrors your workspace file tree, but with the small visibility and styling controls that VS Code normally tucks away in settings brought inline:

• Search and sort. A search field narrows visible items by name or path. The sort menu offers Default, Name A-Z, Name Z-A, and Type.
• Expand or collapse a whole subtree. Shift+click (or Alt+click) a folder's arrow to expand or collapse it together with every subfolder. From the keyboard, Shift+Right expands all and Shift+Left collapses all; plain Right/Left expand or collapse one level and move to the first child or the parent, like the built-in explorer.
• Bookmark important items. Pin files or folders from the NExplorer Explorer, then switch to the Bookmark tab to see only those items in the same tree style with their parent paths preserved.
• Open bookmarked files quickly. Press Ctrl+Alt+P on Windows/Linux or Cmd+Alt+P on macOS to search bookmarked files in a Quick Pick and open the selected file. Folder bookmarks stay visible in the Bookmark tab but are not listed in this Quick Pick.
• See changed files. Switch to the Changes tab to see only the files git reports as changed, in the same tree style with their parent paths preserved. The list follows your edits and empties once you commit.

  • Recently modified files come first, so whatever an AI tool just edited is at the top. Turn off Recent first in the Explorer Options panel to use the normal sort order.

  • Each file shows how many lines were added and removed (+12 -3).

  • Right-click and choose Copy Change Summary to copy a short list of status letters, paths, and line counts (no diff contents):

    [changes]
    - M src/a.ts (+12 -3)
    - ? src/new.ts (+40)
    

• Errors and warnings. Files with problems are colored like in the built-in explorer and show their problem count; folders that contain problems are colored too. This follows problems.decorations.enabled.
• Sensitive files. Files matching nexplorer.sensitiveFiles.patterns (such as .env or *.pem) show a small lock.
• Familiar commands. The view title bar has New File, New Folder, Refresh, and Collapse Folders. The right-click menu has the built-in explorer's Open to the Side, Reveal in Finder/File Explorer, Open in Integrated Terminal, Find in Folder, Select for Compare / Compare with Selected, Copy Path, and Copy Relative Path, with their shortcuts shown next to each item. New File on a file creates it next to that file, and names such as a/b/c.ts create the folders in between.
• Paste files from the OS. Copy files in Finder or File Explorer, select a folder in NExplorer, and press Command+V / Ctrl+V to copy them in.
• Hide individual items. Right-click a file or folder and hide it from the NExplorer Explorer only. This updates NExplorer settings; it does not touch VS Code's files.exclude and does not delete, move, or rewrite anything on disk. To reverse, run NExplorer: Show Hidden NExplorer Items from the Command Palette.
• Hide by file extension. Hide entire extensions (for example .map, .lock) from the NExplorer Explorer without affecting the rest of VS Code.
• Folder and file extension icons + colors. Set a custom icon and color per folder or per file extension. A configurable color palette lets you keep visual cues consistent across a project.
• Show hidden as dimmed. By default, items hidden through NExplorer stay visible in this tree as dimmed rows, so you can still see and unhide them in place. The toggle is in the Options view.
• Multi-select context actions. Select multiple items and act on them together (copy references, paste contexts, copy structure or problems, add to the Context Basket, hide).
• Reveal in OS. Right-click a file or folder and open it directly in Finder (macOS), File Explorer (Windows), or your Linux file manager — with the item selected.

Keyboard

The tree follows the built-in explorer's keys:

The Options view next to the Explorer surfaces the most common settings (default assistant target, sort order, show-hidden toggle) inline. Less common rules (folder icons, file extension icons, color palette, hidden extensions) live in VS Code Settings under the nexplorer namespace.

Copy File Reference

Normal copy is untouched in any file explorer. NExplorer does not put file bytes on the system clipboard or pretend to attach files to external AI tools.

When a file or folder is selected in the NExplorer Explorer or the VS Code Explorer, Command+Shift+C on macOS or Ctrl+Shift+C on Windows/Linux copies a compact AI-ready reference.

Output:

[file: src/example.ts]

• Folders end with / so they are easy to tell apart from files: [file: src/utils/]. When a folder and items inside it are selected together, only the folder is kept.

• Several items become one list:

  [files]
  - src/example.ts
  - src/utils/
  

• Paths are always workspace-relative and use /, on every OS and in remote windows. In a multi-root workspace, each path starts with its root folder name (api/src/example.ts), so the same relative path in two roots stays distinct. The workspace root itself is copied as ./ (or <root name>/ in a multi-root workspace).

The command is also available from the right-click menu in both explorers.

Copy Selection Location for AI

Normal copy is untouched. Command+C on macOS and Ctrl+C on Windows/Linux still copy the selected source code exactly as VS Code normally would.

In the editor, Command+Shift+C on macOS or Ctrl+Shift+C on Windows/Linux copies only the selection location as AI-ready context.

Output:

[location: src/example.ts:12-38]

• With multiple cursors, every non-empty selection becomes its own line, sorted and with overlapping ranges merged.
• With no selection, the line under the cursor is copied ([location: src/example.ts:42]), the same way normal copy takes the current line.
• Notebook cells are referenced by the notebook path, and the left side of a git diff by the original file path.

The selected source code is not copied by the AI location command. This avoids changing normal paste behavior in editors, documents, terminals, or other non-chat surfaces.

Reference Format

nexplorer.reference.format controls how every copy and paste command writes references:

bracket works with any AI tool. atMention matches the mention syntax that Claude Code and similar tools resolve to files. With atMention, multiple references are written one per line.

Paste Context to Assistant

When code is selected in the editor or a file is selected in either explorer, Command+Shift+V on macOS or Ctrl+Shift+V on Windows/Linux sends the same references to the selected assistant. It never submits the message.

Targets: Claude (Claude Code), Codex, and VS Code Chat (including GitHub Copilot Chat). The default target can be changed in the NExplorer Options view or in VS Code Settings. NExplorer: Paste Context to Claude, NExplorer: Paste Context to Codex, and NExplorer: Paste Context to VS Code Chat can be used directly from the Command Palette.

When the target offers its own way to attach context, NExplorer uses it, so the assistant gets a real attachment instead of text:

Anything that cannot be attached (multiple selections, untitled files, a failing command) falls back to pasting the reference text. If the target extension is not installed, NExplorer says so instead of failing silently.

The text fallback writes the references to the clipboard, opens the target, and pastes. About 1.5 seconds later, your previous clipboard text is restored, unless you copied something else in the meantime.

Caveat: For that short window, the reference text (paths and line numbers, not code) sits on the OS clipboard, and a clipboard manager (Paste, Maccy, Ditto, etc.) can keep it in its history.

Shortcut conflict: In Markdown files, Command+Shift+V / Ctrl+Shift+V is also VS Code's Open Preview shortcut. NExplorer only takes it while text is selected. To keep the preview shortcut everywhere, rebind nexplorer.pasteContextToAssistant in Keyboard Shortcuts (open the Options view and click its shortcut).

Copy Folder Structure for AI

Right-click a folder and run NExplorer: Copy Folder Structure for AI to copy a tree of what you see in the NExplorer Explorer, without file contents:

[structure: src/]
src/
├── utils/
│   └── path.ts
└── index.ts

• Depth is limited by nexplorer.structure.maxDepth (default 3), and the tree stops after 500 entries with a ... (N more) line.
• files.exclude, items hidden in NExplorer, and hidden file extensions are left out.
• With several items selected, only those items and their parent folders are shown.
• Only names are copied, so the sensitive file prompt is not shown for this command.

Copy Problems for AI

Right-click files or folders (or run it with an editor open) and choose NExplorer: Copy Problems for AI to copy the errors and warnings VS Code reports for them, grouped by file:

[problems: src/a.ts]
- 12:5 error TS2345 Argument of type 'string' is not assignable to parameter of type 'number'. (ts)

Information and hint diagnostics are left out. If there is nothing to report, the status bar says so.

Context Basket

Collect references from several places, then copy them in one go.

• NExplorer: Add to Context Basket adds the selected files and folders from either explorer, or the current editor selection (or the whole file when nothing is selected). It is also in the editor and explorer right-click menus. Duplicates are ignored; several ranges in one file are fine.
• While the basket has items, the status bar shows Basket 3. Click it (or run NExplorer: Show Context Basket) to review the items, uncheck the ones to remove, or use the Copy All and Clear buttons.
• NExplorer: Copy Context Basket copies everything as one reference block and empties the basket. NExplorer: Clear Context Basket empties it without copying.
• The basket is saved per workspace and survives reloads.

Sensitive File Guard

Before a reference to a file such as .env, *.pem, id_rsa, or credentials.json is copied, pasted, or added to the basket, NExplorer asks whether to exclude it or include it anyway. Only paths are checked; file contents are never read for this. Patterns live in nexplorer.sensitiveFiles.patterns, and a pattern starting with ! exempts matches (for example .env.example).

Copy Size Feedback

After copying or pasting references, the status bar shows how much the AI tool would have to read, for example Copied 3 files (1,240 lines, ~15k tokens). Token counts are a rough estimate (characters / 4). Lock files, minified files, binary files, and files over 2,000 lines are called out, for example Large: package-lock.json (12k lines). Files over 5 MB are not scanned.

Intended Workflow

NExplorer fits into normal VS Code usage.

Typical entry points:

• The NExplorer entry in the Activity Bar
• Right-click menus in the NExplorer Explorer and the VS Code Explorer
• Editor context menu actions
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Status bar feedback

A common flow:

1. Open NExplorer from the Activity Bar and browse the project in the curated Explorer.
2. Right-click a file or folder to copy a reference, paste context to an assistant, or reveal it in the OS.

Or directly in the editor:

1. Select code in VS Code.
2. Press Command+Shift+C on macOS or Ctrl+Shift+C on Windows/Linux.
3. Paste the prepared context into any AI tool.

Non-Goals

NExplorer should not become:

• A replacement for VS Code's built-in Explorer (NExplorer is a focused companion, not a substitute).
• A replacement for Cursor, Copilot Chat, Claude, Codex, or ChatGPT.
• A dedicated AI chat interface.
• A direct API wrapper for a specific model provider.
• A large prompt-engineering framework.
• A tool that copies entire projects by default.

License

Apache License 2.0. The full text is bundled with the extension as LICENSE.txt.