Gatehouse Power Fx
Syntax highlighting for Power Apps .pa.yaml files with embedded Power Fx formulas.
The .pa.yaml format is the modern source format for Microsoft Power Apps canvas apps, used by Power Platform Git Integration, pac canvas download, and the PAC CLI. This extension brings first-class editor support to VS Code.
Features
Full syntax highlighting for Power Fx formulas embedded in YAML property values:
- 212 built-in functions —
Filter, LookUp, Set, Navigate, Patch, If, Switch, and more
- 59 built-in enums —
Color.Red, DisplayMode.Edit, ScreenTransition.Fade, LayoutMode.Auto, Appearance.Primary, and more
- String literals — correct
"" escape handling (Power Fx convention, not backslash)
- Interpolated strings —
$"Hello {User().FullName}"
- Quoted enum members —
DecimalPrecision.'0' and similar
- Operators — arithmetic, comparison (
<>, >=), logical (&&, ||), concatenation (&)
- Comments —
// line comments and /* */ block comments
- Disambiguation —
[@DataSource] operator
YAML structure awareness
The grammar understands the .pa.yaml schema:
- Structural keys —
Screens, App, ComponentDefinitions, EditorState highlighted as keywords
- Control types —
Control: Classic/Button@2.2.0 with namespace, type, and version highlighting
- Property names —
Fill, OnSelect, Text highlighted distinctly from formulas
- Children lists — control names in
- controlName: highlighted as entity names
- Block scalars — multi-line formulas after
|- with per-line = prefix highlighting
- Metadata keys —
Variant, Layout, IsLocked, DefinitionType with value highlighting
File icons
Custom file icons for .pa.yaml files in both light and dark themes.
Supported file patterns
| Pattern |
Description |
*.pa.yaml |
Power Apps canvas app source files |
This includes:
App.pa.yaml — app-level properties and named formulasScreen1.pa.yaml — per-screen source with controls and formulasComponents/*.pa.yaml — component definitions_EditorState.pa.yaml — screen and component ordering
What is .pa.yaml?
Power Apps canvas apps can be exported to source files using the PAC CLI or Git Integration. The .pa.yaml format (v3.0) is Microsoft's current source format, replacing the older .fx.yaml and .msapp formats.
The official schema is published at microsoft/PowerApps-Tooling.
Requirements
None. This is a pure syntax highlighting extension with no external dependencies.
Known issues
- Power Fx formulas inside YAML double-quoted strings (
"=formula") are not highlighted (use unquoted =formula instead, which is the standard .pa.yaml convention)
About
Built by Gatehouse — quality assurance tooling for Microsoft Power Apps.
License
MIT
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