Fretboard Renderer for VSCode

Render guitar fretboard diagrams — chord shapes, scale boxes, whatever — as SVG, directly in VSCode's built-in Markdown preview. Write a lightweight YAML shorthand in a ```fretboard fenced code block; the preview renders it as a diagram.

This is the VSCode counterpart to the Fretboard Renderer Obsidian plugin — same YAML syntax, same rendering engine, shared from the same repository.

Example

```fretboard
startFret: 0
notes:
  - {s: 6, f: 0, label: root}
  - [5, 2]
  - [4, 2]
  - [3, 1]
  - [2, 0]
  - [1, 0]
```

Open Markdown Preview (Ctrl+Shift+V / Cmd+Shift+V) to see it rendered.

Syntax

Full YAML syntax reference — every field, absolute/relative mode, chord and scale naming, virtual notes, and so on — lives in the main repository's README. This extension implements the same syntax; nothing VSCode-specific about it.

Configuration

Settings are layered the same way as the Obsidian plugin (System < Global < Local), with System and Global mapped onto VSCode's own mechanisms:

• System (installation-wide default): open VSCode's Settings (Ctrl+, / Cmd+,) and search for "Fretboard Renderer", or edit settings.json directly under the fretboardRenderer.* keys (e.g. fretboardRenderer.orientation, fretboardRenderer.labelMode). Every field from the Obsidian plugin's settings tab is available here.

• Global (workspace-wide override): add a fretboard-renderer.yaml file at the workspace root — same format as the Obsidian plugin's vault-wide config file:

  orientation: vertical
  fretCount: 5
  labelMode: note
  

• Local (per-diagram override): any key inside a ```fretboard block itself, same as in Obsidian.

Autocomplete

Inside a ```fretboard block, IntelliSense suggests keys and values as you go — same context-aware behavior as the Obsidian plugin (keys before :, values after, scoped to notes/boxes/barre/diagrams nesting).

VSCode only auto-invokes the suggestion popup on non-word characters, so it appears automatically right after typing : or a space. To bring it up anywhere else (e.g. the very first letter of a key), press Ctrl+Space (Cmd+Space on macOS).

Known limitations (MVP)

• Global config (fretboard-renderer.yaml) is re-read on every preview render, not watched for changes independent of the note itself.

License

MIT