Medical Image Insight

A VS Code extension that displays metadata for medical imaging files — no conversion, no external tools needed. Just open the file.

Supported Formats

Features

Metadata Webview

Opening any supported file shows a formatted metadata panel instead of a binary hex dump. Displays geometry, data type, orientation, and format-specific fields grouped into sections.

Explorer Badge

Supported files in the Explorer sidebar show an IM badge and a tooltip with a brief summary (dimensions, data type, space) on hover.

Context Menu Command

Right-click any supported file in the Explorer → Show Medical Image Metadata.

Usage

1. Open a folder containing medical image files in VS Code.
2. Click a .nii.gz, .nrrd, .vtk, .vtp, or .vti file — the metadata viewer opens automatically.
3. Hover over files in the Explorer to see a quick summary tooltip.
4. Right-click a file and choose Show Medical Image Metadata to open the viewer from the context menu.

Parsed Fields

NIfTI — dimensions, voxel sizes, data type, intent code, qform/sform codes, q-offset, description string.

NRRD — type, dimension, sizes, spacings, space directions, space origin, encoding, endianness, content.

VTK Legacy — dataset type (STRUCTURED_POINTS, POLYDATA, …), dimensions, spacing, origin, point/cell counts.

VTK XML (VTP) — number of points, verts, lines, strips, polys; data array names.

VTK XML (VTI) — whole extent, derived dimensions, origin, spacing; data array names.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.85 or later
• No external dependencies — parsing uses only Node.js built-ins (fs, zlib, Buffer)

Extension Settings

This extension has no configurable settings.

Known Limitations

• NIfTI-2 orientation fields (qform/sform) are not fully parsed yet.
• Binary VTK files are detected but geometry values are not decoded from binary blocks.
• Very large files: only the header is read, so metadata is fast regardless of file size.

License

MIT © Jilei Hao