AutoIndentPaste

🚀 Just Released — August 19, 2025!

한국어로 읽기: README.ko.md

Contents

• Highlights
• Demo
• How It Works
• Examples
• Installation
• Usage
• Settings
• Known Behaviors & Trade‑offs
• Troubleshooting
• Development
• Design Rationale
• License

Highlights

• Column‑accurate indentation: converts leading whitespace to visual columns using the active tabSize. Mixed tabs/spaces paste cleanly into any indentation level.
• “First line stays, rest align”: the first pasted line is kept as‑is; subsequent lines shift to align under each cursor’s current indent.
• Multi‑cursor aware: when editor.multiCursorPaste: "spread" and the clipboard newline count matches the selection count, the extension defers to VS Code’s native paste.
• Respects EOLs: clipboard line endings are normalized to the target document (LF/CRLF) to avoid diff noise.
• Format on paste friendly: if editor.formatOnPaste is enabled, requests range formatting only over pasted spans and merges overlaps to reduce churn.
• Clipboard‑safe: inserts via editor APIs; your system clipboard remains untouched.

How It Works

1. Prebake the clipboard

   • Scan each line’s leading whitespace → record (charsConsumed, visualColumns).
   • Derive a baseline B from non‑empty trailing lines (the first line’s indent isn’t used to shift itself).
   • For each line after the first, compute C = max(0, indent − B).

2. Measure the target

   • For each cursor, if the text on the left isn’t indent‑only, paste verbatim at that position.

3. Assemble

   • Let A be the current cursor‑left columns.
   • First line: original text
   • Others: makeIndent(A + C, preferTabs) + original text
   • preferTabs becomes true when a tab exists to the left or the editor uses tabs.

4. Post‑paste polish

   • Move cursors to the ends of inserted blocks, reveal the last cursor, then (optionally) apply range formatting.

This is language‑agnostic: no syntax heuristics, only columns + editor settings.

Examples

Clipboard

class qwe:
class asd:
class zxc:

Result (pasted at a 4‑space indent)

class qwe:
    class asd:
        class zxc:

Mixed tabs/spaces → preserved columns

\tfoo
bar

Pasted beneath a line indented with tabs will continue to use tabs; beneath spaces will use spaces.

Non‑indent positions → verbatim

const x = 1;▮ // cursor after code → no reindent, plain paste

Installation

This extension is not published and no VSIX is provided.

• Build from source and run in an Extension Development Host.

npm install
npm run build

• In VS Code, press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host.

Usage

• Paste as usual: Ctrl+V / Cmd+V.
• When enabled, the extension replaces the default paste.
• If any cursor is not at pure indentation, that cursor receives a plain paste.

Settings

Contribution (from package.json):

"AutoIndentPaste.enableIndentPasteBinding": {
  "type": "boolean",
  "default": true,
  "description": "Enable AutoIndentPaste Paste to replace the default Ctrl/Cmd+V keybinding."
}

Default keybinding when enabled:

{
  "command": "AutoIndentPaste.IndentPaste",
  "key": "ctrl+v",
  "mac": "cmd+v",
  "when": "(editorTextFocus || notebookCellEditorFocused) && !editorReadonly && config.AutoIndentPaste.enableIndentPasteBinding"
}

Respects editor preferences:

• editor.insertSpaces / editor.tabSize
• editor.multiCursorPaste
• editor.formatOnPaste

Known Behaviors & Trade‑offs

• Multi‑cursor “spread”: when the newline count matches selection count in spread mode, native VS Code paste is used to match expectations.
• Non‑indent positions: any cursor after non‑whitespace receives a plain paste to avoid unintended shifting.
• Formatting: range formatting runs after paste when enabled. Slow formatters can add a brief delay; disable editor.formatOnPaste if undesirable.

Troubleshooting

Format on paste didn’t run

• Ensure "editor.formatOnPaste": true (user or workspace).
• Confirm your language has a range formatter (DocumentRangeFormatting provider). Some formatters only implement whole‑document formatting.
• Try pasting into a small file or disabling other paste/format extensions to rule out conflicts.

Unexpected multi‑cursor behavior

• If editor.multiCursorPaste: "spread" and the clipboard’s newline count equals the number of selections (or N-1 without a trailing newline), VS Code’s native spread paste intentionally takes over.

Tabs vs spaces look odd

• Check editor.tabSize and editor.insertSpaces. The extension targets visual column equivalence, not literal whitespace equivalence.

Development

Requirement: VS Code 1.97.2+; APIs used target ^1.97.2.

npm install
npm run build
npm run dev

• Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host.
• Main entry: ./out/extension.js.

Design Rationale

• Deterministic: pure column math — no syntax parsing, no language servers.
• Safe: no clipboard mutation; edits apply via TextEditorEdit/WorkspaceEdit.
• Integrated: cooperates with native spread paste and format on paste.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see LICENSE.

This icon is licensed under the Lucide License.