kUML for Visual Studio Code

First-class editor support for kUML diagram scripts (*.kuml.kts) in Visual Studio Code.

Features

• Syntax highlighting for the kUML DSL on top of Kotlin script syntax — diagram entry points (classDiagram, umlModel, c4Model, …) and DSL builders (classOf, interfaceOf, enumOf, association, …) are highlighted as first-class language constructs.
• Snippets for the common diagram shapes: diagram, umlModel, classOf, interfaceOf, enumOf, c4Model, association, stateMachine, generalization, realization, applyProfile.
• File icon for *.kuml.kts in the explorer and editor tabs.
• One-click render via the kUML: Render to SVG command — invokes the kuml CLI. PNG output opens in your OS viewer; SVG output opens in the live-preview panel (see below).
• kUML: Export to PNG — always exports PNG (regardless of the kuml.format setting) and opens it in your OS's default image viewer.
• Diagnostics + completion via the kuml-lsp language server — parse and validation errors are pushed as you type (debounced), and completion (including resolve) is available for DSL builders and identifiers.
• kUML: Open Live Preview — a persistent webview panel that renders the active document as sanitized inline SVG and re-renders automatically on save and when you switch to another *.kuml.kts editor tab. The panel has its own Zoom In / Zoom Out / Zoom Fit toolbar for inspecting large diagrams.
• kUML: Restart Language Server — stops and relaunches kuml-lsp without reloading the whole extension host window.
• The Open Live Preview, Render to SVG, and Export to PNG commands also appear as icon buttons in the editor title bar and the editor context menu when a *.kuml.kts file is active.

Requirements

• The kUML CLI (kuml) must be installed and reachable on your PATH (or pointed at via the kuml.cliPath setting). The render command and the live preview's CLI fallback both shell out to kuml render.
• The kuml-lsp language server binary must also be reachable — it's discovered the same way as kuml: an explicit path (kuml.lspPath setting or KUML_LSP env var) → PATH → Homebrew (/opt/homebrew/bin, /usr/local/bin) / ~/.local/bin → a local Gradle build. If you're running from a clone of the kUML repo rather than an installed distribution, run ./gradlew :kuml-language-server:installDist first so kuml-language-server/build/install/kuml-lsp/bin/kuml-lsp exists for the walk-up discovery to find.
• Syntax highlighting and snippets work without either binary installed.

Live preview: dual render strategy

The kUML: Open Live Preview panel renders via two strategies, in order:

1. kuml serve HTTP API — if kuml.serverUrl is set (e.g. http://127.0.0.1:8080, from a locally running kuml serve --port …), the panel POSTs to {serverUrl}/api/render and inlines the returned SVG.
2. CLI fallback — if kuml.serverUrl is empty, or the HTTP call fails for any reason, the panel shells out to kuml render against a temp-file snapshot of the buffer (works for unsaved/dirty documents too).

Only SVG is inlined into the webview; PNG output from kuml.renderToSvg (or the dedicated kuml.exportPng command) still opens in your OS's default image viewer.

Settings

Out of scope

This extension is intentionally minimal — it gives you a good editor without trying to be a full IDE. The following are deliberately left out for now:

• Hover, go-to-definition, rename, and code actions.
• Any custom render request on the LSP itself — the server stays render-agnostic; all rendering is a client-side concern.

For OCL validation and code generation, use the dev.kuml Gradle plugin or the CLI directly.

License

Apache-2.0 — same as the rest of the kUML toolchain.