Confetti

Smart detection, syntax highlighting, and formatting for nginx, dotenv, gitignore, hosts, TOML, YAML, and 16+ configuration file types in VS Code.

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Install

Install Confetti from the Visual Studio Marketplace, or search in the VS Code Extensions view for Confetti, config formatter, gitignore, nginx format, or dotenv.

Why Confetti?

Configuration-file support is fragmented. A project may contain nginx.conf, .env.local, .npmrc, .gitconfig, ssh_config, pyproject.toml, and several ambiguous .conf files, each requiring a different extension.

Confetti provides one consistent experience:

• Content-aware configuration type detection
• Theme-compatible TextMate syntax highlighting
• Format Document support with format-specific rules
• No account, AI service, cloud service, or network connection required

Confetti does not force a language mode when a file cannot be identified reliably.

Performance and resource use

Confetti is designed to stay out of the typing path. It does not continuously rescan a document on every edit. Detection runs when a file is opened, activated, saved, or explicitly detected; formatting runs only when requested by VS Code or the user.

Core benchmark results for the generated Nginx sample:

Resource characteristics:

• The 1.1.0 VSIX is approximately 137 KB and has no runtime npm dependencies.
• Detection retained about 0.06 MB of additional heap for a 1 MB sample; after releasing the result and running GC, the measured delta was about 0.02 MB.
• Formatting a 1 MB Nginx sample temporarily increased heap usage by up to 75 MB immediately after the operation. The measured delta returned to approximately zero after the result was released and GC ran. Tokenization and formatting work on a complete document, so temporary allocation grows with file size.
• Detection cache entries are small and are removed when their documents close.
• Confetti has no polling loop, background index, network client, telemetry client, Webview, or language server.

These are core-library measurements, not total VS Code Extension Host memory. VS Code hosts multiple extensions in a shared process and manages TextMate grammar memory itself, so per-extension idle RSS cannot be isolated accurately. Results are indicative and vary by hardware and file content.

Method: Apple Silicon (darwin arm64), Node.js 24.14.1, 10 warm-up runs; 100 measured iterations for 100 KB and 30 for 1 MB. The table rounds up the slower p95 values observed across repeated local runs, including a run immediately after the complete test and build pipeline. Reproduce it with npm run benchmark.

Supported formats

Getting started

1. Install Confetti from the VS Code Extensions view.
2. Open a supported configuration file.
3. Confetti detects the type and applies a suitable language mode when confidence reaches the built-in safety threshold.
4. Check the language name in the lower-right corner of the editor.

For ambiguous files such as production.conf, Confetti examines both the path and content instead of relying only on the extension.

For YAML, INI, and Java Properties, Confetti keeps VS Code's canonical language mode when it is already active. This preserves compatibility with validation, completion, and other language tooling from installed extensions.

Syntax highlighting

Confetti highlights format-specific elements such as:

• Comments and directives
• Keys and values
• Sections and subsections
• Strings, numbers, and booleans
• Variables and environment interpolation
• Paths, blocks, anchors, aliases, and tags where applicable

The grammars use standard TextMate scopes, so colors follow your active VS Code theme. Confetti does not hard-code colors.

Formatting

Use either of these methods:

• Open the Command Palette and run Confetti: Format Config.
• Run VS Code's standard Format Document command.

Formats marked as supported above have dedicated tokenizer-backed formatters. Confetti formats structural tokens instead of applying broad regular-expression replacements, while preserving comments, quoted content, escaped spaces, and continuation lines.

Confetti intentionally does not register formatters for YAML, Ignore files, or tool version files. YAML is left to dedicated tools such as Prettier; Ignore rules remain byte-sensitive and order-sensitive; version files do not benefit from structural rewriting. Detection and syntax highlighting remain available for all three.

Formatting is designed to be idempotent: running it a second time should produce no additional changes.

If multiple formatters are installed, run Format Document With... and select Confetti, or use Confetti: Format Config to invoke Confetti directly.

Commands

Open the Command Palette with Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P and search for:

Settings

Open VS Code Settings and search for Confetti.

Both settings are available as checkboxes in the VS Code Settings UI.

Confirm which formatter ran

Run Confetti: Show Formatter Output. Every Confetti formatting invocation records the trigger, detected format, result, elapsed time, and file path.

Example:

Format Document provider | Nginx | edit produced | 0.23ms | /path/nginx.conf
Confetti: Format Config | Nginx | edit applied

If no new Confetti entry appears, another formatter handled the document.

Troubleshooting

The file was not detected

Run Confetti: Detect Config Type, then Confetti: Show Detection Info. Confetti intentionally leaves low-confidence files unchanged.

Format Document does nothing

Make sure confetti.format.enable is enabled. Run Confetti: Format Config directly and check Confetti: Show Formatter Output.

Highlighting looks different between themes

This is expected. Confetti defines semantic TextMate scopes, while the active theme chooses their colors.

Privacy

Confetti runs locally. It does not require an account, upload configuration files, or send telemetry.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.90 or later

Links

• Visual Studio Marketplace
• Source code
• Report an issue
• Change log

License

MIT