A fast, navigable tree viewer for large XML and JSON files in VS Code.
VS Code's built-in formatter starts to struggle with large XML and JSON files — syntax highlighting breaks down, scrolling becomes sluggish, and the sheer volume of markup makes it hard to find what you need. XML Deep View renders your file as a collapsible tree that stays fast and readable no matter the size.
Features
Collapsible tree view — nodes collapse by default so you see the full structure at a glance; expand only what you need
Color-coded display — tags, attributes, and JSON value types each have distinct colors for quick scanning
Inline search — highlights all matches across the tree, navigate with Prev / Next, and ancestor nodes auto-expand to show context
File stats panel — file size, node count, max depth, unique tags, top-10 tag frequency (XML), and type distribution (JSON)
Large file support — handles files that break VS Code's standard formatter; warns at 5 MB, gracefully blocks above 10 MB
XML and JSON — unified interface for both formats
Usage
Right-click a file in Explorer:
Right-click any .xml or .json file → Open in XML Deep View
From the editor toolbar:
Open a .xml or .json file and click the Open in XML Deep View button in the editor title bar.
From the Command Palette:Ctrl+Shift+P → XML Deep View: Open Current File
Coming Soon
Expand / collapse individual subtrees by depth
Click a node to jump to its line in the source file
Copy a node or subtree as formatted text
Support for additional file types (.xaml, .config, .svg, and more)
Increased file size ceiling with streaming / chunked parsing
