Pancho

Clean, format and transform text like Notepad++

Language: English · Español

Contents: Install · Features · Top 10 · Why Pancho? · Privacy · How to use · Commands · Demos · Shortcuts · Settings · Contributing

Install

VS Code Marketplace: Pancho++
Open VSX: undaniels/pancho-plus-plus
Or run ext install undaniels.pancho-plus-plus.

Features

138 commands available from the context menu
Command hub (Pancho: Show command menu) with categories, shortcuts and recently used
Multi-cursor & multi-selection aware: transforms apply per cursor/selection
Repeat last command (Ctrl+Shift+.)
Diff preview for destructive commands (opt-in)
Column mode: insert / delete / copy / paste column blocks
Macros: record, replay, save and export/import command sequences
Inline hover info: decode JWTs, timestamps, colors and Base64 just by hovering
Quick fixes (Code Actions): detect JWT / JSON / CSV / hex and convert in place
Regex tester panel with live matches, groups and replace preview
Clipboard history (Ctrl+Alt+V) and sort by column
Safe regex engine with timeout (no more frozen windows)
Status bar counters (lines, words, characters)
Keyboard shortcuts for frequent operations
Settings for tab size, EOL and more
English & Spanish UI (follows VS Code's display language)

Top 10 commands

New here? These are the ones people reach for the most:

Command	What it does	Shortcut
Show command menu	Searchable hub of everything Pancho can do	—
Sort by column...	Sort CSV/TSV rows by a chosen column	—
Remove duplicate lines	De-duplicate a list in one shot	`Ctrl+Shift+D`
Regex tester panel	Live matches, groups and replace preview	`Ctrl+Alt+R`
Clipboard history...	Re-paste anything you copied recently	`Ctrl+Alt+V`
Decode JWT	Decode a token (also available as hover / quick fix)	—
Column fill series...	Fill a column with an incrementing series	—
CSV to JSON / JSON to CSV	Convert tabular data both ways	—
Macro: record & play	Automate repetitive edits	—
Align by =	Line up assignments / tables	—

More examples in docs/demos.md.

Why Pancho?

Notepad++ muscle memory in VS Code: the same text operations, in the context menu.
Context aware: hover a JWT/timestamp/color to see it decoded; select JSON/CSV/JWT and get one-click conversions from the lightbulb.
Safe by design: no network, no telemetry, regex in a time-limited worker thread, AES-256-GCM.
Small but complete: one extension for formatting, escaping, hashing, encoding, CSV, macros and columns.

Privacy & security

No telemetry, no network access. Pancho runs entirely locally and never sends your text anywhere.
Safe regex engine. User-provided regular expressions run in an isolated worker thread with a timeout, so a malicious or accidental catastrophic pattern cannot freeze VS Code.
Authenticated encryption. AES encryption uses AES-256-GCM with a random salt per message (legacy CBC data is still readable).
Workspace trust aware. Pancho declares limited support for untrusted workspaces and requires no network access.

How to use

Select text (or don't, to apply to the whole document)
Right-click → Pancho
Pick a category and a command

Commands

The 138 commands are grouped into seven categories so the context menu stays short: Edit, Lines, Text & Case, Convert, Escape, Dev tools and Macros & Columns, plus the Command hub.

Full list with descriptions: docs/commands.md (English) · docs/commands.es.md (Español).

VS Code integrations

Some commands keep Pancho's menu entry and shortcut but delegate to VS Code's native implementation (consistency and multi-cursor support): uppercase / lowercase / title case, comment & block comment, tabs↔spaces, indent/outdent, move / duplicate / insert line, sort A–Z / Z–A and join lines.

Keyboard shortcuts

Win/Linux	Mac	Command
`Ctrl+Shift+U`	`Cmd+Shift+U`	Uppercase
`Ctrl+Shift+L`	`Cmd+Alt+L`	Lowercase
`Ctrl+Shift+T`	`Cmd+Alt+T`	Trim lines
`Ctrl+Shift+W`	`Cmd+Alt+W`	Count words
`Ctrl+Shift+C`	`Cmd+Alt+C`	Count characters
`Ctrl+Shift+N`	`Cmd+Alt+N`	Count lines
`Ctrl+Shift+S`	`Cmd+Alt+S`	Sort A-Z
`Ctrl+Shift+D`	`Cmd+Alt+D`	Remove duplicates
`Ctrl+Shift+.`	`Cmd+Shift+.`	Repeat last command
`Ctrl+Alt+V`	`Cmd+Alt+V`	Clipboard history
`Ctrl+Alt+R`	`Cmd+Alt+R`	Regex tester panel

Mac shortcuts use Cmd+Alt+... to avoid clashing with native VS Code shortcuts (Cmd+Shift+W closes the window, etc.).

Some defaults collide with OS or editor shortcuts on certain platforms (Ctrl+Shift+U is "insert Unicode" on Linux, Ctrl+Shift+S is "Save As" in some editors). If that bothers you, remap them in Keyboard Shortcuts (Ctrl+K Ctrl+S) by searching for pancho.

Settings

Option	Default	Description
`pancho.tabSize`	`4`	Tab size
`pancho.defaultEOL`	`LF`	Default end of line
`pancho.statusBarShowCounters`	`true`	Show counters
`pancho.maxFileSizeKB`	`5120`	Max file size to process
`pancho.loremIpsumWordCount`	`50`	Lorem Ipsum word count
`pancho.randomStringLength`	`16`	Random string length
`pancho.regexTimeoutMs`	`2000`	Max time (ms) a regex may run before aborting
`pancho.previewDestructive`	`false`	Show a diff preview before destructive commands
`pancho.clipboardHistoryEnabled`	`true`	Record the clipboard in the background
`pancho.clipboardHistorySize`	`20`	Max clipboard entries to keep

Status bar counters

Pancho shows L:X P:Y C:Z (Lines, Words, Characters) in the status bar. When there is a selection it switches to Sel L:X P:Y C:Z so you can tell selection counts from document totals at a glance.

Demos

Step-by-step examples (hover, quick fixes, regex panel, columns, clipboard, sorting, macros): docs/demos.md.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome at github.com/undaniel/pancho.

npm install
npm run compile   # typecheck
npm test          # unit tests
npm run l10n:check
npm run bundle    # build dist/

Then press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host. See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

License

¿Te gusta Pancho? / Do you like Pancho? Deja una reseña en el Marketplace · Leave a review on the Marketplace.

Pancho++

Daniel Carrasco