VDL VSCode Extension

Official VDL extension for Visual Studio Code or any VSCode based editor.

• VDL Docs
• VDL Repository
• VDL VSCode Extension Repository

Installation

• Install from the VSCode Marketplace
• Install from Open VSX Registry
• Download the .vsix file from the releases page

Features

The following features are provided by the extension for .vdl files.

• Syntax highlighting
• Error highlighting
• Code autocompletion
• Auto formatting
• Code snippets

Requirements

This extension requires the VDL (vdl) binary on your operating system PATH.

You can download the binary for any OS/Arch in the VDL Releases page.

For more information on how to install vdl, read the VDL documentation.

If the binary is not in your operating system PATH, you can set a custom path in the vdl.binaryPath setting.

Extension Settings

• vdl.enable: Enable VDL language support. If disabled, the only feature that will be available is Syntax Highlighting. Default true.

• vdl.binaryPath: Path to the VDL binary. If not set, the extension will try to find vdl or vdl.exe in your PATH. Default <not set>.

Commands

• vdl.init: Initialize a new vdl.yaml and schema.vdl files
• vdl.restart: Restart Language Server
• vdl.openLogs: Open Language Server Logs

Snippets

The following snippets are available for .vdl files:

• type: Define a new custom data type
• field: Add a field to a type
• enum: Define an enumeration (String or Integer)
• const: Define a global constant
• pattern: Define a string interpolation pattern
• map: Define a map type (keys are always strings)
• rpc: Define a new RPC service block
• proc: Define a request-response procedure inside an RPC
• stream: Define a unidirectional stream inside an RPC
• include: Include another VDL file
• deprecated: Mark the next element as deprecated
• doc: Insert a standalone documentation block
• docfile: Reference an external markdown documentation file

Release Notes

Below are release notes for the last 10 versions, you can also see the entire changelog.

v0.1.3 - 2026-02-02

• Fixed syntax highlighting for keywords used as field names (e.g., input: string, output: int, type: bool).

v0.1.2 - 2026-02-01

• Refactored VDL syntax highlighting with granular declarations and improved pattern matching.

v0.1.1 - 2026-01-30

• Added vdl.openLogs command to easily open the language server log file.

v0.1.0 - 2026-01-29

• Initial release of VDL for VSCode (formerly UFO RPC).