coderef

coderef turns regex-defined references in your source — filenames, ticket IDs, RFC numbers, doc anchors, coupled-change markers — into clickable, hoverable, verifiable links. This extension is the VSCode integration: a DocumentLinkProvider, a HoverProvider, and a references browser, all backed by the same engine that powers the coderef CLI.

The engine ships as WASM inside the VSIX, so the in-editor experience and the CLI never diverge — they parse .coderef.jsonc the same way and resolve the same regexes against the same comment-region rules.

Features

Click-through references. Anything matched by a pattern in your .coderef.jsonc becomes a DocumentLink. Ticket IDs jump to your tracker, file paths open the file, doc anchors open the doc at the right heading.
Hover preview. Hover over a reference to see which pattern matched, the resolved target URL, and the pattern's category (files / people / tickets / standards / urls / coupled-change / other per DESIGN §5.7).
References browser. Activity-bar tree view (look for the link icon) grouping every reference in the workspace by category, then by file. Click-to-jump. Live-updates via filesystem watcher; refresh button in the view header.
CLI bridge. The extension shells out to the native coderef CLI binary for write-mode subcommands (check, doctor, changes, commit-msg) and for HTTP verification. The binary ships separately via GitHub Releases / npm; the extension keeps working without it for read-only features.
Doctor diagnostics. Pattern-level checks like category.unset, category.tooBroadOther, category.mismatch, anchor.styleMismatch, coupled.composableTypo, commitMessage.allDisabled, etc. — run coderef doctor from the CLI to surface them.
Anchor verification. DOCREF(/path.md#section) resolves the heading slug against the target file (slugifiers: github / pandoc / gitlab / hugo / mkdocs-material). Levenshtein-1 suggestions on miss.
Coupled-change checks. IfChange ... ThenChange(target) blocks with Shape A/B/C support (anchor, label, glob targets, composable IDs like IfChange(JIRA(PROJ-1234))). The CLI's coderef changes enforces the three-pass algorithm.

Requirements

A .coderef.jsonc (or .coderef.json) config in your workspace root, or in .config/. The repository's README covers the schema; DESIGN.md is the canonical reference.

For the write-mode subcommands and HTTP verification you also need the native coderef CLI on $PATH. Install via:

npm install -g @helly25/coderef
# or download a release: https://github.com/helly25/coderef/releases
# or build from source: cargo install --path crates/coderef-cli

Extension Settings

coderef.enabled (default true) — master switch.
coderef.configPath (default "" = auto-detect) — explicit path to your .coderef.jsonc, relative to the workspace root.

Commands

coderef: Explain reference at cursor — describes which pattern matched at the cursor position, the resolved target, and the category.
coderef: Refresh references browser — re-scans the workspace and rebuilds the tree view.

CLI: helly25/coderef — coderef check, coderef doctor, coderef changes, coderef commit-msg, coderef patterns, coderef explain.
npm wrapper: @helly25/coderef — downloads the platform binary at install time.
Changelog: see CHANGELOG.md for extension-scoped changes; the repo's CHANGELOG.md covers the whole project.

License