columnar

A VS Code extension that aligns your code into clean vertical columns — like gofmt does for Go, but for every language.

# before
from celery import Celery
from flask import Flask, request, jsonify
from sqlalchemy import Column, Integer, String
from marshmallow import Schema, fields, validate

# after
from celery      import Celery
from flask       import Flask, request, jsonify
from sqlalchemy  import Column, Integer, String
from marshmallow import Schema, fields, validate

// before
struct Config {
    name: String,
    age: u32,
    is_active: bool,
    email_address: String,
    max_retry_attempts: u32,
}

// after
struct Config {
    name:               String,
    age:                u32,
    is_active:          bool,
    email_address:      String,
    max_retry_attempts: u32,
}

---

Installation (from source)

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or later) and npm
• VS Code (v1.116 or later)
• The columnar binary on your PATH (see Requirements)

Step 1 — Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/mudittt/vscode-columnar.git
cd vscode-columnar

Step 2 — Install dependencies

npm install

Step 3 — Install the VS Code extension packager

npm install -g @vscode/vsce

Step 4 — Build the extension

npm run package
vsce package

Step 5 — Install the .vsix into VS Code

Option A — Command line (recommended)

code --install-extension vscode-columnar-0.0.1.vsix

Option B — VS Code UI

1. Open VS Code.
2. Open the Extensions panel (Cmd+Shift+X on macOS / Ctrl+Shift+X on Windows/Linux).
3. Click the ··· menu (top-right of the panel) → Install from VSIX…
4. Select the .vsix file from the repo folder.

Step 6 — Verify installation

Reload VS Code (Cmd+Shift+P → Reload Window), then open any supported file and run Format Document (Shift+Option+F on macOS / Shift+Alt+F on Windows/Linux).

---

Uninstalling

Option A — Command line

code --uninstall-extension mudittyagi2002.vscode-columnar

Option B — VS Code UI

1. Open the Extensions panel (Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X).
2. Search for columnar.
3. Click the gear icon → Uninstall.
4. Reload VS Code when prompted.

After uninstalling, you can safely delete the cloned repo folder:

cd ..
rm -rf vscode-columnar

---

Usage

Run Format Document (Shift+Option+F on macOS) on any supported file, or use Format Document With... → columnar to select it explicitly.

Requirements

The columnar binary must be on your PATH:

brew tap mudittt/columnar
brew install columnar

Or point the extension to a custom binary path via the setting below.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
columnar.path	"columnar"	Path to the columnar binary

Supported Languages

Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go, C, C++, C#, Kotlin, Swift, Ruby, PHP, Dart, Lua, Makefile, Shell, Properties, INI, TOML, YAML, Plain Text