Format Incrementer

Fill every caret / selection in your editor with a generated sequence — not just plain 1, 2, 3 auto-increment. Drop multiple carets (or make multiple selections), invoke the command, pick a pattern, preview it live, and apply.

This repo is a monorepo with two feature-equal plugins that share an identical sequence engine:

Plugin	Folder	Stack
IntelliJ Platform (IDEA, WebStorm, PyCharm, ...)	intellij/	Kotlin + Gradle (IntelliJ Platform Gradle Plugin 2.x)
Visual Studio Code	vscode/	TypeScript

Originally a 2016 IntelliJ-only plugin that only did sequential numbering. Version 2.0 is a full rewrite onto modern tooling, adds a VSCode extension, and replaces the hard-coded counter with a configurable pattern picker.

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Help & usage guide

Full guide: docs/HELP.md · In-app: Format Incrementer Help (Tools menu / Command Palette)

Quick start

  1. Place carets     Alt/Option-click, or multiple selections
  2. Run command      Shortcut, Tools menu, or right-click
  3. Pick pattern     Choose type → set fields → check preview → Apply

Keyboard shortcut (same in both plugins)

Platform	Shortcut
macOS	Shift + Cmd + 1
Windows / Linux	Shift + Ctrl + 1

Where to find it

	IntelliJ	VS Code
Run	Tools → Format Incrementer… · Editor right-click	Command Palette · Editor right-click
Help	Tools → Format Incrementer Help · Help menu · Help button in dialog	Command Palette → Format Incrementer: Help

Example workflow

  Before (3 carets, numeric start=1 step=1)     After
  ────────────────────────────────────────      ─────────
  id: |___|                                     id: 1
  id: |___|                                     id: 2
  id: |___|                                     id: 3

All carets update in document order in a single undo step. Your last pattern is remembered for the next run.

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Patterns

All pattern types are available in both plugins:

Pattern	Parameters	Example output
Numeric	start, step	1, 3, 5 (start 1, step 2)
Zero-padded	start, step, width, pad char	001, 002, 003
Radix	start, step, base (2-36), uppercase	a, f, 14 (hex from 10, step 5)
Alphabetic	start, step, uppercase	a, b, c ... aa, ab
Roman	start, step, uppercase	I, II, III
Dates	start date, step amount, step unit, format	2024-01-01, 2024-01-02, ...
Template	start, step, template string	item_1, row-001, 0xa

Template tokens

The template pattern replaces a {n} token with the formatted counter:

Token	Result (value 10)
{n}	10
{n:03}	010 (zero-padded width)
{n:hex} / {n:HEX}	a / A
{n:oct}, {n:bin}	12, 1010
{n:alpha} / {n:ALPHA}	j / J
{n:roman} / {n:ROMAN}	x / X

Examples: item_{n} → item_1, item_2 · row-{n:03} → row-001, row-002 · 0x{n:hex} → 0xa, 0xb

Descending sequences are supported via a negative step.

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Building

IntelliJ plugin

Requires JDK 21 for compilation (auto-provisioned via the Gradle toolchain resolver). Gradle itself cannot run on JDK 25 — if ./gradlew fails with 25.0.1, the wrapper auto-selects a compatible JDK from common install locations. If none is found, run the one-time setup script:

cd intellij
./scripts/ensure-jdk.sh   # downloads JDK 21 into .jdk/ (gitignored)
./gradlew runIde

Or use the convenience launcher:

cd intellij
./run-ide.sh

cd intellij
./gradlew test          # run the engine unit tests
./gradlew buildPlugin    # produces build/distributions/*.zip
./gradlew runIde         # launch a sandbox IDE with the plugin loaded

Install the built ZIP via Settings > Plugins > Install Plugin from Disk.

VSCode extension

Requires Node.js 18+.

cd vscode
npm install
npm test                 # run the engine unit tests
npm run build            # bundle dist/extension.js
npx vsce package         # produces a .vsix (requires @vscode/vsce)

Install the .vsix via Extensions view > ... > Install from VSIX, or press F5 in VSCode to launch an Extension Development Host.

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Architecture

The two plugins intentionally duplicate a small, pure sequence engine rather than sharing a package across language ecosystems:

• IntelliJ: intellij/src/main/kotlin/com/rsunder10/formatincrementer/Sequence.kt
• VSCode: vscode/src/sequence.ts

Both expose a pure render(config, index) that maps a 0-based caret order to a string, plus a preview(...) helper used by the UIs. Each side has matching unit tests (Kotlin, TypeScript) covering every pattern; keep them in sync when changing behavior.

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License

MIT - see LICENSE.