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Limited Edition DevTools

String-LE

Extract every string in a codebase, with its position, so a person can read them

FreeOpen sourceMITNo network access

No editor in the loop? npx -y string-le-mcp runs the same engine as an MCP server, so an agent can call extract_strings with nothing else installed, and cargo install string-le puts the same check in a terminal. Every way to install it.

String-LE in use: Extract every string in a codebase, with its position, so a person can read them

What String-LE does

Locale files, config files and CSV exports all bury their string values in structure. String-LE flattens that structure away: run one command and every string value in the document lands in a new editor, ready to paste into a translation tool or scan by eye. It parses JSON, YAML, CSV, TOML, INI and .env, and streams large CSVs rather than loading them whole.

What people use it for

i18n prep

Flatten locale files into a clean list of translatable values, without the key hierarchy in the way.

Config review

See every string value in a TOML, INI or .env file at a glance.

CSV mining

Pull one column, several, or all of them — large files stream rather than loading whole.

6 commands in the palette

Open the command palette and type the name. Nothing is bound to a shortcut by default — the editor's keymap is the user's, not ours.

Extract Stringsstring-le.extractStrings
Deduplicate Stringsstring-le.postProcess.dedupe
Sort Stringsstring-le.postProcess.sort
Toggle CSV Streamingstring-le.csv.toggleStreaming
Open Settingsstring-le.openSettings
Help & Troubleshootingstring-le.help

Install String-LE

VS Code

ext install nolindnaidoo.string-le

Open Quick Open (Cmd/Ctrl+P) and paste.

Cursor / VSCodium

cursor --install-extension OffensiveEdge.string-le

VS Code forks pull from Open VSX, where the namespace is OffensiveEdge.

Zed

npx -y string-le-mcp

Works in Zed today — add the command above as a custom MCP server from the agent panel, and extract_strings appears in its tool list. There is no one-click listing in Zed's extension registry yet.

AI agents

npx -y string-le-mcp

Runs String-LE's engine as an MCP server, so an agent can call extract_strings with no editor involved. VS Code 1.101+ needs nothing — the extension registers it for you.

Where it ships

One engine, 6 places to get it. The ids differ by registry — copy the one for the editor you use.

Where String-LE lives

The other 15

Extract every hardcoded number in a codebase, so a person can check them

Extract every file path in a codebase, and say whether it still points at anything

Extract every color in a codebase, and say which ones are not in your palette

Extract every URL in a codebase, with its protocol and exact position

Extract every date and timestamp, and the exact instant each one resolves to

Extract every quantity with its unit, normalized, and refuse the ambiguous ones by name

Extract every UUID, ULID, NanoID, ObjectId and Snowflake, and decode the time inside

Extract every IP address, CIDR block and MAC, normalized and classified by scope

Find every regex in a codebase, and report which can be driven into catastrophic backtracking

Check whether a page is scrapeable before the scraper is written, and say when it cannot tell

Find where one dependency is constrained differently across a repository's manifests

Identify the i18n library a project uses, then audit its catalogs by that library's rules

Find hardcoded credentials in a codebase, and never print one into the report

Compare the dotenv files in a tree, and say which keys are missing from which

Find the Unicode that hides meaning — bidi controls, invisibles, homoglyphs, mixed scripts