Paste as Markdown Codeblock

paste-as-markdown-codeblock is a Visual Studio Code extension that lets you paste code or text from the clipboard as a Markdown code block.

Features

• Automatic Language Detection: The extension automatically detects the programming language from your clipboard content and suggests it as the default language for the code block.

• Paste the copied code as a Markdown code block using Ctrl+Alt+V

• Press Ctrl+Space to enter a language identifier (e.g., JavaScript, Python, TypeScript) or select from detected/configured languages.

• Right-click in the editor and select "Paste as Markdown CodeBlock" to use the command from the context menu.

How Language Detection Works

When you paste code, the extension analyzes the clipboard content using keyword and pattern matching to identify the programming language. Supported languages include:

• Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, C++, Go, Rust, Ruby, PHP
• Bash, HTML, CSS, JSON, SQL, YAML, XML
• And more...

If a language is confidently detected, it will be pre-selected in the code block. If detection is uncertain, the extension falls back to your configured default language.

Note: Automatic language detection is disabled by default. To enable it, turn on pasteAsMarkdownCodeblock.enableAutoDetection in your settings.

Requirements

No special requirements or dependencies are needed.

• Visual Studio Code version 1.xx or later

Extension Settings

This extension provides the following settings:

• pasteAsMarkdownCodeblock.defaultLanguage
  Specifies the default language identifier used when pasting a code block if automatic detection fails or is uncertain.
  Default: "plaintext"

• pasteAsMarkdownCodeblock.languages
  Defines a list of language identifiers available for selection. You can customize this list to include only the languages you frequently use. The auto-detected language (if any) will be added to this list automatically when pasting.

Default:

[
  "plaintext",
  "javascript",
  "typescript",
  "python",
  "cpp",
  "java",
  "bash",
  "html",
  "css",
  "json"
]

These settings can be configured from the Settings UI or by editing your settings.json file directly.

Keyboard Shortcut

Press Ctrl+Alt+V to paste the copied code as a Markdown code block (only when the editor is focused).

Known Issues

• The language name may not always be correctly inserted, depending on the input.

• The command requires selected or copied text. If nothing is provided, no output will be generated.

Release Notes

1.1.0

• New Feature: Automatic programming language detection from clipboard content
  • Detects languages using keyword and pattern matching
  • Supports 15+ popular programming languages
  • Falls back to default language when detection is uncertain
  • Maintains backward compatibility with existing configurations

1.0.0

• Initial release
• Added functionality to paste selected text as a Markdown code block

Following extension guidelines

This extension follows the official VS Code extension development guidelines.

• Extension Guidelines

License

This extension is licensed under the MIT License.

Thanks for using this extension!
Feel free to report bugs or request features via the Issues page.