Strings-LE

Strings-LE: Zero Hassle String Extraction

Pull every string value out of the current file in one keystroke

JSON/JSONC, YAML, CSV/TSV, TOML, INI, Environment files, and ten source languages

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What it does

Open a file, run String-LE: Extract Strings, and every string value in the document lands in a new editor — deduplicate and sort it from there. Works in VS Code and in VS Code–based editors like Cursor and VSCodium (installable from Open VSX).

• i18n prep — flatten locale files (JSON/YAML) into a clean list of translatable values
• Config review — see every string value in a TOML/INI/.env file at a glance
• CSV mining — pull one column, several, or all of them; stream very large files

Install

Use it from an AI agent

The same engine runs as an MCP server, so an agent can call it directly instead of you running a command.

extract_strings(content, format?, filename?, dedupe?, multiline?, maxResults?)

Returns the values in document order, capped at 500 by default with meta.truncated. A format is optional — any unrecognised format falls back to quoted strings.

The server takes content and returns data — it reads no files and makes no network requests of its own. Published as string-le-mcp on npm and as io.github.nolindnaidoo/string-le in the MCP registry.

Configuring it by hand — any host with an MCP config file

Most hosts read a JSON config. Add one entry:

{

"mcpServers": { "string-le": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "string-le-mcp"] } } }

-y skips the install prompt on first run. Pin a version if you would rather not track releases — string-le-mcp@2.5.1.

Prefer not to go through npx on every launch? Install it once and point at the binary instead:

npm install -g string-le-mcp

{

"mcpServers": { "string-le": { "command": "string-le-mcp" } } }

It speaks MCP over stdio and needs no environment variables, no API key and no configuration of its own. To check it before wiring it into anything:

echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}' | npx -y string-le-mcp

That prints the tool list and exits — if you see extract_strings, the server works.

Supported formats

Values are trimmed; empty values are dropped; keys are never extracted — one rule, shared by every extractor above. The fallback scan cannot see unquoted strings, which is why the parsed formats and the source languages get real readers; it reads a quoted run across lines when string-le.fallback.multiline is on (the MCP tool's multiline). Parse errors are silent unless string-le.showParseErrors is on.

Across a folder or a workspace

Extract reads the document you have open. A scan reads many files from disk and gives one report.

• The whole workspace: run String-LE: Extract Strings from Workspace from the command palette.
• One folder: right-click it in the Explorer and choose Extract Strings from Folder, or run String-LE: Extract Strings from Folder and pick one.

A project writes the same string in many places, so the report is the distinct strings, the most widely used first, with how often each is written and where. Every string is in the table. Most are written once, and such a one is placed in its row. A repeated one gets a section below that lists each place:

# String-LE workspace report

my-project · 4 file(s) read · 3 distinct string(s), 7 occurrence(s) in 3 file(s)

Save changes (4)

• i18n/en.json · 2:11
• src/a.ts · 1:11, 3:11
• src/b.py · 1:9

Cancel (2)

• i18n/en.json · 3:13
• src/a.ts · 2:11

Could not be read (1)

• bad.json: Invalid JSON: Expected value after colon in object property on line 1 column 6

Positions follow string-le.showPositions. With it off, each line is the file and how many times the string is in it: src/a.ts (2). The copy on the clipboard follows string-le.clipboardIncludesPositions, as it does for Extract.

A file its format reader could not parse is listed with the reason, never passed over. A string longer than 120 characters, or one with a line break, is shown as one cut line. Two strings are still compared whole.

What a scan reads. Files come from disk, so an unsaved edit is not seen. A file over the safety size, or one that is not UTF-8 text, is left unread. It stops at 5,000 files or 10,000 listed occurrences. The report ends with a line for each thing it left out, so a short report is never mistaken for a clean project.

What it skips, and how to change that. Three switches are on by default, and each can be turned off on its own in Settings:

Two lists adjust the result without turning a switch off. To skip more, add a pattern to scanExcludes. To read something a switch would skip, add it to scanAlwaysInclude:

{

// Also skip the test fixtures. "string-le.workspace.scanExcludes": ["/fixtures/"], // Read the vendored code, though the built-in list skips it. "string-le.workspace.scanAlwaysInclude": ["/vendor/"] }

String-LE: Open Settings opens all of these in the Settings editor.

The built-in list

Folders, wherever they appear:

.git, .hg, .svn, node_modules, bower_components, jspm_packages, .pnpm-store, .yarn, vendor, site-packages, Pods, Carthage, dist, build, out, target, _build, _site, dist-newstyle, zig-out, storybook-static, cdk.out, DerivedData, CMakeFiles, .next, .nuxt, .output, .svelte-kit, .angular, .astro, .docusaurus, .vuepress, .expo, .turbo, .parcel-cache, .cache, .sass-cache, .jekyll-cache, .dart_tool, .pub-cache, .gradle, .kotlin, .cxx, .externalNativeBuild, captures, ephemeral, .symlinks, .swiftpm, .build, .bundle, .stack-work, .zig-cache, .godot, elm-stuff, .vercel, .netlify, .serverless, .aws-sam, .terraform, .venv, venv, __pycache__, .tox, .nox, .mypy_cache, .pytest_cache, .ruff_cache, .ipynb_checkpoints, .eggs, coverage, htmlcov, .nyc_output, .vscode-test, .idea, .vs, xcuserdata, *.egg-info

Files, wherever they appear:

*.min.js, *.min.css, *.map, *.snap, *.lock, package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, npm-shrinkwrap.json, go.sum, *.pbxproj, *.iml, local.properties, output-metadata.json, .flutter-plugins, .flutter-plugins-dependencies, .packages, Generated.xcconfig, flutter_export_environment.sh, GeneratedPluginRegistrant.*, fastlane/report.xml, fastlane/test_output/**, doc/api/**

Not on the list, because they are ordinary fol