Use a ctags file to power code navigation in VS Code. No new keybindings — plugs directly into the built-in Go to Definition, symbols, hover, and references systems.

Features

Feature	Shortcut	How it works
Go to Definition	`F12` / `Cmd+Click`	Jumps to the tag's source location
Peek Definition	`Alt+F12`	Inline peek at the definition
Go to Symbol in Workspace	`Cmd+T`	Search all tags by name
Go to Symbol in File	`Cmd+Shift+O`	List tags in the current file
Find References	`Shift+F12`	Show all tag entries for a symbol
Hover	Mouse hover	Shows tag kind, file, line, and scope

Setup

Install Universal Ctags

# macOS
brew install universal-ctags

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install universal-ctags

Generate a tags file in your project root:
```
ctags -R --fields=+lKSn --extras=+q .
```
Open the folder in VS Code. The extension activates automatically and loads the tags.

How it works

On activation, reads the tags file from the workspace root
Watches the file for changes and reloads automatically
Pattern-based line numbers (/^...$/) are resolved lazily on first navigation, not at load time
Source file contents are cached after first read to avoid redundant I/O

Optimized for large codebases

Designed to handle 1,000,000+ symbols efficiently:

Streaming parser — reads the tags file line-by-line instead of loading it all into memory
Sorted index + binary search — workspace symbol search (Cmd+T) uses O(log n) prefix matching
File index — document symbols are O(1) lookup by file path, not a linear scan
Pre-cached lowercase names — no per-query toLowerCase() on every entry
Lazy pattern resolution — line numbers from patterns are resolved on-demand with file caching
Lightweight entries — minimal per-entry memory footprint

Commands

vsctags: Reload Tags — manually reload the tags file
vsctags: Show Log — open the output channel with detailed timing and diagnostics

Remote SSH

Works over VS Code Remote SSH. The extension runs on the remote machine where the tags file and source code live.

Requirements

A tags file in the workspace root (generated by Universal Ctags or compatible)
Universal Ctags recommended (the BSD ctags shipped with macOS does not support -R)

Release Notes

0.0.1

Initial release — ctags-powered Go to Definition, symbols, hover, references, with streaming parser and lazy resolution.