Is there documentation or a JSON schema to show what's supported in settings.json / Preferences?

[jsskeen-utah]

I love that there's a settings.json in msedit v2, but I can't find anyplace where the contents of that file are described. Perhaps I'm just unlucky in my search? Is there a JSON schema and/or wiki page I could use to find what's currently supported?

[brandonkal]

Looks like it is just used for file associations:

edit/crates/edit/src/bin/edit/settings.rs

Lines 12 to 15 in 737450c

	pub struct Settings {
	pub path: PathBuf,
	pub file_associations: Vec<(String, &'static Language)>,
	}

[jsskeen-utah]

I used an AI coding agent to analyze the code and generate this help content. I'm not sure if it's completely accurate, but it should help:

Settings Reference

Edit stores its configuration in a settings.json file written in JSONC format
(standard JSON with support for // line comments and trailing commas).

File location

Platform	Path
Windows	%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Edit\settings.json
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/com.microsoft.edit/settings.json
Linux / other	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/msedit/settings.json (falls back to ~/.config/msedit/settings.json)

Open the file from within the editor via File → Preferences.
If the file does not exist yet, Edit will create an empty {} skeleton when you first open Preferences.

---

Supported settings

files.associations

Type: object — keys are glob patterns, values are language IDs
Required: No
Default: none

Maps file glob patterns to a syntax-highlighting language, overriding Edit's built-in
file-extension detection.

Glob pattern rules:

• A key that contains no / is automatically expanded to **/<key>.
  For example, "*.conf" is treated as "**/*.conf".
• A key that already contains / is used as-is.

Example:

{
    "files.associations": {
        // Treat all .conf files as shell scripts
        "*.conf": "shellscript",

        // Treat files named "Dockerfile.*" as shell scripts
        "Dockerfile.*": "shellscript",

        // Treat a specific path as JSON
        "**/config/app-settings": "json"
    }
}

If a value is not a recognized language ID, Edit will report a settings error on startup.

---

Language IDs

The following language IDs are accepted as values in files.associations:

ID	Display name	Default file patterns
diff	Diff	*.diff, *.patch
git-commit	Git Commit Message	**/COMMIT_EDITMSG, **/MERGE_MSG
git-rebase	Git Rebase Message	**/git-rebase-todo, **/rebase-merge/done
ignore	Ignore	**/.gitignore, **/.npmignore, **/.git-blame-ignore-revs, and similar ignore files
javascript	JavaScript	*.cjs, *.js, *.jsx, *.mjs
json	JSON	*.json, *.jsonc
lsh	LSH	*.lsh
markdown	Markdown	*.md
powershell	PowerShell	*.ps1, *.psd1, *.psm1
properties	Properties	*.ini, *.cfg, *.conf, *.editorconfig, *.properties, *.gitconfig, and various systemd unit files
python	Python	*.py, *.pyi, *.pyw
shellscript	Shell Script	*.sh, *.bash, *.zsh, **/PKGBUILD, **/APKBUILD, and similar
xml	XML	*.xml, *.html, *.svg, *.csproj, *.xaml, and many more
yaml	YAML	*.yaml, *.yml

Language IDs match the subset of VS Code language identifiers that Edit supports.

---

Full example

{
    // Associate custom extensions with known languages
    "files.associations": {
        "*.myext":     "python",
        "*.tmpl":      "xml",
        "*.env":       "shellscript",
        "Makefile.*":  "shellscript",

        // Full-path globs are used as-is
        "**/infra/**/*.json": "json"
    }
}

[lhecker]

That's correct. It'll take me some time to get around to working on this project again, unfortunately.

[jsskeen-utah]

@lhecker no worries, I'm happy to have v2, it's a great minimal editor! No more vim/vi/nano for me!

[macsunmood]

Hi! It is possible to add locale language setting (for UI) in the settings.json ?

[lhecker]

You mean to have Edit in English while your OS is in Chinese, or similar?

[macsunmood]

You mean to have Edit in English while your OS is in Chinese, or similar?

Yes, right. I want to be able to have English by default no matter what the OS locale is.

[lhecker]

Surprisingly, that was already noted down in #22 (last bullet point).

[macsunmood]

Surprisingly, that was already noted down in #22 (last bullet point).

Surprisingly enough, I've also already upvoted it 😄