Abs support for Visual Studio Code

December 8, 2025 ยท View on GitHub

This repository adds support for the Abs language in Visual Studio Code.

Features

Syntax highlighting and compiling single-file models.

Configuration

To compile ABS code inside VS Code, set the following options:

  • abs.compileCommand: If the absc command is not in your path, set this option to the command that starts the ABS compiler.
  • abs.backend: One of --erlang, --java, --maude.
  • abs.compileOptions: This contains a list of options to pass to the compiler. See the output of absc -h for a list of applicable options.

Note: to run the ABS compiler from a Jar file (typically absfrontend.jar) instead of via the absc script, set abs.compileCommand to java and add two items to abs.compileOptions: -jar and /path/to/absfrontend.jar.

Installing

To install the latest released version, download the .vsix file from https://github.com/abstools/abs-vs-code/releases/latest

Installing from the Command Line

Run code --install-extension with the .vsix file downloaded from https://github.com/abstools/abs-vs-code/releases/latest

Installing from inside Visual Studio Code

  1. Open the Extensions list in the left-hand column.

  2. Choose "Install from VSIX..." from the three-dotted menu (...) on the upper right hand side of the extensions list:

    First click 'Extensions', then the horizontal dots menu at the top of the list, then 'Install from VSIX...'

  3. In the file browser, choose the .vsix file downloaded from https://github.com/abstools/abs-vs-code/releases/latest .

Running an unreleased version

To use the extension from a git checkout, copy the abs/ subdirectory into your ~/.vscode/extensions directory, e.g., with the following commands:

cd ~/.vscode/extensions
cp -r /path/to/abs-vs-code/abs abs

Development

To run the current source, open the abs/ subfolder inside VS Code and press F5 (Run -> Start Debugging).

To create a .vsix package, install node then run the following commands:

npm install
cd abs
vsce package