Extension for VS Code · Cursor · Windsurf · VSCodium

Open Markdown in Constly

One click in VS Code — or Cursor, Windsurf or VSCodium — opens the Markdown file you're on in Constly. The file is saved first, Constly opens it at your cursor, and the VS Code tab closes so you're not editing the same file in two places.

Install the extension Requires Constly. Download it free.

Install

Two registries, the same extension. Use the one your editor reads from.

VS Code

Visual Studio Code, from Microsoft's Marketplace

Install from the Marketplace marketplace.visualstudio.com · constly.constly

Or inside VS Code: open the Extensions view (⇧⌘X / Ctrl+Shift+X), search for Constly, and install the pre-release.

Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium

VS Code forks that install extensions from Open VSX

Install from Open VSX open-vsx.org · constly/constly

Or inside the editor: open the Extensions view, search for Constly, and install the pre-release. These editors read from Open VSX rather than Microsoft's Marketplace, so the same search finds it there.

The extension is currently a pre-release. It does one thing and does it carefully; if something looks off, tell us on GitHub.

A Markdown file open in VS Code with the cursor on a line. The Open in Constly command is run; Constly comes forward with the same line centred and the cursor inside it, the VS Code tab closes, and typing continues in Constly: a comment is added inside the code block and a heading is extended, rendered as it is typed. Captions: any Markdown file straight from your IDE; one command, saved first, handed over at your cursor; opens in Constly at the same line in real typography; not a preview, keep typing right here; free for VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf and VSCodium, needs Constly.
Fifteen seconds, start to finish: click, save, open at the cursor, tab closes.

How it works

One command — Constly: Open in Constly — from the title-bar button, the editor's context menu, the Explorer, or the Command Palette.

  1. Finds your Constly

    It looks where Constly installs: /Applications on macOS, the installer's registered location on Windows, constly on your PATH on Linux. Not found? Constly: Locate Constly… lets you point at the app, and the answer is kept in constly.path. Not installed? It sends you to the download page.

  2. Saves the file

    Unsaved changes are written before anything launches, so Constly never opens stale bytes. An untitled buffer is asked to be saved somewhere first. The extension only ever saves what you typed; it never writes a file of its own.

  3. Launches Constly with the file and your cursor

    Constly opens the file at the same line and column, in a running Constly if there is one. Cursor position needs Constly 4.7.0 or later. On an older Constly the file still opens; the cursor stays where it was.

  4. Closes the VS Code tab

    So the same file isn't open in two editors at once. Prefer to keep it? Set constly.afterOpen to keep and the tab stays; VS Code reloads it from disk whenever Constly saves.

Privacy

The extension makes no network requests and collects no data. It loads quietly when VS Code starts, and does not look for Constly, spawn anything or read a file until you use one of its commands. Constly itself is covered by Constly's privacy policy.

Settings

Four of them, under Constly in the Settings editor.

SettingDefaultWhat it does
constly.path "" Explicit executable/app path; overrides detection. Machine scope — a workspace cannot set it.
constly.afterOpen close After the hand-off, close the VS Code tab (close) or leave it open (keep).
constly.passCaret true Send your cursor position with the file. Needs Constly 4.7.0 or later.
constly.showEditorTitleButton true Show the Open in Constly button in the editor title bar for Markdown files.

There is no default keybinding, so nothing of yours gets clobbered. Bind constly.open to whatever you like in Keyboard Shortcuts.

More

Under the hood, and what's next.