madskristensen/CommentsVS

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README

Comment Studio for Visual Studio

Build GitHub Sponsors

Download this extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace or get the CI build.

📖 Full documentation — detailed guides for every feature.


Stop wrestling with XML documentation comments. Comment Studio transforms how you write, read, and maintain code documentation in Visual Studio.

Collapsed Comments

✨ Key Features at a Glance

  • Rendered Comments — View XML docs as clean, formatted text (no XML noise)
  • Markdown Support — Use **bold**, *italic*, `code`, and [links](url) in comments
  • Comment Reflow — Automatically wrap comments or reflow the current comment with Alt+Q, with optional preservation of standalone <para/> lines
  • Collapse/Expand — Hide comment blocks to focus on code, expand when needed
  • Color-coded Anchor Tags — TODO, HACK, BUG, FIXME, NOTE highlighted in distinct colors, plus custom tags
  • Better Comments Style — Prefix-based highlighting (!, ?, *, //, -, >) for visual differentiation
  • Solution-Wide Code Anchors — Browse all TODOs, HACKs, and notes across your entire solution
  • Clickable Issues — #123 links directly to GitHub/GitLab/Azure DevOps issues
  • Link Anchors — Navigate to other files, lines, or named anchors with LINK: or uppercase LINK syntax
  • Comment Remover — Bulk remove comments with smart preservation options
  • File & Project Exclusions — Disable Comment Studio for matching files with .editorconfig
  • Theme-aware — Works with light and dark Visual Studio themes

Supports: C#, VB.NET, F#, C++, TypeScript, JavaScript, Razor, SQL, and PowerShell

Rendered Comments

See your documentation, not the XML. The Full rendering mode strips away XML noise and displays your docs with proper formatting.

Rendered comments match the editor font size by default. Customize their fonts, sizes, and colors under Tools > Options > Environment > Fonts and Colors using the Rendered Comment - Text, Heading, Code, and Link entries.

Rendered Comments

Color-Coded Tags & Better Comments

TODO, HACK, BUG, NOTE, and more are highlighted with distinct colors. Uppercase tags can be written bare (TODO fix this); lowercase or mixed-case tags require : or ! (todo: or Todo!). Prefix-based highlighting (!, ?, *, //) provides additional visual differentiation.

Comment Tags

Prefix Based Highlighting

Code Anchors

Track all your TODOs, HACKs, and notes across your entire solution in one tool window.

Code Anchors

Issue Links & Link Anchors

#123 references become clickable links to GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or Azure DevOps. LINK: syntax lets you navigate to files, lines, and named anchors; uppercase LINK may also be used without a delimiter.

Issue Links

Link Anchors IntelliSense

Why Comment Studio?

XML documentation comments are essential for IntelliSense and API documentation, but they come with frustrations:

  • Hard to read – XML tags clutter the actual documentation content
  • Tedious to format – Manual line wrapping and alignment is time-consuming
  • Visual noise – Long comment blocks obscure the code you're trying to read
  • Easy to miss important notes – TODO and HACK comments blend into the code

Comment Studio solves all of these problems, letting you focus on writing great documentation instead of fighting with formatting.

Getting Started

  1. Install the extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace
  2. Open any C# or VB.NET file with XML documentation comments
  3. Try rendering modes – Use Edit > Comment Studio to switch between Off, Compact, and Full rendering
  4. Try reflow – Place the caret in an XML documentation comment and press Alt+Q, or use Format Document (Ctrl+K, Ctrl+D) to reflow all comments
  5. Try collapsing – Press Ctrl+M, Ctrl+C to collapse all comments and focus on code

To exclude generated files, a file type, or an entire project, set commentsvs_enabled = false in a matching .editorconfig section.

Documentation

Topic Description
Comment Rendering Rendering modes, rendered XML docs, Markdown formatting
Comment Reflow Alt+Q reflow, auto-reflow, Format Document integration, Smart Paste, XML structure preservation
Comment Outlining Collapse and expand XML doc comments
Comment Tags Color-coded tags, custom tags, prefix-based highlighting
Code Anchors Solution-wide Code Anchors tool window
Issue Links Clickable #123 issue references
Link Anchors LINK: navigation syntax
Comment Remover Bulk comment removal commands
Settings All options and .editorconfig support
Fonts & Colors Customizable Fonts & Colors reference

Feature Requests Addressed

This extension implements functionality requested by users on the Visual Studio Developer Community:

How can I help?

If you enjoy using the extension, please give it a ★★★★★ rating on the Visual Studio Marketplace.

Should you encounter bugs or have feature requests, head over to the GitHub repo to open an issue if one doesn't already exist.

Pull requests are also very welcome, as I can't always get around to fixing all bugs myself. This is a personal passion project, so my time is limited.

Another way to help out is to sponsor me on GitHub.

Contributors

madskristensenCopilotCylindrix

Issues