Code Groovy

Groovy, Grails and GSP language support for Visual Studio Code and Cursor.

Features

Navigation

• Go to Definition (Ctrl/Cmd + click, or F12) for Groovy classes, methods, services and inherited methods, resolving both workspace sources and the Gradle/Maven JAR classpath — including source JARs when they are available locally.
• TagLib navigation across files: jump from catalogTagLib.method or namespace.method in Groovy, and from <ns:tag> or ns.method in GSP, straight to the TagLib closure that defines it. Works for Groovy inside ${...} and <%...%> blocks too.
• Open views and assets from markup: Ctrl/Cmd + click on template=, src= or url= in g:render and asset:* tags. The full attribute value is underlined, and .scss sources are preferred over compiled .css.
• Controller, action and view links: Ctrl/Cmd + click on the controller, action or view of createLink, redirect, render, <g:link>, <g:form> and similar calls and tags opens the controller class, the action method (including actions inherited from a base controller) or the GSP view. Without a controller, the current controller is used — the controller file itself, or the views/<controller>/ folder of a GSP.
• Document symbols and outline covering TagLib closure assignments (def myTag = { ... }) and methods with generic return types such as Map or List<Map>.

Imports

• Auto-import of Groovy and Java types from workspace source and Gradle/Maven JARs, offered both through IntelliSense and as a Quick Fix.
• Suggestions are ranked so workspace types like Pet stay above longer JAR names such as PetProfileDTO.
• New imports are inserted in sorted position without reshuffling existing lines, and out-of-order imports are flagged with a warning.
• Organize imports and organize service injections commands.

IntelliSense and editing

• Method completion on member access (receiver.) following the same Grails artifact hierarchy used by Go to Definition.
• Completions for Grails g: and Asset Pipeline asset: tags, with hover documentation linking to the legacy GSP reference.
• Completions for your project's own TagLibs after namespace: or namespace., inferring self-closing versus body tags from whether the closure calls body().
• Groovydoc and Javadoc rendered as Markdown on hover.
• Rename (F2) for identifiers within the current Groovy file, skipping comments and strings.
• Groovy code snippets.

Syntax highlighting

• Groovy TextMate grammar with support for slashy strings and Spock quoted method names. identifier / number is treated as division, while = /regex/ still highlights as a slashy string.
• GSP grammar with embedded CSS, JavaScript and Groovy, correct highlighting for Grails tags nested inside HTML open tags, and bracket matching for [ and ].
• HTML language features and Emmet enabled inside .gsp, configured so Emmet does not hijack g.each or your own namespace.method completions.

Workspace indexing

• Indexes the workspace when the window opens (sources, then Gradle/Maven classpath). Grails multi-module layouts are used for go-to-definition fallbacks.
• Progress is reported in the status bar (percentage, current file or JAR, final counts) and in a dedicated Code Groovy Index output channel.

Debug

• Debug Groovy / Grails apps from the Run and Debug view: launch bootRun/run with JDWP on the app JVM, or attach to a JVM already listening (default port 5005). Breakpoints in .groovy files are supported (uses the bundled Java debug extensions).

Commands and keybindings

Command	ID	Keybinding
Debug Groovy / Grails Application	cgroovy.debugApp	—
Organize imports	cgroovy.organizeImports	Cmd+Shift+O / Ctrl+Shift+O
Organize dependences	cgroovy.organizeDependences	Cmd+Shift+D / Ctrl+Shift+D
Rebuild Code Groovy Index	cgroovy.rebuildIndex	—
Show Code Groovy Index Output	cgroovy.showIndexOutput	—

Keybindings are active only while a .groovy or .gsp editor has focus.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
codeGroovy.debug.attachTimeoutMs	600000	How long to wait for Gradle bootRun and the app JVM to open a JDWP port before giving up.
codeGroovy.debug.gradleConsole	rich	Gradle console mode in the Groovy Debug terminal (rich = colors, plain = no ANSI).
codeGroovy.index.maxSourceFiles	0	Maximum workspace .groovy / .java files to index when Grails module detection is not in use. 0 means no limit.
codeGroovy.modules	["domain", "web", "api"]	Gradle submodules to index when a settings.gradle is found.
codeGroovy.importOrder.warnings	true	Warn in Problems when imports are out of order (same order as Organize imports). Set false to turn off those warnings only.

Debug

Requires the Java extensions listed under Requirements (installed as dependencies). Code Groovy starts or attaches to the JVM; Debugger for Java owns stepping, variables and the call stack.

1. Set breakpoints in .groovy source.
2. Run Debug Groovy / Grails Application from the Command Palette, or pick Groovy: Launch Grails / Groovy: Attach in Run and Debug.
3. Launch starts ./gradlew :web:bootRun in a Grails multi-module repo (bootRun at the root for a single module, run for Micronaut/plain Gradle), injects JDWP on the app JavaExec, waits for Listening for transport dt_socket, then attaches. Gradle output stays in the Groovy Debug integrated terminal (ANSI colors via --console=rich by default). A progress notification and status bar follow Gradle tasks (:web:compileGroovy → debug port → application running).
4. Attach connects to a JVM you already started with JDWP (port 5005).

When the debugger stops in a Gradle copy under bin/default (common in Grails multi-module projects), Code Groovy remaps the stack frame to the matching grails-app / src file you edit.

Hover and the Watch view evaluate Grails implicits as Java (GrailsWebRequest.lookup().getParams(), params.id → .get("id")) so they work on Groovy stack frames. params / session / request / flash are also injected at the top of Locals when available.

Optional launch.json fields: port, task, module, gradleArgs, sourcePaths, projectName, serverUrl, openBrowserOnReady. For attach, use hostName and port. projectName is the Java project Debugger for Java uses to evaluate expressions (auto-detected as the Gradle module, usually web). Source directories under grails-app and src/main/groovy are detected automatically.

While a Groovy or GSP editor is focused, Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+D is bound to Organize dependences, not the Run and Debug view — use the Command Palette or rebind the key.

Requirements

Visual Studio Code 1.74.0 or newer, or any recent Cursor build.

The extension declares these dependencies in package.json (Marketplace / Cursor install them together with Code Groovy):

• HTML Language Features (vscode.html-language-features) — built into VS Code/Cursor; GSP/Emmet support
• Language Support for Java (redhat.java)
• Debugger for Java (vscjava.vscode-java-debug) — required for Groovy/Grails debug (breakpoints, variables, step)

Syntax highlighting, snippets and GSP support work once Code Groovy is installed. Auto-import and go-to-definition against third-party libraries additionally require a populated Gradle or Maven cache on the machine. Resolution is more precise when source JARs have been downloaded.

Known issues

• Rename is limited to the file currently open; it does not update references across the workspace.
• Breakpoints in .gsp are not supported.
• The default keybindings shadow VS Code's Go to Symbol in Editor (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+O) and Run and Debug view (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+D) while a Groovy or GSP file is focused. Rebind them in Keyboard Shortcuts if you prefer the defaults.
• On very large workspaces the first index can take a while. Narrow it down with codeGroovy.modules, or cap it with codeGroovy.index.maxSourceFiles.

Development

git clone https://github.com/code-groovy/code-groovy.git
cd code-groovy
npm install
npm run compile        # or: npm run watch

Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host with the extension loaded.

npm run test:unit      # unit tests (fast, no editor required)
npm test               # unit tests + integration tests in a VS Code instance
npx vsce package       # build a .vsix

Contributing

This is an open source project open to anyone, and contributions are extremely welcome. Read the contributing guide to set up the project and open your first pull request.

Report any problems you face on the issue tracker, and ask questions in Discussions.

License

Licensed under the MIT License.

Credits

Lots of help from vscode-sort-lines.

Groovy symbol support based on vscode-groovy.