Bring your Hexfield Deck planner files to life in the VS Code editor
Hexfield Text is a VS Code extension that colorizes Hexfield Deck metadata tokens inline in your markdown editor — project tags, due dates, priorities, time estimates, and checkbox states. Write and edit your weekly planner files with the same visual language you see on the board.
Hexfield Deck metadata renders as plain text when you're editing the source file. Hexfield Text closes that gap.
In the editor, without Hexfield Text:
- [ ] Ship parser v1 #hexfield [2026-02-10] !!! est:4h
- [/] Rewire nacelle couplings #deep13 est:3hWith Hexfield Text:
#hexfield— blue[2026-02-10]— color-coded by how close that date is to today (overdue → red, today → orange, soon → yellow, future → gray)!!!— redest:4h— teal[/]— orange (distinct from[ ]and[x])
All colorization is scoped strictly to Hexfield Deck planner files — identified by type: hexfield-planner in the frontmatter. Regular markdown files, READMEs, and notes are never affected.
| Token | Example | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Project tag | #hexfield |
Blue (#569CD6) |
| Due date — overdue | [2026-01-01] |
Red (#F44747) |
| Due date — today | [<today>] |
Orange (#CE9178) |
| Due date — within 3 days | [<soon>] |
Yellow (#CCA700) |
| Due date — future | [2027-01-01] |
Gray (#858585) |
| Priority HIGH | !!! |
Red (#F44747) |
| Priority MED | !! |
Yellow (#CCA700) |
| Priority LOW | ! |
Green (#89D185) |
| Time estimate | est:2h |
Teal (#4EC9B0) |
| In-progress checkbox | [/] |
Orange (#CE9178) |
| Frontmatter keys | week: year: type: |
Purple (#C586C0) |
Due date colors update in real time — edit a date and the color changes within 500ms.
- VS Code 1.75+
- A planner file with
type: hexfield-plannerin its YAML frontmatter (see Hexfield Deck)
Hexfield Text requires no runtime dependencies. The grammar is pure JSON; the date decorator is vanilla VS Code API.
From the VS Code Marketplace (recommended):
- Open the Extensions sidebar (
Ctrl+Shift+X/Cmd+Shift+X) - Search for Hexfield Text
- Click Install
From a VSIX file (pre-release / development):
- Download the latest
.vsixfrom the Releases page - In VS Code:
Extensions → ⋯ → Install from VSIX... - Select the downloaded
.vsixfile
From source:
git clone git@github.com:jimblom/hexfield-text.git
cd hexfield-text
pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm package
# Install the generated .vsix fileHexfield Text reads the frontmatter of every .md file you open. If the file has type: hexfield-planner, the extension promotes it to the hexfield-markdown language mode and all colorization activates automatically.
Your planner file must include the type field:
---
type: hexfield-planner
week: 7
year: 2026
tags: [planner, weekly]
startDate: 2026-02-09
endDate: 2026-02-15
---Remove or change type, and colorization deactivates immediately — no VS Code restart needed.
See the Hexfield Deck User Guide for the complete planner file format.
- User Guide — Installation, full token reference, configuration, and troubleshooting
- Implementation Plan — Architecture, token scope map, and roadmap
- Hexfield Deck — The companion kanban board extension
Hexfield Text is part of the Hexfield product family, named after the Hexfield Viewscreen on the Satellite of Love from Mystery Science Theater 3000 — the ship's iconic hexagonal display and communication screen.
Hexfield Deck is the board view. Hexfield Text is the editor layer of the same interface — the source-level view of your planner data, brought to visual life.
MIT License — Copyright (c) 2026 Jim Lindblom (jimblom)
See LICENSE for details.
This is a personal project in early development. Once v1.0.0 ships, contributions are welcome. Until then:
- Repository: github.com/jimblom/hexfield-text
- Hexfield Deck: github.com/jimblom/Hexfield-Deck
- Marketplace: (coming soon)
- Author: Jim Lindblom (@jimblom)
- Issues: Report a bug or request a feature
The editor is part of the mission. Welcome to Hexfield Text.