textmate-grammar

name	textmate-grammar
description	Use when creating or editing TextMate grammar files for VS Code syntax highlighting - patterns, scopes, and language tokenization

TextMate Grammar

Quick Start

{
  "scopeName": "source.omg",
  "patterns": [{ "include": "#main" }],
  "repository": {
    "main": {
      "patterns": [
        { "include": "#comments" },
        { "include": "#strings" },
        { "include": "#keywords" }
      ]
    },
    "keywords": {
      "match": "\\b(if|else|while|return)\\b",
      "name": "keyword.control.omg"
    },
    "strings": {
      "begin": "\"",
      "end": "\"",
      "name": "string.quoted.double.omg",
      "patterns": [{ "include": "#escapes" }]
    }
  }
}

Core Concepts

• scopeName: Unique identifier like source.js, text.html
• patterns: Array of rules applied in order
• repository: Named rule groups for reuse via #name
• match: Single-line regex pattern
• begin/end: Multi-line patterns with nested content

Scope Naming Conventions

Prefix	Usage
keyword.control	if, else, for, return
keyword.operator	+, -, =, &&
storage.type	class, function, var
entity.name.function	function names
entity.name.type	type/class names
variable.parameter	function parameters
string.quoted	quoted strings
comment.line	single-line comments
constant.numeric	numbers
punctuation.definition	brackets, braces

Key Patterns

• Use captures to assign scopes to regex groups: "captures": { "1": { "name": "..." } }
• Use contentName for scope of content between begin/end
• Escape backslashes in JSON: \\b for word boundary
• Order matters: first matching pattern wins