> AI agents: For documentation discovery and navigation, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt).

# Language Identifiers

In Visual Studio Code, each [language mode](/docs/languages/overview.md#change-the-language-for-the-selected-file) has a unique specific language identifier. That identifier is rarely seen by the user except in the settings, for example, when associating file extensions to a language:

```json
    "files.associations": {
        "*.myphp": "php"
    }
```

Note that casing matters for exact identifier matching ('Markdown' != 'markdown')

The language identifier becomes essential for VS Code extension developers when adding new language capabilities or when replacing a language support.

Every language defines its *id* through the `languages` configuration point in the extension's `package.json` file:

```json
    "languages": [{
        "id": "java",
        "extensions": [ ".java", ".jav" ],
        "aliases": [ "Java", "java" ]
    }]
```

Language supports are added using the language identifier:

```json
    "grammars": [{
        "language": "groovy",
        "scopeName": "source.groovy",
        "path": "./syntaxes/Groovy.tmLanguage.json"
    }],
    "snippets": [{
        "language": "groovy",
        "path": "./snippets/groovy.json"
    }]
```

```typescript
languages.registerCompletionItemProvider('php', new PHPCompletionItemProvider(), '.', '$')
```

## New identifier guidelines

When defining a new language identifier, use the following guidelines:

- Use the lowercased programming language name.
- Search for other extensions in the Marketplace to find out if a language identifier has already been used.

## Known language identifiers

The following table lists known language identifiers:

Language | Identifier
-------- | ----------
Agent | `chatagent`
Batch | `bat`
BibTeX | `bibtex`
Binary | `code-text-binary`
C | `c`
C# | `csharp`
C++ | `cpp`
Clojure | `clojure`
Code Snippets | `snippets`
CoffeeScript | `coffeescript`
Compose | `dockercompose`
CSS | `css`
CUDA C++ | `cuda-cpp`
Dart | `dart`
Diff | `diff`
Docker | `dockerfile`
Dotenv | `dotenv`
F# | `fsharp`
Git Commit Message | `git-commit`
Git Rebase Message | `git-rebase`
Go | `go`
Groovy | `groovy`
Handlebars | `handlebars`
HLSL | `hlsl`
HTML | `html`
Ignore | `ignore`
Ini | `ini`
Instructions | `instructions`
Java | `java`
JavaScript | `javascript`
JavaScript JSX | `javascriptreact`
JSON | `json`
JSON Lines | `jsonl`
JSON with Comments | `jsonc`
Julia | `julia`
Julia Markdown | `juliamarkdown`
LaTeX | `latex`
Less | `less`
Log | `log`
Lua | `lua`
Makefile | `makefile`
Markdown | `markdown`
MS SQL | `sql`
Objective-C | `objective-c`
Objective-C++ | `objective-cpp`
Perl | `perl`
PHP | `php`
Plain Text | `plaintext`
PowerShell | `powershell`
Prompt | `prompt`
Properties | `properties`
Pug | `jade`
Python | `python`
R | `r`
Raku | `raku`
Razor | `razor`
reStructuredText | `restructuredtext`
Ruby | `ruby`
Rust | `rust`
SCSS | `scss`
Search Result | `search-result`
ShaderLab | `shaderlab`
Shell Script | `shellscript`
Skill | `skill`
Swift | `swift`
TeX | `tex`
TypeScript | `typescript`
TypeScript JSX | `typescriptreact`
Visual Basic | `vb`
WebAssembly Text Format | `wat`
XML | `xml`
XSL | `xsl`
YAML | `yaml`