URLs-LE: Zero Hassle URL Extraction
Pull every URL out of the current file in one keystroke
Markdown, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, JSON, YAML, Properties, TOML, INI, XML
Useful? A star or rating is how other developers find it — ★ GitHub · ★ Marketplace · ★ Open VSX
What it does
Open a file, press Ctrl+Alt+U (Cmd+Alt+U on Mac), and every URL in the document lands in a new editor — deduplicate and sort it from there. Works in VS Code and in VS Code–based editors like Cursor and VSCodium (installable from Open VSX).
- Link auditing — every link, autolink, and plain URL in Markdown and HTML (code blocks and comments excluded)
- Source review — URLs in string literals, template literals, and comments across JS/TS
- Config sweep — URLs in JSON strings, YAML values, Java properties, TOML/INI values, and XML (Maven POMs, feeds)
Use it from an AI agent
The same extraction engine runs as an MCP server, so an agent can call it directly instead of you running a command.
| Editor | How |
|---|---|
| VS Code 1.101+ | Nothing to install — the extension registers extract_urls with agent mode |
| Zed | URLs-LE — pending review |
| Claude Code | claude mcp add urls-le -- npx -y urls-le-mcp |
| Cursor, Windsurf, anything else | point it at npx urls-le-mcp |
extract_urls(content, format?, filename?, dedupe?, maxResults?)
Returns every URL with its protocol and 1-based line and column, capped at 500 by default with meta.truncated so a large file cannot flood the agent's context window.
The server takes content and returns data — it reads no files and makes no network requests of its own. Published as urls-le-mcp on npm and as io.github.nolindnaidoo/urls-le in the MCP registry.
Configuring it by hand — any host with an MCP config file
Most hosts read a JSON config. Add one entry:
{
"mcpServers": {
"urls-le": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "urls-le-mcp"]
}
}
}
-y skips the install prompt on first run. Pin a version if you would rather not track releases — urls-le-mcp@2.2.1.
Prefer not to go through npx on every launch? Install it once and point at the binary instead:
npm install -g urls-le-mcp
{
"mcpServers": {
"urls-le": { "command": "urls-le-mcp" }
}
}
It speaks MCP over stdio and needs no environment variables, no API key and no configuration of its own. To check it before wiring it into anything:
echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}' | npx -y urls-le-mcp
That prints the tool list and exits — if you see extract_urls, the server works.
Supported formats
| Format | Language IDs | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Markdown | markdown | Fenced code blocks and inline code excluded |
| HTML | html | <!-- --> comments excluded (multi-line supported) |
| CSS | css | Quoted or bare url(...), @import |
| JavaScript / TypeScript | javascript, typescript | Strings, template literals, comments |
| JSON | json | String literals only, via jsonc-parser token offsets |
| YAML | yaml | Whole content, comments included |
| Properties | properties | #/! comment lines excluded |
| TOML | toml | Parsed values only; comments excluded |
| INI | ini | Parsed values only; comments excluded |
| XML | xml | Attributes and text content |
Extracted protocols: http, https, ftp, file, mailto (requires an @), tel. Every occurrence is reported with its real line and column — TOML/INI positions are forward-located in the source and can be approximate for repeated identical values. A URL ends at whitespace or a quote/bracket delimiter, so relative links (/docs) and bare domains (example.com) are never extracted, and URLs containing raw spaces extract as space-terminated partials. Trailing ./, are kept — they are legal URL characters.
Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
URLs-LE: Extract URLs (Ctrl+Alt+U / Cmd+Alt+U) | Extract all URLs from the active document |
URLs-LE: Deduplicate URLs | Remove duplicate lines from the results |
URLs-LE: Sort URLs | Sort results alphabetically, by domain, or by length |
URLs-LE: Open Settings | Open URLs-LE settings |
URLs-LE: Help | Built-in documentation |
Settings
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
urls-le.openResultsSideBySide | true | Open results beside the current editor |
urls-le.postProcess.openInNewFile | true | Open results in a new file (when not side-by-side) |
urls-le.copyToClipboardEnabled | false | Also copy results to the clipboard |
urls-le.dedupeEnabled | false | Deduplicate extraction results automatically |
urls-le.notificationsLevel | silent | all = every notification, important = warnings + errors, silent = errors only |
urls-le.safety.enabled | true | Guardrails for very large files |
urls-le.safety.fileSizeWarnBytes | 1000000 | Refuse extraction above this file size |
urls-le.safety.largeOutputLinesThreshold | 50000 | Warn above this line count |
urls-le.statusBar.enabled | true | Show the status bar item |
urls-le.telemetryEnabled | false | Local-only event log (see Privacy) |
Languages
Twelve languages besides English:
German · Spanish · French · Indonesian · Italian · Japanese · Korean · Portuguese (Brazil) · Russian · Ukrainian · Vietnamese · Chinese (Simplified)
Both halves are covered — the manifest (command titles, setting names and descriptions) and everything shown while the extension runs (notifications, the status bar, the sort quick-pick). The extension follows VS Code's display language, so it matches whatever the editor is already set to; no setting of its own.
Privacy & security
- No network access. The extension never fetches, validates, or pings the URLs it extracts — it only reads the text of the active document. The
telemetryEnabledsetting writes events to a local Output Channel you can inspect (URLs-LE Telemetry); nothing leaves your machine. - The MCP server holds the same line. It takes content as an argument and returns data: no filesystem access, no network calls, no telemetry. Your agent already has file-read tools, so duplicating them inside the server would add a path-traversal surface for no capability.
check:mcp-bundlefails the build if the server ever imports something that could reach either. - Error notifications redact home directories and credential-shaped fragments.
Development
bun install
bun run build # esbuild bundle -> dist/extension.js
bun run typecheck # tsc --noEmit (includes tests)
bun run test # vitest unit suite
bun run test:integration # real VS Code extension host
bun run lint # biome
bun run package # VSIX into release/
Architecture and conventions live in AGENTS.md. Changes are tracked in CHANGELOG.md.
Performance
| Input | Size | Found | Time | Rate | Scan speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Markdown docs | 2.63 MB | 50,000 | 61.14 ms | 817,802/sec | 43 MB/s |
| HTML page | 1.25 MB | 30,000 | 21.88 ms | 1,370,972/sec | 57 MB/s |
| JSON config | 1.52 MB | 40,000 | 39.01 ms | 1,025,358/sec | 38.8 MB/s |
Median of 7 runs after warmup, on Apple M5 Pro, 24 GB RAM, Node 24.3.0. Inputs are generated
by scripts/benchmark.ts rather than checked in, so the sizes above are
exactly what was measured. Reproduce with bun run benchmark.
These are machine-specific and are not asserted in CI — a benchmark that gates a build only tells you how busy the runner was.
Testing
| Metric | Coverage |
|---|---|
| Statements | 95.10% |
| Branches | 86.75% |
| Functions | 95.54% |
| Lines | 95.41% |
290 test cases across 21 files, plus an integration suite that runs
in a real VS Code extension host and an end-to-end test that installs the
built .vsix into a clean profile.
Generated from coverage/coverage-summary.json by
scripts/coverage-readme.js; CI fails if this section drifts from a fresh
run. Reproduce with bun run test:coverage.
More from the LE Family
Every tool in the family, one page: letools.dev
All ten also ship as MCP servers — npx <name>-mcp gives any agent the same engine.
- Paths-LE - Extract file paths from JS/TS imports, JSON, HTML, CSS, TOML, CSV, and .env
- String-LE - Extract string values for i18n from JSON, YAML, CSV, TOML, INI, and .env
- Numbers-LE - Extract numeric values from JSON, YAML, CSV, TOML, INI, and .env
- EnvSync-LE - Spot missing keys across your .env files, with a markdown report
- Regex-LE - Find, test, and validate regular expressions with ReDoS screening
- Secrets-LE - Detect and sanitize credentials locally, before you commit
- Scrape-LE - Check whether a page is scrapeable before you write the scraper
- Colors-LE - Extract and analyze colors from CSS, SCSS, LESS, Stylus, HTML, JS/TS, and SVG
- Dates-LE - Extract and analyze dates from logs, configs, and code
Also by nolindnaidoo
Rust — two desktop tools that make up one loop: pixelcoords answers where, pixelactions acts there.
- pixelcoords — Freeze your screen, mark regions, get pixel-exact coordinates and crops pixelcoords.dev · crates.io · docs.rs
- pixelactions — Consume human-verified coordinates, perform the interaction, confirm it landed pixelactions.dev · crates.io · docs.rs
Contact Developer — GitHub · LinkedIn
License
MIT © nolindnaidoo