regex-le-mcp
Provides a tool to extract and validate regex patterns from text content, including flags, positions, and ReDoS risk assessment. Enables AI agents to identify potentially dangerous regular expressions in code or files without needing filesystem access.
README
<p align="center"> <img src="src/assets/images/icon.png" alt="Regex-LE Logo" width="96" height="96"/> </p> <h1 align="center">Regex-LE: Zero Hassle Regex Extraction & Validation</h1> <p align="center"> <b>Find, test, and validate the regex patterns in the current file</b><br/> <i>Literal patterns, RegExp constructors, ReDoS screening</i> </p>
<p align="center"> <a href="https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=nolindnaidoo.regex-le"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Install%20from-VS%20Code-blue?style=for-the-badge&logo=visualstudiocode" alt="Install from VS Code Marketplace" /> </a> <a href="https://open-vsx.org/extension/OffensiveEdge/regex-le"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/open-vsx/dt/OffensiveEdge/regex-le?style=for-the-badge&label=Open%20VSX&color=blue" alt="Open VSX downloads" /> </a> <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/regex-le-mcp"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/v/regex-le-mcp?style=for-the-badge&label=MCP%20server&color=blue&logo=npm" alt="regex-le-mcp on npm" /> </a> <a href="https://letools.dev"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/LE%20Tools-letools.dev-blue?style=for-the-badge" alt="LE Tools" /> </a> </p>
<p align="center"> <img src="src/assets/images/demo.gif" alt="Regex-LE Demo" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;" /> </p>
Useful? A star or rating is how other developers find it — ★ GitHub · ★ Marketplace · ★ Open VSX
What it does
Open any file and run one of three commands. Extract lists every regex pattern found in the document. Test (Ctrl+Alt+R / Cmd+Alt+R) runs a found — or manually entered — pattern against the file content and reports matches with real line/column positions and capture groups (named groups included). Validate checks every found pattern for syntax errors and screens it for ReDoS-prone shapes. Works in VS Code and VS Code–based editors like Cursor and VSCodium (installable from Open VSX).
Use it from an AI agent
The same 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_patterns with agent mode |
| Zed | Regex-LE — pending review |
| Claude Code | claude mcp add regex-le -- npx -y regex-le-mcp |
| Cursor, Windsurf, anything else | point it at npx regex-le-mcp |
extract_patterns(content, maxResults?)
Returns every pattern with its flags, 1-based position and a ReDoS verdict, so "are any of the regexes in this file dangerous?" is one call rather than two.
The server takes content and returns data — it reads no files and makes no network requests of its own. Published as regex-le-mcp on npm and as io.github.nolindnaidoo/regex-le in the MCP registry.
<details> <summary><b>Configuring it by hand</b> — any host with an MCP config file</summary>
Most hosts read a JSON config. Add one entry:
{
"mcpServers": {
"regex-le": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "regex-le-mcp"]
}
}
}
-y skips the install prompt on first run. Pin a version if you would rather not track releases — regex-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 regex-le-mcp
{
"mcpServers": {
"regex-le": { "command": "regex-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 regex-le-mcp
That prints the tool list and exits — if you see extract_patterns, the server works.
</details>
What gets extracted
Extraction scans the whole document (any file type), so constructors split across lines are found too:
| Form | Example |
|---|---|
| Literal | /[a-z]+/gi |
| Constructor | new RegExp('\\d{4}-\\d{2}', 'g') — including multiline |
| Bare constructor call | RegExp("x|y", "i") |
What is deliberately not extracted:
- Division, dates, and filesystem paths (
a / b,10/29/2025,/usr/local/bin): a/preceded by an identifier, number,),],., or another/is not treated as a regex — after keywords likereturn, it is. - Candidates that do not compile as JavaScript regexes, or with invalid/duplicate flags.
- Constructor calls whose pattern argument is a variable or template literal (only literal string arguments are visible to a text scanner).
Duplicate pattern+flags pairs are listed once. This is lexing by heuristic, not a full JS parser: a slash inside a string or comment can still be picked up when its context looks expression-like.
ReDoS screening
Validate (and Test, before running a risky pattern) screens for the common catastrophic-backtracking shapes:
- High severity — nested unbounded quantifiers:
(a+)+,([a-z]+)* - Medium severity — quantified alternation with overlapping branches:
(a|ab)+
This is a structural scanner, not an automaton analysis: it cannot prove a pattern safe, only flag the dangerous shapes it recognizes. The reports also include a rough performance score based on execution time relative to input size — treat it as a hint, not a benchmark (memory is not measured).
Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
Regex-LE: Test Regex (Ctrl+Alt+R / Cmd+Alt+R) |
Test a found or entered pattern against the file |
Regex-LE: Extract Patterns |
List every regex pattern found in the document |
Regex-LE: Validate Regex |
Syntax + ReDoS report for every found pattern |
Regex-LE: Open Settings |
Open Regex-LE settings |
Regex-LE: Help & Troubleshooting |
Built-in documentation |
Settings
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
regex-le.openResultsSideBySide |
true |
Open results beside the current editor |
regex-le.copyToClipboardEnabled |
false |
Also copy results to the clipboard |
regex-le.notificationsLevel |
silent |
all = every notification, important = warnings + errors, silent = errors only |
regex-le.safety.enabled |
true |
Guardrails for very large files and outputs |
regex-le.safety.fileSizeWarnBytes |
1000000 |
Refuse processing above this file size |
regex-le.safety.largeOutputLinesThreshold |
50000 |
Refuse result documents above this line count |
regex-le.statusBar.enabled |
true |
Show the status bar item |
regex-le.telemetryEnabled |
false |
Local-only event log (see Privacy) |
regex-le.regex.redosDetectionEnabled |
true |
ReDoS screening in Test/Validate |
regex-le.regex.maxMatchLimit |
1000 |
Cap on matches collected per test (10–10000) |
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, quick-picks and prompts). 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 sends data anywhere. The
telemetryEnabledsetting only writes events to a local Output Channel you can inspect (Regex-LE Telemetry). - Testing a pattern the ReDoS screen rates high-severity asks for confirmation first.
- 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
<!-- performance:start -->
| Input | Size | Found | Time | Rate | Scan speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JS with literals | 1.12 MB | 25,000 | 44.19 ms | 565,679/sec | 25.4 MB/s |
| JS with constructors | 1.27 MB | 25,000 | 41.86 ms | 597,268/sec | 30.3 MB/s |
| Source without regexes | 1.24 MB | 0 | 18.75 ms | — | 66 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. <!-- performance:end -->
Testing
<!-- coverage:start -->
| Metric | Coverage |
|---|---|
| Statements | 90.66% |
| Branches | 75.89% |
| Functions | 97.36% |
| Lines | 91.16% |
133 test cases across 12 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.
<!-- coverage:end -->
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.
- 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
- Paths-LE - Extract file paths from JS/TS imports, JSON, HTML, CSS, TOML, CSV, and .env
- 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
- URLs-LE - Extract URLs from documentation, configs, and code
- Dates-LE - Extract and analyze dates from logs, configs, and code
Also by nolindnaidoo
Rust
- 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
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