Commands

• Duplicate (duplicat.duplicate): Opens a QuickPick menu showing matching templates and custom filename option
• Quick Duplicate (duplicat.quickDuplicate): Automatically applies the first matching template without showing the menu

Both are available via the command palette or right click context menu

Config

| Name | Description | Default | | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- | | duplicat.openDuplicatedFile | Immediately open the file after duplication (opens the last duplicated file when duplicating multiple files/folders at once) | true | | duplicat.notifySuccess | Show a notification summarising all successful duplicated files/folders | true | | duplicate.templates | Rules to provide quick options for common workflows | See below |

Templates

Templates in DupliCat allow you to define rules for automatic/suggestion-based file renaming. The default configuration for duplicate.templates is:

[{
  "label": "Create test file",
  "matches": "^(?!.*(test|spec)).*$",
  "replacement": "${basename}.spec.${ext}",
  "icon": "disassembly-editor-label-icon"
}]

Each template has four key components:

1. label: The text displayed in the QuickPick menu when selecting a template
2. matches: A regular expression pattern that determines which files/folders the template applies to
3. replacement: The naming pattern used when duplicating matching files/folders
4. icon: Visual identifier shown in the QuickPick menu (optional, found here)

When you run the Duplicate (duplicat.duplicate) command, DupliCat tests each selected file/folder name against all defined templates. Any matching templates appear as options in the QuickPick menu.

Variables in Replacement Patterns

You can use these variables in your replacement patterns:

• ${basename}: The original file/folder name without extension
• ${ext}: The file extension (ignored for folders)

Examples

The default template matches any file that doesn't contain "test" or "spec" in its name and adds ".spec" before the extension:

example.js → example.spec.js utils.ts → utils.spec.ts

Custom Filenames

You can type directly in the QuickPick menu to:

• Filter available templates by typing part of their label
• Create a completely custom filename by selecting the "Custom filename" option

Overwrites

Any potential overwrite will show a prompt to confirm/cancel the overwrite. In the case of duplicating multiple files/folders, only the 1 entry is cancelled and you can continue after answering the prompt.

Caveats

• Currently doesn't support using {capture} in the replacement field of templates, but it will likely get added soon
• Using the Duplicate command with multiple files only works using the right click context menu.
• Currently it's not possible to match against parent dirs, but I am open to exploring the idea.

License

MIT License © 2025 Ross Cooper