Data File Viewer

View and explore binary data files directly in VS Code (and compatible editors like Cursor).

Supported File Types

• .pkl / .pickle - Python Pickle files
• .h5 / .hdf5 - HDF5 files
• .parquet - Apache Parquet files
• .feather - Apache Feather files
• .joblib - Scikit-learn Joblib files
• .npy / .npz - NumPy array files
• .msgpack - MessagePack files
• .arrow - Apache Arrow files
• .avro - Apache Avro files
• .nc / .nc4 - NetCDF files
• .mat - MATLAB files

Features

• 🔍 Explore structure - Navigate nested data hierarchies
• 📊 Preview data - View arrays, dataframes, and objects
• 🔒 Safe viewing - Read-only access to your data files
• 🎨 Syntax highlighting - Clear visualization of data types
• ⚡ Fast loading - Efficient handling of large files
• 🎯 Simplify view - Toggle between detailed and simplified JSON views
• 📋 Copy to clipboard - Easily copy JSON data
• 🔄 Collapse/Expand - Control JSON view depth

Usage

Simply click on any supported file in your workspace. The extension will automatically open it in a custom viewer.

Security Note

⚠️ Pickle files warning: Opening .pkl and .joblib files executes Python code during deserialization. Only open pickle files from trusted sources.

Requirements

Python 3.7 or higher must be installed on your system.

First-Time Setup

When you first open a data file, the extension will:

1. Automatically create its own isolated Python environment
2. Ask permission to install required packages (one-time setup)
3. Install packages in its own environment (doesn't affect your global Python!)

That's it! The setup takes ~2-3 minutes the first time, then works forever.

Why This Approach?

• ✅ Isolated: Doesn't pollute your global Python packages
• ✅ Persistent: Packages installed once, work everywhere
• ✅ Clean: Uninstall the extension = removes everything
• ✅ No conflicts: Won't interfere with your projects

Extension Settings

Currently, this extension works out of the box with no configuration needed.

Known Issues

• Very large files (>1GB) may take time to load
• Some custom pickle objects may not serialize to JSON properly

Release notes are in CHANGELOG.md

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Found a bug or have a feature request? Please open an issue on GitHub.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Support

If you find this extension useful, please:

• Star the repository on GitHub
• Leave a review on the VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX
• Report bugs or suggest features
• Contribute code or documentation