I’m developing an extension for VSCode to formatting files via the context menu. Unlike other extensions, I want to do this without opening the file in the text editor.

I tried the following code:

async function formatDocument(uri: vscode.Uri) {
    if (uri && uri.fsPath) {
        const filePath = uri.fsPath;

        try {
            let content = await fs.readFile(filePath, 'utf8');

            const document = await vscode.workspace.openTextDocument({
                content,
                language: getLanguageFromPath(filePath)
            });

            const edits: any[] = await vscode.commands.executeCommand('vscode.executeFormatDocumentProvider', document.uri, getLanguageFromPath(filePath));

            if (edits && edits.length > 0) {
                const edit = new vscode.WorkspaceEdit();
                edits.forEach(e => edit.replace(document.uri, e.range, e.newText));
                await vscode.workspace.applyEdit(edit);

                const formattedContent = document.getText();
                await fs.writeFile(filePath, formattedContent, 'utf8');

                vscode.window.showInformationMessage("File formatted successfully!");
            }
        } catch (error: any) {
            vscode.window.showErrorMessage(`Error formatting file: ${error.message}`);
        }
    }
}

While it does work, it leaves an open file in the editor due to the vscode.workspace.openTextDocument method.

Is there another way to format a file without opening it in the editor?