Resource Types & Operations

Flint models an Ignition project as a tree of typed resources — scripts, named queries, Perspective views, and configuration — and lets you create, rename, duplicate, and delete them directly from VS Code without opening the Designer. All resource operations work against files on disk, so they behave the same whether or not a gateway is reachable.

Prerequisites

Works completely offline. You only need a valid flint.config.json with at least one project path — no gateway connection, API token, or Designer Bridge module is required. See Configuration.

Supported resource types

Flint ships providers for seven built-in resource types:

Resource type	Type ID	Primary file	Category	Singleton
Project Scripts	script-python	code.py	—	No
Named Queries	named-query	query.sql	—	No
Views	perspective-view	view.json	Perspective	No
Style Classes	perspective-style-class	style.json	Perspective	No
Page Configuration	perspective-page-config	config.json	Perspective	Yes
Session Properties	perspective-session-props	props.json	Perspective	Yes
Session Events	perspective-session-events	data.bin	Perspective	Yes

Singleton types have exactly one resource per project. In the Project Browser, clicking a singleton node creates the resource automatically if it does not exist yet.

note

Session Events are stored in a binary file (data.bin), so their content is not included in full-text search.

Resource keys

Every resource is identified by a key with the format:

{typeId}:{categoryId?}/{resourcePath}

The category segment is optional and only present for categorized types — the Perspective family in the table above. Examples:

• script-python/utils/logging — a project script at utils/logging
• perspective-view:perspective/Overview/Main — a Perspective view
• named-query/reports/daily-totals — a named query

Creating, renaming, and deleting resources

Right-click a resource type, folder, or resource in the Project Browser to access these operations. Titles below are the exact context-menu labels.

Operation	Command	What it does
Create Resource	flint.createResource	Creates a new resource from a type-appropriate template (e.g. a starter code.py or view.json), with name validation
Create Folder	flint.createFolder	Creates a folder under the selected type or folder
Delete	flint.deleteResource	Deletes a resource or folder after a modal confirmation
Duplicate	flint.duplicateResource	Copies a resource to a new name alongside the original
Rename	flint.renameResource	Renames a resource or folder
Copy Path	flint.copyResourcePath	Copies the resource path to the clipboard
Open Resource	flint.openResource	Opens the resource's primary file in the editor
Open in Designer	flint.openInDesigner	Opens the resource in a connected Ignition Designer (requires the Designer Bridge)

New resources are created with the correct directory layout and a valid resource.json, so they are immediately recognized by Ignition on the next project scan.

warning

Resource operations edit project files directly on disk. If the same project is open in a running Designer, save or discard your Designer changes first — the Designer does not merge external edits automatically, and saving from the Designer can overwrite changes made in VS Code.

resource.json management

Every Ignition resource directory must contain a resource.json manifest. It declares the resource's scope, files, and attributes; without it, the Ignition gateway does not recognize the directory as a resource at all. Manifests can go missing when files are created by hand, copied between projects, or mangled by a bad merge.

Flint surfaces these problems as warning decorations in the Project Browser — a missing resource.json marks the resource and propagates a warning badge up through its parent folders — and provides commands to repair them:

Command palette title	Command	What it does
Flint: Create resource.json	flint.createResourceJson	Generates a manifest for the selected resource
Flint: Create All Missing resource.json Files	flint.createAllMissingResourceJson	Scans the project and generates every missing manifest in one pass
Flint: Validate resource.json Files	flint.validateResourceJson	Checks existing manifests for structural problems
Flint: Validate Project	flint.validateProject	Runs project-wide validation, including manifest checks

The Project Browser also decorates resources with an invalid resource.json, a missing inheritance parent, circular inheritance, or a deprecated resource type. See Project Browser for the full decoration reference.

Related pages

• Project Browser — the tree view where these operations live
• Search — find resources by name, path, or content
• Embedded Scripts — edit scripts embedded inside JSON resources as real Python files