CODE FOCUS - A PyCharm plugin

Author

• Name: Yves Vindevogel
• GitLab handle: vindevoy
• GitHub handle: vindevoy
• E-mail: yves.vindevogel@asynchrone.com

Purpose

Code Focus hides the comments and logging lines from Python code (.py files) in PyCharm (Community or Professional), allowing developers to focus on the code itself without the clutter of those extra, and very useful, lines.

Compatibility

• IDE: PyCharm Community or Professional
• Supported versions: 2025.1 through 2026.1 (build range 251 — 261.*)
• Language scope: Python (.py) only

Installation

The plugin is not yet published on the JetBrains Marketplace, but a pre-built distributable zip is attached to every release.

1. Download the latest code-focus-<version>.zip from one of:
   • GitHub Releases: https://github.com/vindevoy/code-focus/releases/latest
   • GitLab Releases: https://gitlab.com/asynchrone/kotlin/code-focus/-/releases/permalink/latest
2. Open PyCharm (Community or Professional).
3. Go to Settings → Plugins → gear icon (top right of the dialog) → Install Plugin from Disk….
4. Select the downloaded code-focus-<version>.zip.
5. Restart PyCharm when prompted.

After the restart, open any .py file — the Code Focus toggle bar appears above the editor, and Settings → Tools → Code Focus exposes the configurable substring list used by the Show Logging Lines toggle.

Building from source

If you would rather build the zip yourself instead of downloading a release:

1. Run ./gradlew buildPlugin — the distributable is produced in build/distributions/code-focus-<version>.zip.
2. Follow steps 2–5 above with the freshly built zip.

Usage

After installation, every Python (.py) editor in PyCharm gets a Code Focus toggle bar at the top — see the screenshot above.

Toggles

Each toggle hides one category of visual noise. Click a toggle pill once to flip its state; toggle state is per file and persists across IDE restarts.

• Comments — folds runs of # comment lines.
• Blank Lines — collapses runs of blank lines.
• Line Numbers — shows or hides the editor's line-number gutter for the current file.
• Logging Lines — folds lines matching a configurable substring list (see Settings below for the defaults and how to edit them).
• Imports — folds the top-of-file import / from … import … block.

Buttons

• Re-Apply — re-runs every toggle's hide logic against the current file. Useful after typing new code (a fresh comment or logger call) that an active toggle should also hide. Always present.
• Format — runs ruff format on the current file, then reloads the editor with the result. Appears only when ruff is reachable — the plugin first looks for <project>/.venv/bin/ruff (or <project>/.venv/Scripts/ruff.exe on Windows), then falls back to whatever which ruff returns on PATH. If neither finds it, the button is hidden.
• Fix — runs ruff check --fix on the current file, then reloads. If ruff cannot auto-fix every issue, the remaining diagnostics open in a popup; a clean run is silent. Same ruff resolution as Format, so the two buttons appear and disappear together.

In short: install ruff into your project's Python interpreter (for example pip install ruff inside the project's .venv, or uv add --dev ruff) and the Format and Fix buttons will show up the next time you open a .py file.

Settings

Settings → Tools → Code Focus exposes the substring list used by the Logging Lines toggle. Each entry is a plain String.contains match — no regex syntax. Defaults cover the standard Python logging module:

• import logging
• from logging import
• LoggerFactory
• logger.
• logger =
• logging.getLogger

Add or remove entries to match your project's logger conventions, then click Apply. The toggle re-evaluates immediately — no IDE restart needed.

Build & run

Standard Gradle commands from the JetBrains plugin template:

• ./gradlew build — compile, run tests, and package
• ./gradlew runIde — launch a sandboxed PyCharm instance with the plugin loaded
• ./gradlew test — run all tests
• ./gradlew buildPlugin — produce the distributable zip in build/distributions/
• ./gradlew verifyPlugin — verify plugin structure and compatibility

Development uses JDK 21 and Kotlin 2.1.20.

Architecture

This plugin is written in Kotlin, as this is the preferred language for JetBrains plugins. The editor used for this, is IntelliJ Professional.

AI

• All code was written by Claude.
• Although completely written by Claude, all code was reviewed by a human.
• Claude was used to generate the code. Claude did not invent, nor design the plugin.
• This project serves as an example of vibe coding with Claude CLI. All interaction is documented in each issue.
• This is a study project for me (vindevoy) on how interaction with Claude CLI can work best.
• I have no experience in Kotlin, but 30 years of programming experience.

Feedback

Issues and feature requests live on GitHub: https://github.com/vindevoy/code-focus/discussions

License

Released under the MIT License.