# Format Astro files in VS Code with Prettier

> Learn how to auto-format .astro files in VS Code with Prettier by installing prettier-plugin-astro and enabling Format On Save and Format On Paste.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2022-04-26 | Topics: [Tools](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/tools/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/how-to-format-astro-vscode/

One downside of using [Astro](https://flaviocopes.com/astro-introduction/) is that Prettier does not understand its syntax.

So auto-formatting on Save/Paste does not work in [VS Code](https://flaviocopes.com/vscode).

How can you automatically format Astro files in VS Code using Prettier?

To make it work we need to do some configuration.

First install the default formatter for Web Development, which is Prettier.

Prettier does not have a specific formatter for Astro.

So inside your project folder, install this plugin https://github.com/withastro/prettier-plugin-astro by running

```sh
npm install -D prettier-plugin-astro
```

Now make sure in the VS Code settings you have enabled **Editor: Format On Save** and **Editor: Format On Paste**.

Then when you save the file or paste code you should see it being formatted.

If it doesn't work, make sure in VS Code you opened the specific project folder.

Not the project's parent folder.

This might make the Astro formatter not work.