LanguageTool + TeXstudio + VSCode

Paulo Loma Marconi

Introduction

LanguageTool is a proofreading open-source software written in Java that allows you to integrate grammar, and spell checking on several text editors. I use it mainly with TeXstudio for LaTex documents but when I tried to use in parallel with VSCode I found some problems.

The objective of this brief tutorial is to configure TeXstudio and VSCode to work with LanguageTool in parallel.

Download and configure LanguageTool

Download LanguageTool desktop version for offline use.
Unzip the folder.
Run languagetool.jar
In TexChecking > Options enable Run as server on port 8081

Configure TeXstudio

Go to Options > Configure TeXstudio > Language Checking
Configure Server URL, LT Path, and LT Arguments as follows.
Maybe you'll find that some users add --allow-origin "*" to LT Arguments. It's not necessary for TeXstudio because --allow-origin "*" is used to serve from the browser add-on, see official documentation.

Check LanguageTool is activated on TeXstudio

Go to Help > Check LanguageTool. The LT Report.txt will be opened showing LT current status: working.

Download and configure the LanguageTool Linter VSCode extension

Download LanguageTool Linter.
Go to the extesion configuration and set the Class Path and Jar File options as follows,

Check LanguageTool is activated on VSCode

Open the OUTPUT window and select LanguageTool Linter. You will see the following.
Although I mentioned not to use --allow-origin "*", we use on VSCode to force LanguageTool to open another port because 8081 is already used by TeXstudio
A warning message will appear at the bottom to change it the default setting. I tried the suggestion but didn't work for me.

Test the parallel working on VSCode and TeXstudio

TeXstudio
VSCode

Done! I hope it works for you too.

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