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ToolDisplayInformationAttribute is the primary metadata attribute for any IGuiTool implementation. It controls how the tool appears in DevToys’ sidebar navigation, search results, and tool header — including its display name, description, group membership, and icon glyph. Every IGuiTool class must carry exactly one instance of this attribute. Namespace: DevToys.Api
Target: AttributeTargets.Class
AllowMultiple: false 
[MetadataAttribute]
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class, AllowMultiple = false)]
public sealed class ToolDisplayInformationAttribute : Attribute

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Properties

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GroupName
string
required
The internal name of the GuiToolGroup in which this tool should appear in the sidebar. The value must match the InternalComponentName declared via [Name] on an exported GuiToolGroup.DevToys ships several built-in groups via PredefinedCommonToolGroupNames:
ConstantValue
PredefinedCommonToolGroupNames.EncodersDecoders"Encoders / Decoders"
PredefinedCommonToolGroupNames.Converters"Converters"
PredefinedCommonToolGroupNames.Formatters"Formatters"
PredefinedCommonToolGroupNames.Generators"Generators"
PredefinedCommonToolGroupNames.Graphic"Graphic"
PredefinedCommonToolGroupNames.Testers"Testers"
PredefinedCommonToolGroupNames.Text"Text"
Extensions can define their own GuiToolGroup types and use their names here.
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ResourceManagerAssemblyIdentifier
string
required
The InternalComponentName (from [Name]) of the IResourceAssemblyIdentifier that owns the .resx file pointed to by ResourceManagerBaseName. DevToys uses this to resolve the correct resource manager at runtime.
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ResourceManagerBaseName
string
required
The fully qualified base name of the .NET resource manager used to look up all *ResourceName properties on this attribute. This is typically the namespace-qualified name of a .resx file, for example "MyExtension.Strings.MyToolStrings".
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ShortDisplayTitleResourceName
string
required
The resource key whose value is the short title of this tool as it appears in the sidebar menu. Keep this concise — for example "JSON" rather than "JSON Formatter".
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LongDisplayTitleResourceName
string
The resource key whose value is the full title shown in search results and at the top of the tool view. This is optional but strongly recommended when the short title alone is ambiguous. For example, while ShortDisplayTitleResourceName might resolve to "JSON", the long title could resolve to "JSON Formatter" to differentiate it from a JSON converter.
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DescriptionResourceName
string
The resource key for a short description of what the tool does. Displayed in search results beneath the title.
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AccessibleNameResourceName
string
The resource key for the screen-reader accessible name of this tool. When omitted, DevToys falls back to the long display title or short display title. Set this when the icon-based sidebar entry needs a more descriptive announcement for accessibility.
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SearchKeywordsResourceName
string
The resource key for a comma- or space-separated list of additional search keywords. These keywords are matched when users type in the DevToys search bar and augment the title-based matching.
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IconGlyph
char
required
The Unicode character within IconFontName that represents the tool’s icon. This glyph is rendered in the sidebar, search results, and tool header using the font specified by IconFontName.
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IconFontName
string
required
The name of the icon font that contains the IconGlyph character. The font must be registered via a FontDefinition returned by the IResourceAssemblyIdentifier identified by ResourceManagerAssemblyIdentifier. DevToys bundles its own icon font; extensions may provide their own.

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Full Usage Example

The following example registers a JSON formatting tool in the Formatters group. All string properties point to resource keys inside MyExtension.Strings.JsonFormatterStrings, managed by the assembly identifier named "MyExtension". 
using DevToys.Api;
using System.ComponentModel.Composition;

[Export(typeof(IGuiTool))]
[Name("JsonFormatterTool")]
[ToolDisplayInformation(
    GroupName            = PredefinedCommonToolGroupNames.Formatters,
    ResourceManagerAssemblyIdentifier = "MyExtension",
    ResourceManagerBaseName           = "MyExtension.Strings.JsonFormatterStrings",
    ShortDisplayTitleResourceName     = nameof(JsonFormatterStrings.ShortTitle),
    LongDisplayTitleResourceName      = nameof(JsonFormatterStrings.LongTitle),
    DescriptionResourceName           = nameof(JsonFormatterStrings.Description),
    AccessibleNameResourceName        = nameof(JsonFormatterStrings.AccessibleName),
    SearchKeywordsResourceName        = nameof(JsonFormatterStrings.SearchKeywords),
    IconGlyph                         = '\uE8A5',
    IconFontName                      = "FluentSystemIcons")]
public sealed class JsonFormatterTool : IGuiTool
{
    public UIToolView View
        => new UIToolView(
            GUI.Label(null, "Hello from JSON Formatter!"));

    public void OnDataReceived(string dataTypeName, object? parsedData) { }
}
The [Name] attribute (here "JsonFormatterTool") is required alongside [ToolDisplayInformation]. The name is used by [Order] and [AcceptedDataTypeName] references elsewhere in the codebase.
Use nameof(...) to reference resource key constants rather than raw strings to get compile-time safety and refactoring support.

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