diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/api/browser/mainThreadFileSystem.ts b/src/vs/workbench/api/browser/mainThreadFileSystem.ts
index fc8f4301c80..f419a053be0 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/api/browser/mainThreadFileSystem.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/api/browser/mainThreadFileSystem.ts
@@ -159,6 +159,10 @@ export class MainThreadFileSystem implements MainThreadFileSystemShape {
 		return consumeStream(stream, chunks => chunks.join());
 	}
 
+	async $encode(resource: UriComponents, content: string): Promise<VSBuffer> {
+		return this._textFileService.getEncodedReadable(URI.revive(resource), content);
+	}
+
 	private static _handleError(err: any): never {
 		if (err instanceof FileOperationError) {
 			switch (err.fileOperationResult) {
diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/api/common/extHost.protocol.ts b/src/vs/workbench/api/common/extHost.protocol.ts
index 22e1219af3e..66767d57ca0 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/api/common/extHost.protocol.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/api/common/extHost.protocol.ts
@@ -1499,6 +1499,7 @@ export interface MainThreadFileSystemShape extends IDisposable {
 	$delete(resource: UriComponents, opts: files.IFileDeleteOptions): Promise<void>;
 
 	$decode(resource: UriComponents, content: VSBuffer): Promise<string>;
+	$encode(resource: UriComponents, content: string): Promise<VSBuffer>;
 
 	$ensureActivation(scheme: string): Promise<void>;
 }
diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/api/common/extHostFileSystemConsumer.ts b/src/vs/workbench/api/common/extHostFileSystemConsumer.ts
index 5f657b57e9f..ab93b4692b0 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/api/common/extHostFileSystemConsumer.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/api/common/extHostFileSystemConsumer.ts
@@ -157,6 +157,10 @@ export class ExtHostConsumerFileSystem {
 			},
 			decode(uri: vscode.Uri, content: Uint8Array): Promise<string> {
 				return that._proxy.$decode(uri, VSBuffer.wrap(content));
+			},
+			async encode(uri: vscode.Uri, content: string): Promise<Uint8Array> {
+				const buff = await that._proxy.$encode(uri, content);
+				return buff.buffer;
 			}
 		});
 	}
diff --git a/src/vscode-dts/vscode.proposed.textDocumentEncoding.d.ts b/src/vscode-dts/vscode.proposed.textDocumentEncoding.d.ts
index aa107eeb4a4..4357d91755b 100644
--- a/src/vscode-dts/vscode.proposed.textDocumentEncoding.d.ts
+++ b/src/vscode-dts/vscode.proposed.textDocumentEncoding.d.ts
@@ -40,8 +40,21 @@ declare module 'vscode' {
 		 * @param uri The URI that represents the file. This information
 		 * is used to figure out the encoding related configuration for the file.
 		 * @param content The content to decode as a `Uint8Array`.
-		 * @returns A Thenable that resolves to the decoded string.
+		 * @returns A thenable that resolves to the decoded `string`.
 		 */
 		decode(uri: Uri, content: Uint8Array): Thenable<string>;
+
+		/**
+		 * Encodes the content of a string to a `Uint8Array` using
+		 * the same encoding logic that is used when saving text documents.
+		 *
+		 * This method will respect the user configured file encoding.
+		 *
+		 *@param uri The URI that represents the file. This information
+		 * is used to figure out the encoding related configuration for the file.
+		 * @param content The content to decode as a `string`.
+		 * @returns A thenable that resolves to the encoded `Uint8Array`.
+		 */
+		encode(uri: Uri, content: string): Thenable<Uint8Array>;
 	}
 }