any plugin or extension that let's me ctrl+shift+O to surround something with cfoutput in vs code

don't actually require an extension for that. refer to https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/userdefinedsnippets#_create-your-own-snippets . having said that, there ARE snippet extensions that try to make it easier to create them. just search the marketplace for 'snippet'

I was just about to say create your own. A good example is the answer on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52813965/key-binding-of-custom-snippet-in-vscode. The body of your snippet would be

<cfoutput>$TM_SELECTED_TEXT</cfoutput>

so it can capture the highlighted code.

always after I post to a forum, ChatGPT just spat it out

lol