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VS Code extension

Workspace Colors

v0.9.4 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Tell your VS Code projects apart at a glance. Give each workspace its own title bar, editor background and pane-header colours, with dark and light palettes.

Overlapping VS Code windows with distinct blue, purple and teal workspace colours and the colour picker in front
Different workspace colours help distinguish overlapping windows.
  • Colour wheel and RGB/HSV sliders, with five schemes: Bright, Shaded, Umbra, Subdued and Dim.
  • Three preview swatches help you check text readability before applying.
  • Workspace colour choices are saved locally; pinned sidebar rows use an opaque background.
  • No account, API key, telemetry or runtime network connection required.

Requirements and notes

VS Code 1.85+. Open a folder or workspace for independent colours. Empty windows use shared global settings. Back up existing colour customisations first: this extension overwrites managed colour keys, and Clear removes them rather than restoring old values. Random colours can repeat.

Source and user guide on GitHub ↗

Install

Download the VSIX, then in VS Code open Extensions → … → Install from VSIX… and select it. Or run this from the folder containing the download:

code --install-extension vscode-workspace-colors-0.9.4.vsix

Run Developer: Reload Window, then Workspace Colors: Open Colour Wheel. If the native title bar does not change, set window.titleBarStyle to custom.

Download Workspace Colors v0.9.4 SHA-256 checksum
Changelog
  • 0.9.4 - Public source, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licensing and hardened release packaging/credential boundaries.
  • 0.9.3 - Fix custom Subdued foreground and light-mode Dim ordering; keep HSV state while editing values; recover saved workspace palettes; persist Clear across reloads.
  • 0.9.2 - Apply keeps the picker open; a separate Close button dismisses it.
  • 0.9.0 - Scheme-state fixes; the window-background preview uses the actual editor background; scheme and top swatch stay in sync while editing.
  • 0.8.0 - Brightness/value editing preserves hue and saturation; top swatch updates live; corrected preview proportions; migration for the renamed Subdued scheme.
  • 0.7.0 - Renamed Super subdued to Dim; previews ordered brightest to most subdued; separate title bar, window background and pane title bar previews.
  • 0.6.0 - Brightness/value, RGB and HSV controls; in-document intensity selection and random colours; three readability swatches per scheme.
  • 0.5.0 - Webview HSV colour wheel replaces the named-colour quick pick; per-workspace colours adapt to dark/light themes and intensity.
  • 0.4.0 - Five intensity levels (Bright, Shaded, Umbra, Subdued, Super subdued); new workspaces get a random unused colour.
  • 0.3.0 - Empty windows fall back to a global colour instead of failing activation.
  • 0.2.0 - Subdued automatic colours; separate muted palettes for dark and light themes; colour reapplied when the theme changes.
  • 0.1.0 - Initial MVP: automatic stable colours plus choose, cycle and clear commands.