To change the overall look of Visual Studio Code, open the Command Palette and run Preferences: Color Theme. Preview themes with the arrow keys and press Enter to apply one. To customize individual colors instead, add overrides in settings.json: use workbench.colorCustomizations for interface colors and editor.tokenColorCustomizations for syntax colors.
Choose a color theme
- Open the Command Palette with Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows or Linux, or use View > Command Palette.
- Run Preferences: Color Theme. On Windows and Linux, the shortcut Ctrl+K Ctrl+T opens the same picker.
- Use the arrow keys to preview themes, then press Enter to select one.
To browse additional choices, use the theme picker or open the Extensions view and filter for @category:"themes". Selecting a color theme changes the overall palette; it does not create custom color overrides.
Decide what to customize
- Workbench colors: Change the appearance of interface areas such as the Activity Bar, lists and trees, notifications, buttons, scroll bars, and diff editor with
workbench.colorCustomizations. - Syntax highlighting: Adjust colors for comments, strings, and other code tokens with
editor.tokenColorCustomizations. More specific TextMate rules are available for advanced control. - Icons: File-type icons and other interface icons are separate from color themes. Use Preferences: File Icon Theme or Preferences: Product Icon Theme, respectively.
Set the scope: user or workspace
Use user settings when you want your preference to apply by default across projects. Use workspace settings when the appearance should belong to a particular project. In a single-folder workspace, workspace settings are stored in the project’s .vscode folder; multi-root workspaces store them in the workspace configuration file. Project settings can be shared when committed with the project.
Open Settings from the gear menu or with Ctrl+,, then choose Edit in settings.json to edit JSON directly. You can also run Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON) for global settings. If user and workspace settings conflict, the workspace value takes precedence; language-specific settings can also affect which value applies.
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Customize interface colors
Add color identifiers and values under workbench.colorCustomizations in the relevant settings.json. For example, this changes the Activity Bar background:
{
"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
"activityBar.background": "#347890"
}
}Color identifiers are specific to VS Code’s interface. Use Settings editor IntelliSense or the official Theme Color Reference to find valid identifiers. The VS Code Themes guide covers areas including lists and trees, notifications, split views, and buttons.
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Limit an override to a particular theme
To apply a color only when a named theme is active, place the override inside a bracketed theme selector:
{
"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
"[Monokai]": {
"sideBar.background": "#347890"
}
}
}The theme guide also documents selectors that match multiple theme names and wildcard patterns. To return a customized color or border to its original value, the guide shows using default as the value.
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Customize syntax highlighting
For common token types, add overrides under editor.tokenColorCustomizations. For example:
{
"editor.tokenColorCustomizations": {
"comments": "#6A9955",
"strings": "#CE9178"
}
}For finer control, define TextMate rules; doing so requires understanding the TextMate grammars that classify code tokens. Semantic token colors are another mechanism for themes and syntax appearance. See the official Color Theme extension guide for these approaches and theme-file details.
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Adapt colors to light and dark modes
VS Code can detect the operating system’s color scheme using window.autoDetectColorScheme. You can also set preferred light and dark themes. High-contrast detection and preferred high-contrast themes are available as well; see the Themes guide for the relevant settings.
Improve the visibility of errors and warnings
You can override diagnostic colors with workbench.colorCustomizations. For example, editorError.foreground and editorWarning.foreground can make error and warning markers easier to distinguish. Microsoft’s Accessibility in VS Code documentation demonstrates this kind of adjustment.
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Troubleshoot a color override that has no effect
- Check that the setting is spelled correctly and that the customization object is inside the outer JSON object.
- Confirm that the color identifier exists in the Theme Color Reference; an invalid identifier cannot target the intended interface element.
- Look for JSON formatting or setting-name errors. The Settings editor provides IntelliSense and highlights these problems.
- Check whether a workspace or language-specific setting is taking precedence over the user-level value.
- If the override is theme-scoped, confirm that the active theme matches the bracketed selector.
Turn your customized colors into a reusable theme
If you want to share your appearance settings as a theme rather than maintain JSON overrides, run Developer: Generate Color Theme From Current Settings. To package the result as an extension, follow the scaffold and theme-file steps in the official Color Theme extension guide, which describes using the Yeoman extension generator.
Quick Recap
Which customization method should you use?
| Goal | Best starting point |
|---|---|
| Change the overall look quickly | Select an existing theme with Preferences: Color Theme. |
| Change a few interface colors | Add workbench.colorCustomizations in user or workspace settings. |
| Change code syntax colors | Use editor.tokenColorCustomizations; use TextMate rules for more specific control. |
| Set a project-specific appearance | Put the preference in workspace settings. |
| Change file or interface icons | Use the separate file icon or product icon theme commands. |
| Share a complete custom palette | Generate a theme from current settings, then package it as an extension. |
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