CobaltPositron Theme

A modern, dark cobalt-inspired theme designed for Positron and Visual Studio Code. This theme brings deep blues, sharp contrast, and a developer-friendly aesthetic to your coding environment.

Installation

Once the theme is published to the VSX Marketplace, you can install it directly:

1. Open Positron (or VS Code).
2. Go to the Extensions view:
   • Click the Extensions icon in the Activity Bar on the side of the window.
   • Or press:
     • Ctrl+Shift+X (Windows/Linux)
     • Cmd+Shift+X (macOS)
3. Search for CobaltPositron-Theme.
4. Click Install.

Activation

After installing:

1. Open the Command Palette:
   • Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux)
   • Cmd+Shift+P (macOS)
2. Type Color Theme and select Preferences: Color Theme.
3. From the list, choose CobaltPositron-Theme.

Here are the settings.json the author of this theme is running at the time of publication:

{
    "window.autoDetectColorScheme": true,
    "workbench.preferredDarkColorTheme": "CobaltPositron-Theme",
    // color theme settings
    "workbench.colorCustomizations": {
        "[CobaltPositron-Theme]": {
            "tab.inactiveBackground": "#002240",
            "tab.inactiveForeground": "#ffffff",
            "tab.activeBackground": "#013664",
            "tab.activeForeground": "#002240",
            "editorGroupHeader.tabsBackground": "#002240",
            "activityBar.background": "#002240",
            "statusBar.background": "#013664",
            "sideBar.background": "#002240",
            "titleBar.activeBackground": "#002240"
        }
    },
    "files.associations": {
        "renv.lock": "json"
    },
    //vertical line to keep code vertical
    "editor.rulers": [
        80
    ],
    // handle newline saving adapted from
    // https://rfdonnelly.github.io/posts/sane-vscode-whitespace-settings/
    "files.insertFinalNewline": true,
    "editor.renderFinalNewline": "dimmed",
    "files.trimFinalNewlines": true,
    "files.trimTrailingWhitespace": true,
    // also render trailing whitespace, since it'll get trimmed
    "editor.renderWhitespace": "trailing",
    // pretty cursor
    "editor.cursorBlinking": "phase",
    "editor.cursorStyle": "line",
    // otherwise opening two files closes the first ???
    "workbench.editor.enablePreview": false,
    // adds more lines to the file tab
    "workbench.tree.renderIndentGuides": "always",
    // prettier folders since vscode is ugly by default
    "workbench.iconTheme": "ayu",
    "workbench.settings.editor": "json",
    // use air
    "editor.formatOnSave": true,
    // better pasting
    "editor.formatOnPaste": true,
    // font and what not
    "editor.fontFamily": "'JetBrains Mono', monospace",
    "editor.fontSize": 13,
    "editor.fontWeight": "normal",
    "editor.fontLigatures": true,
    "editor.parameterHints.enabled": false,
    // adds lines for the current bracket you're in
    "editor.guides.bracketPairs": "active",
    "workbench.startupEditor": "none",
    // gotta keep my RStudio keybindings
    "workbench.keybindings.rstudioKeybindings": true,
    // enable assistant
    "positron.assistant.consoleActions.enable": false // for now
}

These settings are derived from Christopher Kenny's blog post.

Features

• Dark cobalt base with balanced contrast for readability.
• Carefully chosen accent colors for syntax highlighting.
• Optimized for both long coding sessions and presentations.

Note this example reflects the custom tweaks I made in my settings.json file.

Contributing

If you have suggestions or find issues, please open an issue or pull request on the GitHub repository.

License

This theme is released under the MIT License.

Enjoy coding with CobaltPositron!