Why this exists

I look at VS Code more than I look at my own wallpaper.

None of the themes I tried actually held my eye. I wanted color with some sting to it — something that catches my attention and keeps it on the editor, instead of letting it drift off to another browser tab.

So I made this one.

It's a theme for me, really. But I figured there might be other people like me, so here it is. Give it a try, just for fun. I'm happy with it, at least.

Fair warning

I don't think this qualifies as a calm theme.

The sidebar is olive, the terminal is teal, and the editor is pure black with nothing softening it. If you want something muted that disappears into the background, there are much better options than this one.

The palette

Workbench

Syntax

Semantic highlighting

Chick Chaos ships semantic token colors, so constants, built-ins and enum members each get their own color instead of collapsing into one. It's on by default in VS Code — if you've turned it off, turn it back on for this theme:

{
  "editor.semanticHighlighting.enabled": true
}

Install

1. Open Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X)
2. Search for Chick Chaos
3. Install
4. Cmd+K Cmd+T / Ctrl+K Ctrl+T → pick Chick Chaos

Tweaking it

Nothing here is sacred. Override any color in your settings.json and it applies live, no reload:

{
  "workbench.colorCustomizations": {
    "[Chick Chaos]": {
      "sideBar.background": "#3d3a15"
    }
  }
}

Credits

Syntax scopes are derived from One Dark Pro by Binaryify, used under the MIT License. The colors have been substantially reworked — none of the workbench palette is shared.

License

MIT © DOOYEE