Smart Explorer

Increase Productivy save time be smart

A blazing-fast, fully keyboard-driven file explorer that opens as a VS Code tab — no mouse required.

Stop reaching for your mouse every time you need to open a file. Smart Explorer puts your entire project tree at your fingertips. Open it with one shortcut, navigate with arrow keys, and get back to coding. Everything you need is already on screen.

Why Smart Explorer?

The built-in VS Code sidebar is fine — but it requires your mouse. If you're a keyboard-first developer, switching from keyboard to mouse and back is a constant interruption to your flow. Smart Explorer solves that.

Everything is shown on screen. Every shortcut, every action, every key — displayed in the status bar at the bottom. You don't need to memorize anything. Just glance down.

You really only need 2–3 shortcuts to start:

• Ctrl+Shift+E — open the explorer
• Arrow keys — navigate
• Enter — open the file

That's it. Everything else is optional and discoverable on screen.

Features

⌨️ 100% Keyboard Driven

Every single action has a keyboard shortcut. Navigate the tree, open files, create files and folders, rename, delete, search — all without touching your mouse.

📂 Opens as a Tab

Smart Explorer opens in your editor area (Column 1), just like any other file. It doesn't steal sidebar space or overlap your code.

🔄 Smart Tab Cycling

Press Ctrl+1 to cycle between Smart Explorer and all your open editor tabs. The cycle order tracks every file you open, in order. Press once → jump to your last file. Press again → next file. Press again → back to Explorer. Round-robin, forever.

🎨 700+ File Icons + 500+ Folder Icons

Material-style SVG icons for every file type you'll encounter:

• All web frameworks: HTML, CSS, SCSS, JS, TS, JSX, TSX, Vue, Svelte, Astro, MDX, and more
• All major languages: Python, Rust, Go, Java, PHP, Ruby, Swift, Dart, C/C++/C#, and 30+ more
• Data files: JSON, YAML, TOML, XML, CSV, SQL, GraphQL, Prisma, Protobuf
• Media: all image, video, audio, and font formats
• Archives, certificates, database files, office documents
• Folder icons for 335+ named folders: src, components, api, auth, docker, .vscode, node_modules, and hundreds more — each with its own color

Switch between Material and Emoji icon modes anytime.

🎨 6 Color Themes

Choose your vibe:

• Void (default) — deep purple-dark
• Ocean — deep blue
• Forest — dark green
• Desert — warm amber
• Sakura — pink/rose
• Light — full light mode

Themes sync automatically with your VS Code light/dark preference on open.

🔍 Instant Project-Wide Search

Press Ctrl+F inside the explorer to search all files and folders recursively. Results appear instantly (200ms debounce) split into Folders and Files sections with your search term highlighted.

⚡ Error & Warning Indicators

Red/orange dots appear next to files with TypeScript/ESLint errors or warnings. Folders bubble up: if any file inside has an error, the folder shows it too. You see problems at a glance without opening every file.

✏️ File & Folder Management

• Create multiple files at once: press commond Ctrl+Alt+F and type index.html style.css app.js → creates all 3
• Create multiple folders at once: press commond Ctrl+Alt+D type auth dashboard services → creates all 3
• Rename with F2, delete to trash with Del (with confirm dialog)
• All operations keep you in the current folder — the tree never jumps to root

📍 Navigation History

• Go up to parent with ↑ button or Backspace
• Go back to previous folders with ← arrow (like browser back)
• Navigate into a folder by pressing Enter on it

🔲 Maximize / Restore

• Ctrl+Shift+Z — toggle maximize current editor tab if your code is big you want your tab on full screen just focus on that tab with commond Ctrl+1 and then press commond Ctrl+Shift+z it will open you tab in full screen if you press again Ctrl+Shift+z it will again comes in half

Installation

From VS Code Marketplace

1. Open VS Code
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+X to open Extensions
3. Search for Smart Explorer
4. Click Install

From VSIX (manual)

1. Download the .vsix file from the Releases page
2. In VS Code: Ctrl+Shift+P → Extensions: Install from VSIX...
3. Select the downloaded file

Getting Started — 60 Seconds

Step 1: Open a project folder in VS Code (File → Open Folder)

Step 2: Press Ctrl+Shift+E — Smart Explorer opens as a tab

Step 3: Use arrow keys to navigate. Press Enter to open a file.

Step 4: Press Ctrl+1 to jump to the opened file. Press Ctrl+1 again to cycle back to Explorer.

That's it. You're fully keyboard-driven now.

All Keyboard Shortcuts

Global Shortcuts (work anywhere in VS Code)

Inside the Explorer

In the Search Box

In Modals (Rename / New File / Delete)

Creating Multiple Files at Once

You don't have to create files one by one. Smart Explorer supports batch creation:

New Files — type space-separated names:

index.html  style.css  app.js  README.md

Pressing OK creates all 4 files instantly.

New Folders — same pattern:

auth  dashboard  api  components

Creates all 4 folders instantly.

Files are created in the currently focused folder in the tree, not necessarily the root.

Tab Cycling in Detail

Smart Explorer tracks every file you open, in order. The Ctrl+1 cycle works like this:

1. You open App.tsx — it joins the cycle list
2. You open styles.css — joins the list
3. You open api.ts — joins the list
4. Press Ctrl+1 → jumps to Explorer
5. Press Ctrl+1 → jumps to App.tsx
6. Press Ctrl+1 → jumps to styles.css
7. Press Ctrl+1 → jumps to api.ts
8. Press Ctrl+1 → back to Explorer

If you close a tab, it's removed from the cycle automatically. If you open VS Code with files already open from a previous session, they're pre-loaded into the cycle.

How This Saves You Time

A typical workflow without Smart Explorer:

1. Move hand to mouse — ~0.5s
2. Click sidebar icon — ~0.5s
3. Scroll to find the file — ~2–5s
4. Click the file — ~0.5s
5. Move hand back to keyboard — ~0.5s

Total: 4–7 seconds per file navigation

With Smart Explorer:

1. Ctrl+Shift+E — explorer is open — ~0.1s
2. Type in search or arrow to the file — ~1–2s
3. Enter to open — ~0.1s
4. Ctrl+1 to switch back and forth — ~0.1s

Total: 1–2 seconds per file navigation

Over a full day of coding — opening dozens of files — this adds up to minutes saved every hour. More importantly, you stay in flow. No context switch from keyboard to mouse and back.

Configuration

Smart Explorer works out of the box with zero configuration. All settings are available in the panel itself:

• Color theme — click the colored dots in the toolbar
• Icon theme — click E (Emoji) or M (Material) in the toolbar

Requirements

• VS Code 1.75.0 or higher
• No additional dependencies

Extension Settings

This extension does not add any settings to VS Code's settings.json. Everything is configured through the panel UI itself.

Known Limitations

• Files and folders starting with . (dotfiles) are hidden by default, as are node_modules and .git directories (these are performance and noise filters)
• The extension tracks tab cycles per VS Code window session

Contributing

Found a bug? Have a feature idea? Contributions are welcome!

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature
3. Make your changes
4. Test with F5 in VS Code (Extension Development Host)
5. Submit a pull request

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

Release Notes

1.0.0

• Initial release
• 700+ file type icons, 500+ folder icons
• 6 color themes with VS Code light/dark sync
• Full keyboard navigation
• Tab cycling with Ctrl+1
• Batch file and folder creation
• Project-wide search
• Error/warning indicators
• Maximize/restore shortcuts

Smart Explorer — Your keyboard never has to leave the home row.