Kiron Light

A calm, Apple-inspired light theme for VS Code. Bright without being harsh, blue without being loud.

Kiron Light pairs a system-blue interaction layer with a restrained, proven syntax palette. The UI feels like a native macOS app; the code feels like a well-tuned editor. The two layers are designed independently and deliberately kept apart.

Install from the Marketplace · Repository · Changelog

Design

The UI layer speaks Apple blue

Every interactive surface follows one rule: blue means "you can act here". The blue itself comes in two tiers, mirroring how Apple uses it in practice:

Semantic states stay out of blue's way: errors #D70015, warnings #BF8803, success and additions #1F9D3A. Surfaces layer from #f8f8f8 (editor) through #ebedef (sidebar) to #a4a9b2 (status bar) — gentle gray steps instead of hard borders.

The syntax layer stays independent

Code highlighting is not forced into the Apple-blue system. It builds on the palette of Brackets Light Pro, a light-theme classic whose color roles have survived a decade of daily use:

Semantic highlighting is enabled (48 semantic token rules), with TextMate rules kept as fallback for grammar-only languages.

Modern VS Code, fully covered

Kiron Light is written against the current theme spec — 700+ workbench color keys, organized in commented sections:

• Inline edit (next-edit suggestions), chat and agent sessions
• Multi-diff editor, SCM graph, sticky scroll (editor and sidebar)
• Bracket pair colorization, inlay hints, ghost text
• Testing, debugging, notebooks, settings editor, welcome page
• Full Apple-hued ANSI terminal palette with command decorations
• Markdown alerts, symbol icons, activity warning/error badges

Install

Search for Kiron Light in the Extensions view, or:

code --install-extension KairongLi.kiron-light

Then select it via Preferences: Color Theme → Kiron Light.

Development

npm install
npm run install:vscode   # package and install into local VS Code

The playground/ folder contains sample files in several languages for eyeballing syntax colors while iterating. It is excluded from the packaged VSIX.

Credits

The syntax palette is inspired by Brackets Light Pro by EryouHao. Kiron Light started as an attempt to bring that palette's calm clarity to modern VS Code — semantic tokens, current workbench surfaces, and all.

License

MIT