Universal Color Picker

Native VS Code color picker and inline swatches in every language.

VS Code's built-in color picker only works in CSS, SCSS, Less and HTML. This extension registers a DocumentColorProvider for all file schemes, so you get the same clickable color decorator and color picker in YAML, JSON, Markdown, TOML, plain text, shell scripts, source code — anywhere a color literal appears.

Features

• Detects and renders clickable color swatches for:
  • Hex: #rgb, #rgba, #rrggbb, #rrggbbaa
  • RGB: rgb(r, g, b), rgba(r, g, b, a)
  • HSL: hsl(h, s%, l%), hsla(h, s%, l%, a)
• Click a swatch → opens VS Code's native color picker
• Edits replace the value in the same notation as the original (hex stays hex, rgb stays rgb, hsl stays hsl)
• Works in any file regardless of language

Why

Configuration files (theme.yaml, design tokens in JSON, color tables in Markdown) often contain color literals, but VS Code's native picker stops at CSS-family languages. This extension fills that gap with a single regex-based provider — no per-language configuration required.

Usage

Install, reload, open any file with a color literal. The colored square appears next to the value. Click to edit.

Compatibility

• VS Code ^1.75.0
• Plays nicely with naumovs.color-highlight (background tint) — they don't conflict.

Caveats

• May produce duplicate swatches in CSS/SCSS/Less/HTML where Microsoft's language servers already provide one. If this bothers you, the file selector is configurable in extension.js.
• Named colors (red, blue) and modern CSS color functions (oklch(), lch(), color()) are not yet supported — PRs welcome.

License

MIT © Miguel Aguiar