Brackets Refined

A carefully refined dark theme inspired by Brackets, rebuilt for modern Visual Studio Code.

About

Brackets Refined brings the clean, focused character of Brackets into a modern Visual Studio Code environment.

Rather than reproducing the original Brackets appearance literally, the theme refines its visual language for current VS Code features: semantic highlighting, modern workbench components, diagnostics, Git integration, terminal colors, symbol icons, and language-aware syntax highlighting.

The result is a dark theme designed to remain calm and readable while preserving clear visual separation between important code elements.

Screenshots

Python

Brackets Refined — Python

TypeScript

Brackets Refined — TypeScript

Key Features

Near-black #181A1B editor background
Carefully balanced dark workbench
Semantic highlighting enabled
Distinct functions, types, variables, parameters, properties, and constants
Dedicated decorator highlighting
Refined diagnostics and status colors
Coordinated terminal ANSI palette
Consistent symbol icons
Git and diff colors integrated with the theme palette
Tuned and tested with Python/Pylance
Tuned and tested with TypeScript/JavaScript
TextMate fallbacks for tokens not covered by semantic highlighting

Syntax Palette

Element	Color
Functions & Methods	`#74B9FF`
Classes & Interfaces	`#E5C07B`
Namespaces	`#56B6C2`
Type Parameters	`#C678DD`
Keywords	`#C678DD`
Operators	`#56B6C2`
Parameters	`#D19A66`
Constants	`#D19A66`
Variables	`#E8E8E8`
Properties	`#56B6C2`
Strings	`#98C379`
Regular Expressions	`#98C379`
Decorators	`#3FA9F5`
Comments	`#6F7681` italic

Language Support

Brackets Refined combines TextMate scopes with VS Code semantic highlighting.

The theme has been specifically tested with:

Python + Pylance
TypeScript
JavaScript

The underlying TextMate rules also provide general highlighting for other languages supported by VS Code and installed language extensions.

Because semantic token implementations differ between language servers, exact highlighting may vary slightly between languages.

Installation

Visual Studio Marketplace

Once Brackets Refined is published to the Visual Studio Marketplace, it can be installed directly from the VS Code Extensions view.

Search for:

Brackets Refined

Install from VSIX

Download the .vsix file from the GitHub Releases page.

In Visual Studio Code:

Extensions → ··· → Install from VSIX...

Select:

brackets-refined-1.0.0.vsix

Or install it from the command line:

code --install-extension brackets-refined-1.0.0.vsix

Then open Preferences: Color Theme and select Brackets Refined.

Development

The theme definition is located at:

themes/brackets-refined-color-theme.json

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/NeroWolfe75/brackets-refined.git
cd brackets-refined

Open it in Visual Studio Code:

code .

Press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host, then select Brackets Refined as the active color theme.

For syntax highlighting diagnostics, use:

Developer: Inspect Editor Tokens and Scopes

This displays the TextMate scopes, semantic token type and modifiers, and the theme rule responsible for the final color.

Packaging

Install Node.js and package the extension with:

npm run package

The resulting VSIX package will be created in the project root.

Issues and Feedback

Bug reports, highlighting inconsistencies, and suggestions are welcome.

Please use GitHub Issues.

When reporting a syntax-highlighting issue, it is helpful to include:

programming language
VS Code version
language extension being used
code example
output from Developer: Inspect Editor Tokens and Scopes

License

Brackets Refined is released under the MIT License.

Attribution

Brackets Refined is an independent community color theme inspired by the visual clarity and coding experience of Brackets.

It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Adobe, the Brackets project, Microsoft, or Visual Studio Code.