Hats
Wear the right hat for each project.
Hats puts a button in your status bar to switch VSCode profiles and tint the
window per profile — so a Java project looks (and loads) different from a Python
one.
Demo
A quick look at switching profiles and per-profile window colors:
VSCode profiles already keep each context lightweight by loading only the
extensions you need. Hats makes them faster to reach and gives every workspace
its own color.
Features
- Status bar button (bottom-right by default) showing the current workspace,
one click away from everything below.
- Switch profile — opens the native profile switcher.
- New profile from template — jump straight into VSCode's built-in
templates (Python, Java General, Java Spring, Node.js, Angular, …).
- Window color per workspace — tint the title bar, activity bar and status
bar with a named hat or a custom hex color. Each element can be toggled.
Usage
- Click the 🎓 button in the status bar — or press
Ctrl+K Ctrl+H
(Cmd+K Cmd+H on macOS) — to switch profile right away (native picker).
- Everything else lives in the Command Palette (
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P) under
Hats:
- Hats: New Profile from Template (Python, Java General, Java Spring, …)
- Hats: Set Window Color (choose a hat or enter a
#rrggbb hex)
- Hats: Clear Window Color
Colors are stored in the active profile's settings
(workbench.colorCustomizations), so the window color follows the profile:
switch profiles and the color changes with it.
Notes about profiles
- Keep Hats in every profile. Profiles each have their own extensions, so a
new profile will not include Hats until you run Apply Extension to all
Profiles from the Extensions view gear menu. There is no API to do this
automatically; Hats shows a one-time tip on first run.
- Reload after switching. When you switch profiles, VSCode reassociates the
workspace and asks you to reload so the new profile's extensions load. This is
native VSCode behavior and cannot be suppressed by an extension.
Settings
| Setting |
Description |
hats.elements |
Which elements to tint (titleBar, activityBar, statusBar). |
hats.palette |
Your named hats ({ name, color }). Falls back to a built-in palette. |
hats.statusBar.alignment |
left or right (default right). |
hats.statusBar.showWorkspaceName |
Show the workspace name on the button. |
hats.statusBar.icon |
Codicon name for the button (e.g. mortar-board, briefcase, versions). Empty for none. |
hats.color |
The applied color (managed by Hats). |
Design notes
Hats deliberately leaves the theme to the profile and only manages the
window accent color, so the two never fight.
The button shows the workspace name rather than the active profile name
because VSCode does not yet expose a public API to read or change the active
profile. Track these upstream requests:
microsoft/vscode#226355
and #192852. Once that API
ships, Hats can show the real profile name.
Requirements
VSCode with Profiles support (1.75+). No other dependencies.
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome at
NicolasArthurDev/vscode-hats.
License
MIT
