Folder Lock — Read-Only Toggle
Make every file in your folder view-only with one click, and unlock it again just as fast.
You open a project to read it, your keyboard is still active, and one wrong key changes an important file.
Folder Lock prevents that. Click 🔒 and every file in the open folder becomes view-only. Click 🔓 and you can edit
again. You don't have to lock file by file.
Features
- One-click lock for the whole folder. Every file, including files you open later, becomes view-only.
- Three places to click:
- the status bar, bottom right (🔓 Folder editable / 🔒 Folder locked);
- the top of the Explorer;
- the top-right corner of any open file.
- Keyboard shortcut:
Ctrl+Alt+L (Cmd+Alt+L on macOS).
- Lock a single file: right-click the file's tab → Lock This File, or press
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L. The next folder
click clears single-file choices again, so the folder button always decides for every file.
- Remembered per folder: a locked folder is still locked the next time you open it, and other folders are not
affected.
- Nothing else is blocked: programs, terminals, debugging and Git keep working while the folder is locked.
- No telemetry, no network access, no dependencies.
How to use
- Open a folder (File → Open Folder).
- Click 🔓 Folder editable in the status bar. It changes to 🔒 Folder locked.
- Open any file: its tab shows a lock, and typing does nothing.
- Click 🔒 Folder locked to edit again.
The Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) also has Folder Lock: Lock Folder, Unlock Folder, Toggle Folder Lock,
Lock This File and Unlock This File.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
What it does |
folderLock.showStatusBar |
true |
Show the button in the status bar |
folderLock.showEditorButton |
true |
Show the button in the top-right corner of every file |
folderLock.showNotifications |
true |
Show a short status-bar message after locking or unlocking |
How it works
Folder Lock uses VS Code's own read-only feature, available since VS Code 1.79. Locking adds the pattern "**/*"
to the workspace setting files.readonlyInclude, which is saved in the folder's .vscode/settings.json. Unlocking
removes that pattern again. Any other read-only patterns you set yourself are kept.
You can lock a folder for everyone who opens it by committing .vscode/settings.json with:
{ "files.readonlyInclude": { "**/*": true } }
Limitations
- The lock protects files inside VS Code's editor only. Other programs, scripts, terminals and extensions can still
change files. It is protection against accidental typing, not a security feature.
- Locking writes
.vscode/settings.json in the open folder. If that file is not writable, Folder Lock shows an error.
- In a multi-root workspace, the lock applies to the whole workspace.
- Locking a single file lasts until VS Code is closed (this is how VS Code's own "read-only in session" works).
Requirements
VS Code 1.79 or newer. Works on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Release notes
See the Changelog tab.
License
MIT © 2026 Shafiq Nasiree (see the License tab).
