A dynamic VS Code icon theme that automatically matches your system's accent color.
Adapt Icons takes a comprehensive set of 2,400+ file and folder icons and converts them to a cohesive monochrome palette derived from your OS accent color. Every icon updates in real time when your system theme changes — no manual configuration needed.
Screenshots
Features
System accent detection — Automatically reads your accent color from KDE Plasma, GNOME, macOS, and Windows
Real-time updates — Icons refresh when you change your system accent color
2,400+ icons — Covers 1,700+ file types and 330+ folder types with dedicated open/closed states
Dark mode variants — Select icons ship with dark variants for better visibility
Custom color override — Set any hex color manually if you prefer
Installation
Open the Extensions view in VS Code (Ctrl+Shift+X)
Search for Adapt Icons
Click Install
Go to File > Preferences > File Icon Theme and select Adapt Icons
Usage
Once activated, Adapt Icons detects your system accent color and generates all icons automatically. There is nothing else to configure.
Commands
Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and type:
Command
Description
Adapt Icons: Refresh from System Accent
Manually re-detect your system accent color and regenerate icons
Adapt Icons: Set Custom Accent Color
Override the system color with a custom hex value (e.g. #3daee9)
Adapt Icons: Debug Info
Show diagnostic information about the current state
Settings
Setting
Default
Description
adaptIcons.accentColor
"" (empty)
Custom accent color in hex. Leave empty to auto-detect from your system.
Supported Platforms
Platform
Detection Method
KDE Plasma
kreadconfig5 / kreadconfig6 + file watcher
GNOME
gsettings accent color preference
GTK
gtk-3.0 / gtk-4.0 CSS parsing
macOS
AppleAccentColor from system defaults
Windows
DWM accent color from the Windows Registry
If detection fails or your DE is unsupported, the extension falls back to a default blue (#5B9BD5). You can always set a custom color manually.
How It Works
Adapt Icons uses a luminance-based color mapping algorithm to convert the source icon set into your accent color palette:
Source SVGs use a predefined set of neutral gray tones at different luminance levels
On activation, the extension detects your system accent color
Each icon's fill and stroke colors are remapped to accent-derived tones that preserve the original visual depth
The generated icons are written to disk and VS Code's icon theme is updated
Icons are cached and only regenerated when the accent color actually changes.
