Work on one or more folders in VS Code without changing your real workspace.
Focus Folder Explorer adds a visual-only Focused Folders section in its own side tab on the Activity Bar. Your workspace root stays the same, so indexing, language servers, SFTP mappings, Git context, and other extensions keep working normally.
Why use it
When a project is too noisy, you often want to focus on app, src, modules, or any deep subfolder.
The problem is that changing the workspace root or hiding files globally can break other tools.
Focus Folder Explorer solves that by keeping a short list of focused folders in a dedicated side panel, without rewriting your workspace.
How to use
Right-click any folder in the Explorer
Click Focus on This Folder
Open the Focus Folder tab in the Activity Bar
Add more folders the same way when you want multiple focused roots
Use Remove from Focused Folders for one root or Clear Focus to reset all of them
What stays untouched
Workspace root
File indexing
Language servers
Git context
SFTP and other extension mappings
Your existing files.exclude settings
Good fit for
Large monorepos
Legacy projects with deep folder trees
Backend folders inside bigger repositories
Feature-folder workflows
Cases where you want less visual noise without changing project behavior
Commands
Focus on This Folder
Remove from Focused Folders
Clear Focus
Reveal in Explorer
Notes
The focused tree is visual-only
It lives in its own side tab on the Activity Bar
It respects your existing hidden-file rules from files.exclude
It updates automatically when files/folders are created, renamed, or deleted in focused roots
