Linear Theme for VS Code

A near-black (and near-white) color theme built around Linear's design system — the deep #010102 canvas, a four-step surface ladder, and the signature lavender-blue accent #5e6ad2.

The theme keeps chrome quiet and lets code do the heavy lifting, mirroring how Linear's own product surfaces read: dense, technical, and quietly luxurious.

Variants

Four themes ship in this extension — pick via Preferences: Color Theme:

Six themes ship in this extension — pick via Preferences: Color Theme:

The Soft variants lift the background off Linear's near-black canvas to a comfortable charcoal — same ink, accent, and syntax colors, easier on the eyes in bright rooms. The italic variants italicize keywords, comments, this/self, parameters, and HTML/Vue attributes; the "No Italics" variants keep everything upright.

Language coverage

Tuned syntax highlighting for: Go, Rust, JavaScript, TypeScript, JSX/React, Vue, HTML, CSS, SCSS, LESS, C, C++, C#, plus JSON, YAML, and Markdown. Highlighting uses both TextMate scopes and semantic tokens, so language servers that emit semantic highlighting (Rust lifetimes, default-library symbols, etc.) are colored too.

Palette

Syntax highlighting draws from Linear's in-product tag palette (blue, lavender, green, cyan, amber, terracotta, orchid) so the colors stay true to the brand while remaining readable. Type names and enum names sit in blue; constants and enum members get their own cyan so they never blend into the type they belong to.

Install

From source (local)

npm install            # installs vsce + ovsx locally
npm run build          # regenerate the four theme JSONs from build.js
npm run package        # build + produce the .vsix
code --install-extension linear-theme-vscode-0.1.0.vsix

Then open the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P) → Preferences: Color Theme → pick a Linear variant.

Publishing & auto-updates

Publishing is automated via GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/publish.yml). Once published, the Marketplace handles auto-updates for users — VS Code pulls new versions automatically.

One-time setup — add these repository secrets (Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions):

• VSCE_PAT — an Azure DevOps Personal Access Token with Marketplace › Manage scope (required).
• OVSX_PAT — an Open VSX token (optional; the Open VSX step is skipped if unset).

To cut a release, bump the version and push a matching tag:

npm version patch       # or minor / major — updates package.json + commits + tags
git push && git push --tags

The workflow verifies the tag matches package.json, builds, packages, publishes to the Marketplace (and Open VSX if configured), and attaches the .vsix to a GitHub Release. The tag version must equal the package.json version or the run fails fast.

Customizing

All four themes are generated from build.js — edit the dark / light palette objects or the tokenColors rules there and run npm run build. The palette keys map directly to Linear's design tokens (canvas, surface1–4, hairline, ink, accent).

Quick try without packaging

Copy this folder into your VS Code extensions directory and reload:

• macOS / Linux: ~/.vscode/extensions/
• Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.vscode\extensions\

Pairing

For the closest match to Linear's typography, set your editor font to Geist Mono or JetBrains Mono at weight 400 — the documented open-source substitutes for Linear Mono.

License

MIT