Islands Theme (IntelliJ-inspired)

Islands Dark and Islands Light for VS Code – the colors of IntelliJ IDEA's Islands themes,
generated from the JetBrains sources instead of picked by eye.

Why another JetBrains theme?

Most JetBrains-like themes copy a handful of colors and map them onto TextMate scopes. That's why method calls end up blue and italic, class names get colored and static members look like everything else.

This theme is generated from IntelliJ's own files – the Islands Dark editor scheme, the Light scheme used by Islands Light, the bundled Darcula/Default parents and the Islands UI themes – and resolves every color the way IntelliJ does (own value → fallback key → parent scheme). The result:

• Same syntax colors as IntelliJ: method declarations blue, calls in the text color, fields purple, static members italic, annotations yellow, type parameters teal, Javadoc green and italic, …
• Semantic highlighting for Java and Kotlin: works with the semantic tokens of Java and Kotlin by IntelliJ IDEA (fields vs. locals, static and final fields, type parameters, Kotlin vars underlined, deprecated members struck through) – and with other language servers that send standard semantic tokens.
• IntelliJ's UI colors: the darker/lighter "main window" around the islands (title bar, activity bar, status bar), tool windows and editor as islands, IntelliJ's selection, popup, button and focus colors, file status (git) colors, diff colors and the console palette for the terminal. With VS Code's modern (floating) layout the islands look just like in IntelliJ.
• No bracket pair rainbow (IntelliJ doesn't color brackets either).

Languages

Every language gets IntelliJ's base colors (keywords, strings, numbers, comments, declarations, calls, fields). On top of that, each language is mapped to the attributes of the matching JetBrains IDE:

Semantic highlighting (more precise than the grammars) is mapped for the language servers that provide it: JetBrains' Java/Kotlin server, VS Code's TypeScript/JavaScript, Pylance (Python), rust-analyzer, gopls ("gopls": { "ui.semanticTokens": true }), clangd and PHP servers with semantic tokens.

Install

Install Islands Theme (IntelliJ-inspired) from the VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX (Cursor, VSCodium, Windsurf, …), then pick Islands Dark or Islands Light (⌘K ⌘T / Ctrl+K Ctrl+T).

Follow the OS appearance like IntelliJ's Sync with OS:

"window.autoDetectColorScheme": true,
"workbench.preferredDarkColorTheme": "Islands Dark",
"workbench.preferredLightColorTheme": "Islands Light"

Recommended settings for the full IntelliJ look

A theme can't change fonts or layout – these settings get you the rest of the way:

"editor.fontFamily": "JetBrains Mono",          // IntelliJ's default editor font (free, jetbrains.com/lp/mono)
"editor.fontSize": 13,
"editor.lineHeight": 1.4,
"editor.fontLigatures": false,
"editor.semanticHighlighting.enabled": true,     // default "configuredByTheme" works too
"editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled": false,  // not needed – the theme already uses one color
"editor.renderLineHighlight": "line",
"editor.guides.bracketPairs": false,
"workbench.tree.indent": 12

Together with IntelliJ Java/Kotlin Navigation ("7 usages", "1 implementation", "↑ Interface" hints) VS Code feels quite a bit like home.

Good to know

• Java without the JetBrains language server: VS Code's Java grammar can't tell fields from locals or static calls from instance calls. The theme handles the common cases (field declarations and obj.field access are purple, calls use the text color); everything else needs semantic tokens from a language server.
• PHP and C/C++ follow IntelliJ's general rules (e.g. $variables and fields purple, preprocessor and macros yellow); PhpStorm and CLion may differ in details.
• Static method calls in Java are italic in IntelliJ. The JetBrains language server currently doesn't send semantic tokens for Java methods, so they stay upright in VS Code.
• Rounded islands with gaps need VS Code's modern UI (default in recent versions). Older versions show the same colors with straight borders.

Development

npm install
npm test               # regenerates themes/*.json from jetbrains/ and checks colors against IntelliJ
npm run test:vscode    # once: downloads VS Code (its Java grammar is used by the color tests)
npm run screenshots    # docs/*.png via Playwright (npm i --no-save playwright), Linux: xvfb-run -a …
npx vsce package       # .vsix

themes/*.json are generated – change scripts/build.js (scope / semantic token / UI mappings) instead. The IntelliJ sources are in jetbrains/. Press F5 in VS Code to try the theme in an Extension Development Host. Releases: see RELEASING.md.

License

Apache License 2.0. The colors come from IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition, © JetBrains s.r.o., Apache License 2.0 – see NOTICE. IntelliJ IDEA and JetBrains are trademarks of JetBrains s.r.o.; this project is not affiliated with or endorsed by JetBrains.