Workspace Tint

Workspace Tint gives each workspace a visual identity on demand. It can generate a deterministic color from the primary Git remote or apply a ready-made color preset to the title bar and status bar. It also adds a color marker to the VS Code window title.

Features

• Stable colors for the same normalized Git remote when generated explicitly.
• Uses origin, falling back to the first configured remote.
• Supports SSH and HTTPS remote formats.
• Applies title bar and status bar colors, including the inactive title bar state.
• Adds a matching color marker to the window title whenever a color is generated.
• Provides random, red, green, yellow, and blue color options.
• Applies the selected color and title marker whenever a command is run.

Requirements

VS Code 1.125 or newer. Git support is provided by VS Code's built-in vscode.git extension.

Commands

Open the Command Palette with Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P, or press Cmd/Ctrl+P and type >.

• Workspace Tint: Generate Color from Git Remote: generate a color from the normalized Git remote hash. If no Git remote is available, it automatically uses a random color instead.
• Workspace Tint: Choose Preset Color: choose Random, or a prepared red, green, yellow, or blue color.

Settings

• gitTint.saturation: Saturation from 0 to 100; defaults to 55.
• gitTint.lightnessMode: auto follows the active theme, while manual uses gitTint.manualLightness.
• gitTint.manualLightness: Manual lightness from 0 to 100.

Manual changes remain untouched until you run one of the commands again. Each explicit command then overwrites all managed colors and reapplies the title marker.

The window title marker uses a color symbol such as 🟥 or 🟦, selected from the generated color's HSL hue. The extension manages the window.title setting at workspace scope only when a command is run.

Dock, taskbar, and window switcher rendering depends on the operating system. The marker is expected to appear in the window title on macOS, Windows, and Linux, but its font, size, and truncation can differ between macOS Dock, Windows Taskbar, GNOME, KDE, Wayland, and X11.

Remote normalization

These remote forms produce the same identity:

git@github.com:anglisano/branchnotes.git
https://github.com/anglisano/branchnotes.git
github.com/anglisano/branchnotes

Credentials, protocols, www., trailing slashes, and the .git suffix are removed before hashing.

Development

npm install
npm test
npm run package

The first version uses one color for the complete workspace. In a multi-root workspace, the first workspace folder is used to resolve the Git repository.

Diagnostics

Workspace Tint writes its diagnostic messages to the Workspace Tint channel in the Output panel. Open View > Output, select Workspace Tint from the channel picker, and then reload the Extension Development Host or change the workspace to capture a fresh run.

The log includes Git API availability, repository and remote detection, remote normalization, generated colors, and command errors with their stack traces.