Multi-Scope Highlighter
A focus-assist highlighting tool for VS Code. Highlight multiple words with distinct colors, manage scopes across files, and toggle between visual styles and levels of opacity.
✨ Features
Multi-Word Highlighting
Highlight multiple different words simultaneously. Each new word gets a unique, high-contrast color automatically.
- Smart Coloring: Colors are automatically selected from a palette of 20 distinct, high-visibility hues.
- Adaptive Themes: Colors automatically adjust to look great in both Dark (Neon/Pastel) and Light (Deep/Contrast) themes.
Dual Scopes
Control where your highlights appear using the Status Bar switcher:
- Single File: Highlights only appear in the active editor.
- All Open Files: Highlights automatically propagate to all visible editors (split panes, grid layouts).
Dual Styles
Toggle between two visual modes to suit your preference:
- Fill: Solid background color (clean, low noise).
- Box: 2px Outline border with transparent background (minimalist).
⚙️ Advanced Management
Use the "Manage Highlights" command to fine-tune your setup without restarting:
- In-Place Editing: Rename highlighted patterns instantly.
- Mode Cycling: Toggle a highlight between Plain Text, Whole Word
\b, and Regex .* modes with a single click.
- Color Picker: Manually reassign colors, with a smart filter that hides colors already in use.
Profile Persistence
Stop re-highlighting the same logs every day.
- Save Profile: Save your current set of highlights to a named JSON file in your workspace.
- Load Profile: Instantly restore a debugging context.
🛠️ Configuration
You can customize the visual appearance of highlights in your VS Code Settings (Ctrl+,) OR directly from the Status Bar:
| Setting |
Description |
Default |
| Fill Opacity |
Adjusts the transparency of the background color (0.1 - 1.0). Lower this value if the highlights are too bright. |
0.35 |
| Hybrid Mode |
If enabled, the "Fill" style also draws a thin border around the highlight for better definition. |
true |
| Text Contrast |
Controls how text inside a highlight appears:
• inherit: Preserves syntax highlighting (keywords, strings, etc).
• force-contrast: Forces text to Black/White for maximum readability. |
inherit |
🚀 Usage
Basic Commands
| Command |
Keybinding |
Description |
| Toggle Highlight |
Ctrl+H / Cmd+H |
Highlights the selected word. If already highlighted, removes it. |
| Manage Highlights |
(via Palette) |
Opens the interactive manager to edit text, change colors, or cycle modes. |
| Clear All |
(via Palette) |
Removes all highlights immediately. |
Status Bar Controls
Look for the indicators in the bottom right of your VS Code window:
- $(files) Single / All: Switch scope.
- $(paintcan) Fill / Hybrid / Box: Cycle visual style.
- $(circle-filled) 35%: Set highlight opacity (opens picker).
- $(color-mode) Auto / B&W: Toggle high-contrast text mode.
The "Manage Highlights" Workflow
Run the command Highlight: Manage Current Highlights to see a list of active patterns.
- Click a Row: Opens the Color Picker for that specific word.
- ✏️ (Pencil): Edit the text pattern (e.g., fix a typo).
- [abc] / [ab] / [.*] (Mode): Click this icon to cycle the matching mode:
- [abc] Text: Simple literal match.
- [ab] Whole Word: Matches
\bword\b only.
- [.*] Regex: Treats the text as a Regular Expression.
⌨️ Extension Commands
You can access these via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P):
Highlight: Toggle SelectionHighlight: Manage Current HighlightsHighlight: Clear AllHighlight: Toggle Scope (Single/All Open)Highlight: Toggle Style (Box/Fill/Hybrid)Highlight: Set OpacityHighlight: Toggle Text ContrastHighlight: Save ProfileHighlight: Load ProfileHighlight: Delete Profile
🔒 Storage & Privacy
- Profiles: Saved as JSON files in a
.vscode/highlights/ directory within your current workspace. This makes it easy to share highlight profiles with your team by committing them to version control.
- Runtime: Highlights are temporary and exist only in memory unless explicitly saved to a profile.
