Monobrain Pro
A calm, focused theme for VS Code and its forks, in dark and light: a neutral monochrome workbench that stays out of your way, paired with refined, vivid syntax accents that make code structure obvious at a glance.
Features
- Two variants, one language — Monobrain Pro Dark and Monobrain Pro Light share the same semantic color roles, so switching between them never re-teaches your eye: keywords stay "the red one", types stay "the teal one".
- Calm neutral UI — the activity bar, side bar, tabs, status bar, and panels share a quiet monochrome palette with translucent hairline borders, so the only thing that pops is your code.
- Refined vivid syntax — a disciplined eight-color accent set with a clear role for every hue: red keywords, yellow strings, blue functions, teal types, purple constants, orange parameters.
- Restrained typography — italics only where they carry meaning (comments, parameters, storage modifiers); bold reserved for markup headings. No keyword-soup italics.
- Full terminal ANSI theming — all 16 ANSI colors defined in both variants, so CLI output looks native to the theme.
- Terminal reads as its own plane — the integrated terminal sits on a subtly distinct surface with slightly higher-contrast, near-neutral text, so terminal tabs are easy to tell apart from editor tabs at a glance without breaking the palette.
- Semantic highlighting — semantic token colors for language servers (TypeScript, Rust, Python, Go, …) that agree with the TextMate rules, so colors don't shift when a language server kicks in.
- Warm light variant — the light theme sits on a warm paper base rather than clinical white, easier on the eyes in bright rooms, with a burnt-sienna UI accent.
- Accessible by design — every syntax color in the light theme meets WCAG AA (4.5:1) against the editor background; contrast ratios are computed and verified, not eyeballed.
- No-gaps workbench map — 292 workbench colors set explicitly in both variants: find/match highlights, bracket pair colorization, peek views, diff editor, notifications, quick input, minimap, and more.
Palette
Each role keeps its hue across both variants — only lightness and saturation shift.
Each role keeps its hue across both variants — only the base tones change.
The light variant is built on a warm paper base; every syntax color meets WCAG AA (4.5:1).
| Role |
Dark |
|
Light |
|
| Editor background |
#1e2024 |
 |
#fbf6ec |
 |
| Chrome background |
#17181b |
 |
#f6efe5 |
 |
| Foreground |
#c5c8cf |
 |
#433b35 |
 |
| Keywords |
#e8677d |
 |
#b83250 |
 |
| Parameters |
#e0a06a |
 |
#a85717 |
 |
| Strings |
#e3c778 |
 |
#8a6a00 |
 |
| Diff added / terminal green |
#8ec07c |
 |
#3f7d33 |
 |
| Functions |
#6cb6e6 |
 |
#1a6fa8 |
 |
| Types & classes |
#5bc2a8 |
 |
#157a60 |
 |
| Constants & numbers |
#b995e8 |
 |
#7c4dc4 |
 |
| UI accent |
#5b9fd6 |
 |
#8b4023 |
 |
| Terminal background |
#1b2732 |
 |
#f9edd7 |
 |
| Terminal foreground |
#e0e0e0 |
 |
#312f2d |
 |
Screenshots
TypeScript / TSX
Python
Integrated terminal (full ANSI palette)
Screenshots show Monobrain Pro Dark.
Reproducing these shots: ready-made sample files live in examples/ —
open examples/showcase.tsx,
examples/showcase.py, and run
examples/ansi-showcase.sh in the integrated terminal,
then capture each. See images/README.md for capture guidelines.
Installation
VS Code Marketplace
- Open the Extensions view (
Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X).
- Search for Monobrain Pro.
- Click Install.
Or from the command line:
code --install-extension d4rkwinz.monobrain-pro
Open VSX (VSCodium and friends)
Monobrain Pro is also published to the Open VSX Registry:
codium --install-extension d4rkwinz.monobrain-pro
Antigravity and other VS Code forks (via .vsix)
Monobrain Pro works out of the box in Antigravity (Google's VS Code fork), Cursor, VSCodium, and any editor that supports standard VS Code themes:
- Download the
.vsix from the GitHub releases page (or build it with npm run package).
- Either drag the
.vsix file onto the Extensions view, or open the Extensions view menu (···) and choose Install from VSIX….
Select the theme
- Press
Cmd+K Cmd+T (macOS) or Ctrl+K Ctrl+T (Windows/Linux).
- Pick Monobrain Pro Dark or Monobrain Pro Light.
Or via settings:
{
"workbench.colorTheme": "Monobrain Pro Dark"
// or: "Monobrain Pro Light"
}
Recommended settings
Entirely optional — the theme is designed to look right with defaults — but these pair nicely:
{
"editor.fontLigatures": true,
"editor.semanticHighlighting.enabled": true,
"editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled": true,
"editor.guides.bracketPairs": "active",
"editor.cursorBlinking": "smooth",
"workbench.tree.indent": 12,
// keep the theme's terminal colors exactly as designed (no auto-contrast fixing)
"terminal.integrated.minimumContrastRatio": 1
}
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for the development setup and theming workflow.
License
MIT © 2026 d4rkwinz
