Visual Studio Code Extension - Vibrancy Continued

Solutions for common issues can be found in the FAQ and Known Errors

❗️ Windows 10/11 users: scroll down to see an important warning regarding Windows support

Enable Acrylic/Glass effect in VS Code.

   

 

Links: GitHub | Visual Studio Code Marketplace | issues

Maintenance of this project is made possible by all the contributors and sponsors. If you'd like to sponsor this project and have your avatar or company logo appear below, click here. Any support is greatly appreciated 💖

❗️ Important notice for Windows 10/11 users

tl;dr YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO RESIZE THE VSCODE WINDOW unless you do this

By default, when Vibrancy is installed on VSCode 1.86 and newer on Windows, your VSCode windows may stop being resizable, snappable or maximizable. This is a known issue related to VSCode 1.86 and Electron 27 and it occurs due to hardware acceleration leading to distorted text. Vibrancy will by default apply a mitigation that enables frameless windows, but this also causes issues with window interaction.

The correct process to install Vibrancy on Windows is:

1. Update your VSCode shortcut to include --disable-gpu-compositing at the end of "Target" field, for example: "C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe" --disable-gpu-compositing
2. (optional) Update your shell configuration to add the same argument to code, needed if VSCode isn't running when you use code
3. Install Vibrancy Continued
4. Go to settings and check Disable frameless window (vscode_vibrancy.disableFramelessWindow)
5. Press F1 and select Reload Vibrancy

For more information, see issues #140 and #122.

⚠️ "Your VSCode installation appears to be corrupt"

This extension works by editing VS Code's checksum-verified HTML files, which means that a warning prompt will appear after installing and enabling Vibrancy Continued. This warning is safe to disregard, and all changes can be reverted. Click on the cogwheel and select Don't Show Again to hide it.

To fix the "[Unsupported]" warning on VS Code's title bar, please refer to this extension: Fix VSCode Checksums.

Supported Operating Systems

✔ macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon)

✔ Windows 10/11 (x64 & ARM64)

Supported code editors

✔ Visual Studio Code

✔ VSCodium

✔ Cursor (work in progress, see here for more info)

Getting Started

1. Make sure the VSCode theme you've selected is 'Dark+' or one of the supported themes

2. Install the extension from Visual Studio Code Marketplace.

3. Press F1 and activate command "Reload Vibrancy."

4. Restart VSCode when prompted.

Each time VS Code is updated, please re-enable Vibrancy using the same steps. If you're experiencing issues, please check the FAQs.

Options

Type (vscode_vibrancy.type)

Native method of Vibrancy Effect.

• auto : Automatically switch with system version.
• acrylic : (Windows 10 only) Fluent Design blur.
• under-window, fullscreen-ui, appearance-based, light, dark, titlebar, selection, menu, popover, sidebar, medium-light, ultra-dark: (MacOS only)

Opacity (vscode_vibrancy.opacity)

Opacity of Vibrancy Effect. -1 is theme default, 0 is maximum transparency, and 1 will remove all transparency.

value: -1.0 ~ 1.0

Custom imports (vscode_vibrancy.imports)

Import any custom CSS/JS files into the VSCode editor, as file paths. The files will be imported in the order they are listed. On Windows, forward slashes must be used.

Use this feature to add a custom Vibrancy Continued theme or modify an existing one.

EXAMPLES:

• Windows: C:/Users/MyUserName/Documents/custom.css
• macOS: /Users/MyUserName/Documents/custom.css

value: array[]

Prevent Flash (vscode_vibrancy.preventFlash)

Use a new method for preventing window flashing during resizing. Eliminates the need for a refresh interval, but may be less compatible in some cases.

boolean, default is true

Disable Frameless Window (vscode_vibrancy.disableFramelessWindow)

Disable frameless window, which is a mitigation that fixes a GPU-related render bug on Windows with VSCode 1.86 and newer. You may see distorted and blurry graphics if you disable this mitigation with an affected GPU. Running VSCode with a --disable-gpu-compositing argument, such as via a shortcut, will allow for this mitigation to be safely disabled.

Disable Theme Fixes (vscode_vibrancy.disableThemeFixes)

Disable fixes to Default Dark and Default Light themes for non-VSCode editors like Cursor.

Refresh interval (vscode_vibrancy.refreshInterval)

Refresh interval (in milliseconds) for making the background transparent after window resizing. Lower values make the update less visible at the cost of increased CPU utilization. Ignored when using "Prevent Flash" method.

value: 1 ~ 1000, default is 10

Automatic theme switching (vscode_vibrancy.enableAutoTheme)

Enable automatic dark/light mode switching based on OS mode. Requires window.autoDetectColorScheme VSCode setting to also be enabled.

boolean, default is false

Preferred dark/light theme (vscode_vibrancy.preferedDarkTheme / vscode_vibrancy.preferedLightTheme)

Select which themes to use for light and dark modes, they will be used instead of the main Vibrancy Continued theme selected.

theme (vscode_vibrancy.theme)

Select Vibrancy theme:

• Default Dark
• Dark (Only Subbar)
• Default Light
• Light (Only Subbar)
• Noir et blanc
• Tokyo Night Storm
• Tokyo Night Storm (Outer)
• Catppuccin Mocha
• Solarized Dark+
• GitHub Dark Default

Theme	Screenshot
Default Dark
Dark (Only Subbar)
Noir et blanc
Tokyo Night Storm
Tokyo Night Storm (Only Subbar)
Solarized Dark+ (with theme: Solarized)
Catppuccin Mocha
GitHub Dark Default

You can contribute more themes! see here.

FAQs

How to uninstall Vibrancy?

Press F1 or ⌘+Shift+P and activate command "Disable Vibrancy", then restart Visual Studio Code.

You can also just uninstall the extension and restart VSCode, which will automatically remove Vibrancy.

Nothing happens first time Reload/Enable Vibrancy is used?

There is a known issue with Vibrancy sometimes not working on the first try after VSCode updates, perform the same action again to resolve.

Effect doesn't work correctly in VSCode terminal?

Check your settings. You should change the renderer type of the terminal to dom.

"terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration": "off"

Prompt "Run Visual Studio Code with administrator privileges"?

It usually appears on Windows when you are using the VSCode System Installer. You should close VSCode completely, then run VSCode as administrator and retry what you did before (Enable/Reload/Disable Vibrancy).

EACCES: permission denied when enabling Vibrancy on macOS?

Your installation of VSCode is owned by another user.

Run the following commands exactly as-is in the Terminal app to take ownership of the files, and enter your password when prompted:

sudo chown -R $(whoami):staff "/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/"
sudo chmod -R 755 "/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/"

A reinstallation will also fix this issue without any loss of settings.

EROFS: read-only file system when enabling Vibrancy on macOS?

Your installation of VSCode is affected by App Translocation.

To fix this, either use the Finder and move VSCode to /Applications (or move it out of /Applications and then back in), or run the following terminal command:

sudo xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app"

I'm on Windows 10 and I'm experiencing lag when dragging the window

Please read here for details.

VSCode window cannot be resized/moved/maximized after enabling Vibrancy

Please see Important notice for Windows users at the top of the description.

Effect doesn't work, but there are no errors

Ensure that you don't have transparency effects disabled globally through your OS settings.

This can usually be found under Accessibility settings, and it may be called "Transparency effects" or "Reduce transparency." If that didn't help, you can also check the Console section in VSCode's Developer Tools, which can be accessed through the command palette.

If nothing else worked, try reinstalling VSCode, you won't lose any settings and this will ensure that your VSCode installation is consistent.

Contributing

Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Vibrancy relies on user contributions, and as such, any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

If you have a suggestion that would make this better, please fork the repo and create a pull request. You can also simply open an issue with the tag "enhancement".

Don't forget to give the project a star! Thanks again!

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

When creating a PR, please target the development branch.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.txt for more information.

Thanks ⭐

EYHN : for making the original Vibrancy that this is a fork of

be5invis/vscode-custom-css : The basis of this extension program

DIYgod : Fix issues with VSCode 1.36