Settings Layers

Keep your team's VS Code settings in git. Keep your own settings on top. Use different settings on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Settings Layers builds .vscode/settings.json from two files:

Change either file and settings.json is rebuilt at once.

Get started

1. Open your project.
2. Run Settings Layers: Set Up Layers from the Command Palette.
3. Choose where your current settings go: shared with the team, or only for you.
4. Say yes to the .gitignore lines.

That is all. Commit settings.shared.json.

The Settings editor still works

Change a setting in the Settings editor (or type in settings.json) and Settings Layers saves it to settings.local.json. Your team's file is never touched. Reset a setting and it comes out of your file again.

Settings for each operating system

Add @windows, @macos or @linux to any layer. Only the block for your system is used.

{
    "editor.fontSize": 14,
    "@windows": {
        "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "Git Bash"
    },
    "@macos": {
        "editor.fontSize": 15
    }
}

In your user settings too

Settings Sync copies the same user settings to every machine. Put the ones that differ in settingsLayers.platform:

"settingsLayers.platform": {
    "windows": { "editor.fontSize": 13 },
    "macos": { "editor.fontSize": 15 }
}

This one setting syncs everywhere. Each machine uses its own block. Settings Layers adds every key named here to settingsSync.ignoredSettings, so your machines stop overwriting each other.

Start from another file

@extends applies other files first. Use a path, or a file inside an npm package.

{
    "@extends": ["../../config/vscode-base.json", "@acme/vscode-settings/strict.json"],
    "editor.tabSize": 2
}

Extended files can extend too. Settings Layers watches them all.

Where does a setting come from?

• Hover over a setting in any of the files. It tells you which layer sets it, and if another layer wins.
• Run Settings Layers: Where Does Each Setting Come From? for the full list. Pick one to jump to it.
• Click Layers in the status bar.

How layers merge

In this order, the last one wins:

1. Files from @extends in settings.shared.json
2. settings.shared.json
3. Its block for your system
4. Files from @extends in settings.local.json
5. settings.local.json
6. Its block for your system

Objects such as files.exclude or "[python]" merge key by key. Lists and everything else are replaced.

Also

• Setting names autocomplete in both files, inside the system blocks too.
• A broken file shows in the Problems panel. The rest still builds.
• Works with multi-root workspaces. Each folder has its own layers.
• Runs only in trusted folders.

Moving from Workspace Config+

It uses the same two file names. Install Settings Layers, turn the other one off, and your files work as they are.

Commands

Why

People have asked VS Code for this for years:

• #15909 Add ability to extend from other settings files
• #5595 Allow to scope settings by platform
• #40233 Local workspace settings

Licence

MIT