Hide Items Custom
A VS Code extension that hides files & folders from the Explorer via a right-click menu, plus a dedicated Hidden Items pane to manage and toggle them.
VS Code can already hide things through the files.exclude setting, but editing that JSON by hand is tedious. Hide Items Custom turns it into a two-click operation: right-click anything in the Explorer, pick a pattern, and it's gone. A Hidden Items pane then lists every rule so you can toggle, remove, or reset them without ever opening settings.json.
Features
- Right-click to hide — "Add to Hidden Items ..." on any file or folder in the Explorer.
- Smart pattern picker — instead of hiding just the one file, choose from generated glob patterns (this exact file, this filename anywhere, all files of this extension, everything in this folder, ...). Multi-select is supported.
- Hidden Items pane — a new section in the Explorer sidebar listing every rule, with per-rule visibility toggles.
- Peek without losing your rules — one click reveals everything temporarily, another click hides it all again. Your rule list is preserved.
- Workspace-scoped — all changes are written to the workspace's
.vscode/settings.json, so they travel with the project and never touch your user settings.
Installation
Install from the VS Code Marketplace, or from the Command Palette:
ext install lerxst.hide-items-custom
Or from the command line:
code --install-extension lerxst.hide-items-custom
Usage
Hiding an item
- Right-click a file or folder in the Explorer.
- Choose Add to Hidden Items ....
- Select one or more glob patterns from the picker and confirm.
For a file at src/components/Button.test.ts, the picker offers patterns along these lines:
| Pattern |
Hides |
src/components/Button.test.ts |
just this one file |
**/Button.test.ts |
that filename, anywhere in the workspace |
src/components/*.ts |
all .ts files in that folder |
src/components/*.* |
everything in that folder |
**/*.ts |
every .ts file in the workspace |
Prefer to skip the prompt? Set explorerExclude.showPicker to false and the item you clicked is hidden immediately, with no picker.
Managing hidden items
The Hidden Items pane appears in the Explorer sidebar. Click any row to toggle that single rule on or off, or right-click it and choose Remove from Hidden Items to delete it outright.
The pane's title bar has these actions:
| Action |
What it does |
| Enable All |
Turns every rule on. |
| Disable All |
Turns every rule off, leaving the rules in place. |
| Toggle Visibility |
Temporarily reveals everything, backing up your current state; click again to restore it exactly. |
| Reset Hidden Items |
Clears your rules and restores the VS Code defaults (**/.git, **/.svn, **/.hg, **/CVS, **/.DS_Store, **/Thumbs.db, **/*.git). |
| Update Extension Settings |
Opens the extension's settings. |
Toggle Visibility is the one to reach for day to day — unlike Disable All, it snapshots your rules first, so flipping it back restores precisely what you had.
The seven default VS Code patterns are protected: they can be toggled, but not removed.
Commands
All commands are available from the Command Palette under the ExplorerExclude category.
| Command |
ID |
| Add to Hidden Items ... |
hide-items-custom.exclude |
| Remove from Hidden Items |
hide-items-custom.remove |
| Toggle Visibility |
hide-items-custom.toggle |
| Enable All |
hide-items-custom.enableAll |
| Disable All |
hide-items-custom.disableAll |
| Reset Hidden Items |
hide-items-custom.reset |
| Update Extension Settings |
hide-items-custom.openSettings |
Settings
| Setting |
Type |
Default |
Description |
explorerExclude.showPicker |
boolean |
true |
Show the glob-pattern picker when hiding an item. When false, the exact item you clicked is hidden with no prompt. |
explorerExclude.backup |
object |
{} |
Managed automatically. Holds the snapshot of files.exclude taken by Toggle Visibility so it can be restored. Don't edit this by hand. |
How it works
There's no hidden state and no proprietary format — the extension is a front end for VS Code's own files.exclude setting, written at Workspace scope (.vscode/settings.json):
{
"files.exclude": {
"**/.git": true,
"node_modules": true,
"**/*.log": false // rule kept, currently toggled off
}
}
true means hidden, false means the rule exists but is inactive. Because it's plain files.exclude, anything you hide is also excluded from Quick Open and search, and you can commit .vscode/settings.json to share the setup with your team.
Requirements
- VS Code
1.60.0 or newer
- An open folder or workspace (rules are workspace-scoped, so there's nowhere to save them otherwise)
Troubleshooting
util.isNullOrUndefined is not a function when hiding an item
Fixed in v1.0.3. Node 22 — which ships inside current VS Code builds — removed that long-deprecated API. Update the extension and reload the window.
Nothing happens when I hide something
Confirm you have a folder or workspace open, then check .vscode/settings.json for a files.exclude entry. Detailed logs are in the Output panel under the extension's channel.
My rules disappeared
Look at explorerExclude.backup in .vscode/settings.json. If it's non-empty, Toggle Visibility is active — click it again to restore your rules.
More detail, including Windows glob-separator issues, is in TROUBLESHOOTING.md.
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome at purduepete/hide-items-custom-vscode-extension.
git clone https://github.com/purduepete/hide-items-custom-vscode-extension.git
cd hide-items-custom-vscode-extension
npm install
npm test # lint
npm run package # build the .vsix
Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host with the extension loaded.
Changelog
See CHANGELOG.md.
Credits
Based on Explorer Exclude by SFCC DevOps, used under the MIT License.
License
MIT
