Nkalai is a paired light/dark Visual Studio Code theme designed to stay gentle on your eyes during long editing sessions. Both variants share the same earthy greens, soft neutrals, and muted oranges so flipping between day and night modes never feels jarring.
I originally tweaked Wes Bos’ Cobalt2 theme for personal use, but after so many changes it felt right to publish the result as its own palette. This is a passion project rather than a professional product—I’m simply sharing it in case others find the colours helpful.
Theme Snapshot
Variant
Background
Foreground
Accent notes
nkalai Light
#F5F2E8 (parchment)
#2F291F (deep brown)
Sage greens for cursors/selections, terracotta strings, muted violets for operators.
Both JSON theme files enable semantic highlighting, so language servers can apply the palette to semantic token classifications such as classes, parameters, and readonly properties.
Installation (Development)
Clone this repository and open it with VS Code or VSCodium.
Press F5 (or Run → Start Debugging). The included .vscode/launch.json launches a second Extension Development Host window.
In the Dev Host, open the theme picker (Cmd+K Cmd+T) and choose nkalai Light or nkalai Dark.
Installation (VSIX)
Install the VSCE CLI if you have not already:
npm install -g @vscode/vsce
From the project root build the package:
vsce package
In your primary VS Code window, open the Extensions view → “⋯” menu → Install from VSIX… and select the generated .vsix file.
Palette Highlights
UI chrome: Activity bar, status bar, tabs, and sidebars reuse the same green accents (#8DC6AC / #7CB099) to keep affordances consistent between themes.
Syntax: Strings lean warm (#E09B61 dark, #C98652 light), keywords stay neutral, and data keys receive bold tints for JSON-heavy workflows.
Terminals: Custom ANSI ramps ensure terminals match the editor background for both variants.
Preview Assets
Working on the Theme
Edit themes/nkalai-light-color-theme.json or themes/nkalai-dark-color-theme.json; both are plain JSON, so run jq empty themes/*.json (or rely on VS Code diagnostics) before relaunching.
Reload the Dev Host via Developer: Reload Window to apply colour tweaks instantly.
Use Developer: Inspect Editor Tokens and Scopes to understand which token scopes need new colour assignments.
Publishing Checklist
Update package.json metadata (description, keywords, version, icon, gallery banner) before tagging a release.
Capture screenshots or GIFs of both variants, add them to media/, and reference them from this README and package.json for richer Marketplace previews.
Run vsce package followed by vsce publish (requires a Marketplace publisher named in package.json’s publisher field).
Enjoy the lighter feel without losing contrast, day or night.
