Lite Zen — Focus on Code, Hide Everything Else
One hotkey to hide all UI panels. One more to bring them back.
No fullscreen. No zen mode quirks. Just your editor — instantly.
Why Lite Zen?
VS Code's built-in Zen Mode does too much: it goes fullscreen, centers your layout, hides line numbers, and mutes notifications. Sometimes you just want to maximize your editor space without losing your window position or workflow context.
Lite Zen gives you a single toggle that hides all surrounding UI — sidebar, bottom panel, activity bar, status bar, and secondary sidebar — and restores them exactly as they were.
Features
- Single hotkey toggle —
Cmd+K Cmd+\ (Mac) / Ctrl+K Ctrl+\ (Win/Linux)
- Hides all 5 UI components: primary sidebar, bottom panel, activity bar, status bar, auxiliary sidebar
- Remembers previous state — restores activity bar position and status bar visibility to their original values
- Per-component control — choose exactly which panels to hide/restore via settings
- No fullscreen — stays in your current window, keeps your window arrangement intact
- No side effects — no centered layout, no hidden line numbers, no muted notifications
- Workspace-scoped state — toggle state persists across VS Code restarts
Installation
From VS Code
- Open Extensions (
Cmd+Shift+X)
- Search for
Lite Zen
- Click Install
From VSIX
code --install-extension lite-zen-0.1.0.vsix
Usage
| Action |
Mac |
Windows / Linux |
| Toggle all panels |
Cmd+K Cmd+\ |
Ctrl+K Ctrl+\ |
Or open Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P) and run Lite Zen: Toggle All Panels.
The hotkey is fully customizable — rebind them in Keyboard Shortcuts (Cmd+K Cmd+S).
Settings
All settings are under liteZen.* and can be changed in Settings UI or settings.json:
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
liteZen.hideSidebar |
true |
Hide the primary sidebar |
liteZen.hidePanel |
true |
Hide the bottom panel (terminal, output, etc.) |
liteZen.hideActivityBar |
false |
Hide the activity bar |
liteZen.hideStatusBar |
false |
Hide the status bar |
liteZen.hideAuxiliaryBar |
true |
Hide the secondary sidebar |
liteZen.restoreSidebar |
true |
Restore sidebar on toggle back |
liteZen.restorePanel |
true |
Restore bottom panel on toggle back |
liteZen.restoreAuxiliaryBar |
true |
Restore secondary sidebar on toggle back |
Lite Zen vs. Alternatives
Compared as of April 2026.
| Feature |
Lite Zen |
Zen Mode (built-in) |
Hide All v0.1.0 |
Auto Hide v1.0.7 |
| Toggle sidebar |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
| Toggle bottom panel |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
| Toggle activity bar |
✅ |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Toggle status bar |
✅ |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Toggle auxiliary sidebar |
✅ |
❌ |
✅ |
❌ |
| Escape to restore |
❌ |
❌ |
❌ |
N/A |
| Restore on re-toggle |
✅ |
✅ |
❌ (hide only) |
N/A |
| Remembers previous state |
✅ |
Partial |
❌ |
❌ |
| Per-component settings |
✅ |
Limited |
✅ |
❌ |
| No fullscreen |
✅ |
❌ (default) |
✅ |
✅ |
| No centered layout |
✅ |
❌ (optional) |
✅ |
✅ |
| No hidden line numbers |
✅ |
❌ (optional) |
✅ |
✅ |
| Trigger |
Hotkey / Command |
Hotkey |
Command only |
Automatic |
| Last updated |
2026 |
VS Code built-in |
Jan 2023 |
Sep 2021 |
Support
If you find Lite Zen useful, consider supporting its development:
License
MIT
