Abyssal Atlas — Ocean Themes & Icons

50 ocean worlds. One workspace.

Abyssal Atlas brings 50 original ocean-inspired themes and 50 coordinated file icon packs to Visual Studio Code. Move from ink-teal trenches to wine-colored reefs, kelp forests, cold polar slate, copper vents and muted nacre. Each look has an individual editor surface, syntax palette, emblem, document frame and folder treatment.

Created by ToxicEpoch.

Actual Windows VS Code 1.138.0 with an isolated installed copy. The workspace view is in the Secondary Side Bar. Code and terminal content are local test fixtures.

Install

1. Download the VSIX from the project's releases, when published, or build it from source.
2. In desktop VS Code, select Extensions → … → Install from VSIX… and choose abyssal-atlas-1.0.0.vsix.
3. Run Abyssal Atlas: Choose Theme + Icons from the Command Palette.

code --install-extension abyssal-atlas-1.0.0.vsix

On Windows, double-clicking a VSIX can open the separate Visual Studio Installer; install this package from Visual Studio Code. Installation, activation and opening the workspace view leave your current theme and icons unchanged.

Requires desktop VS Code 1.85.0 or newer. The extension runs in the desktop UI host (extensionKind: ["ui"]), including desktop remote workspaces. There is no browser-only entry point for vscode.dev or github.dev. Virtual workspaces can use the collection; terminal and task availability also depends on their provider. See review notes for the platforms actually tested.

Preview and choose a pair

Run Abyssal Atlas: Choose Theme + Icons, or use the prominent button in the workspace. Arrow keys preview both the theme and matching icons. Enter keeps the selected pair; Escape or dismissal restores the previous appearance. Explicit File Icon Theme: None is preserved, and temporary overrides are removed when the setting did not previously exist.

The picker shows where it will write. If either appearance setting already has a Workspace override, both settings are written at Workspace scope. Otherwise they use User settings. Preview writes are serialized; stale highlights cannot overtake confirmation or restoration. Rollback preserves newer external edits, and failures are reported instead of claiming a successful restore.

Native Preferences: Color Theme and Preferences: File Icon Theme also list every pair separately. A mixed selection is allowed; the workspace reports whether matching icons are active.

Your developer workspace

Open the atlas icon in the Activity Bar or run Abyssal Atlas: Open Workspace.

• The active theme's emblem, palette and matching-icon status.
• A paired picker and searchable collection gallery.
• Open Project and Open Recent navigation.
• New Terminal, Run Task, Build Task and Test Task shortcuts using VS Code and your project's existing tasks.
• Repository, documentation, pipelines and runbook links configured for your opened project.

To place the view beside your editor, use VS Code's View: Move View command or the view's context menu and choose Secondary Side Bar. VS Code remembers the placement. Open Workspace only focuses abyssalAtlas.home.focus; it does not reset your layout.

Chromium render of the actual extension webview using Midnight Trench's generated colors. This image is separate from the native workbench capture above.

Commands

Project links

Set these strings in User or Workspace settings. Empty values open the relevant setting when clicked. These links describe your project, independently of the extension's own GitHub metadata.

{
  "abyssalAtlas.links.repository": "https://github.com/your-team/your-project",
  "abyssalAtlas.links.documentation": "https://example.com/docs",
  "abyssalAtlas.links.pipelines": "https://example.com/builds",
  "abyssalAtlas.links.runbook": "https://example.com/runbook"
}

Only HTTPS URLs without embedded credentials are accepted. Links open only after you click. Terminal and task controls require Workspace Trust; themes, icons, the picker and gallery remain usable in Restricted Mode.

The collection

Browser render of the implemented gallery. Its syntax samples are display-only HTML, not native VS Code editors. Search by name, family, description or AA ID.

The stable AA order contains ten families of five themes. All entries use the native label Abyssal Atlas: <name> and icon ID abyssal-atlas-<slug>-icons.

Palette and artwork provenance

The collection has 50 original palettes and 250 recorded seed colors. Midnight Trench keeps the selected #62DECA, #72C6EC, #BAA8F4, #FFB59E and #D7EDF1 seeds. Six representative designs were approved before implementation; their written role values remain intact. Ocean subjects are artistic inspiration, not sampled photography or scientific measurements.

PALETTES.md records every seed, intended use, surface, role and exact derivation. Hand-authored values are distinguished from computed colors. The generator preserves source seeds and records any readability lift separately. Validation checks syntax, active lines, comments, sidebar text, selected text, buttons, tabs, title/status bars, hover/search text, ANSI colors, diagnostics and drawing inks against a 4.5:1 minimum. These measurements do not certify every third-party grammar or VS Code state.

Icon coverage

Every pack contains 94 SVG assets: 4,700 theme SVGs total, with collection branding counted separately. Every pack has identical associations:

Unknown files, default closed/open folders and closed/open root folders all have defaults. Each theme has original emblem and frame geometry; technology glyphs retain the recognizable MIT reference vocabulary. The render checks exercise all 4,700 assets at both 16 px and 24 px.

Browser-rendered contact sheet of the actual generated SVGs at 16 px and 24 px.

Privacy and security

No runtime npm dependencies, telemetry, analytics or background network requests. Artwork is bundled locally. The webviews use a restrictive CSP, escaped labels, allowlisted messages and scoped local resource roots. Native styling uses supported VS Code theme tokens and file icon APIs; no CSS injection or installation patches are used.

Development and feedback

See DEVELOPMENT.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, RELEASE.md, REVIEW-NOTES.md and CHANGELOG.md. Report reproducible problems in Abyssal Atlas issues.

The MIT-licensed Chroma Reactor architecture and Toxic Spectrum predecessors are acknowledged in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.