Camouflage - Environment Value Hider

Camouflage is a VS Code extension that helps protect sensitive environment variables by hiding their values in .env files. Perfect for screen sharing, recordings, or taking screenshots without exposing sensitive information.

Features

• 🔒 Automatic Value Hiding: Automatically hides values in .env files while preserving the keys
• 🎨 Multiple Hiding Styles: Choose from different styles to hide your values:
  • Text (default): ************************
  • Dotted: ••••••••••••
  • Stars: ************
  • Custom: Define your own pattern (e.g., ###)
• 🎯 Quick Toggle: Easily toggle visibility via status bar or context menu
• 🌈 Customizable Appearance: Configure colors and patterns to match your theme
• 👁️ Value Preview: Optional value preview on hover
• 📁 Flexible File Support: Works with various .env file formats
• 🔍 Selective Hiding: Hide only specific keys based on patterns or exclude certain keys
• ⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts: Quickly toggle visibility with customizable keyboard shortcuts
• 🖱️ Enhanced Context Menu: Right-click on any value to toggle its visibility
• 📊 Status Bar Indicators: See the current state and mode at a glance

Installation

1. Open VS Code
2. Press Ctrl+P / Cmd+P
3. Type ext install zeybek.camouflage
4. Press Enter

Requirements

• VS Code 1.96.0 or higher

Usage

Basic Usage

1. Open any .env file
2. Values are automatically hidden (if auto-hide is enabled)
3. Use the status bar toggle to show/hide values
4. Right-click in the editor for context menu options

Status Bar Control

The extension adds a status bar item that shows the current state:

• 👁️‍🗨️ Camouflage: On - All values are hidden
• 👁️‍🗨️ Camouflage: Selective - Only selected values are hidden
• 👁️ Camouflage: Off - Values are visible

Click the status bar item to toggle between On/Off states.

Context Menu Options

Right-click on any line in your .env file to access these options:

• Hide/Reveal Environment Variables: Toggle global hiding
• Toggle Selected Value: Toggle visibility for the current value only
• Toggle Selective Hiding: Switch between hiding all values or only selected ones
• Add to Exclude List: Add the current key to the exclude list

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl+Shift+H / Cmd+Shift+H: Hide all values
• Ctrl+Shift+R / Cmd+Shift+R: Reveal all values
• Ctrl+Shift+T / Cmd+Shift+T: Toggle the value under cursor
• Ctrl+Shift+S / Cmd+Shift+S: Toggle selective hiding mode

Configuration

Access settings through:

• Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) → "Preferences: Open Settings (UI)"
• Search for "Camouflage"

Available Settings

General

• camouflage.enabled: Enable/disable the extension
• camouflage.autoHide: Automatically hide values when opening files

Files

• camouflage.files.patterns: File patterns to apply hiding (e.g., .env, .env.local)

Appearance

• camouflage.appearance.style: Hiding style (text, dotted, stars)
• camouflage.appearance.hiddenText: Text to display for hidden values
• camouflage.appearance.textColor: Color of hidden text
• camouflage.appearance.backgroundColor: Background color for hidden values

Selective Hiding

• camouflage.selective.enabled: Enable selective hiding mode (only hide keys matching patterns)
• camouflage.selective.keyPatterns: Patterns to match keys that should be hidden
• camouflage.selective.excludeKeys: Patterns to match keys that should never be hidden

Hover

• camouflage.hover.showPreview: Show value preview on hover
• camouflage.hover.message: Custom message to show on hover

Examples

Different Styles

# Text Style (Default)
API_KEY=************************

# Dotted Style
SECRET_KEY=••••••••••••

# Stars Style
PASSWORD=************

Selective Hiding

You can configure Camouflage to only hide specific keys by enabling selective hiding:

// Enable selective hiding
"camouflage.selective.enabled": true,

// Define patterns for keys to hide
"camouflage.selective.keyPatterns": [
  "*KEY*",   // Contains "KEY" anywhere (e.g., API_KEY, KEY_VALUE, MY_KEY_HERE)
  "API*",    // Starts with "API" (e.g., API_KEY, API_SECRET)
  "*SECRET", // Ends with "SECRET" (e.g., JWT_SECRET, CLIENT_SECRET)
  "PASSWORD", // Exact match only (only "PASSWORD", not "DB_PASSWORD")
  "DB*",     // Starts with "DB" (e.g., DB_HOST, DB_USER)
  "*DB*",    // Contains "DB" anywhere (e.g., MONGODB_URI, RDS_DB_NAME)
  "DATABASE*", // Starts with "DATABASE" (e.g., DATABASE_URL)
  "*DATABASE*", // Contains "DATABASE" anywhere (e.g., MY_DATABASE_PASSWORD)
  "PORT"     // Exact match only (only "PORT", not "REPORT")
],

// Define patterns for keys to never hide
"camouflage.selective.excludeKeys": [
  "PUBLIC*", // Starts with "PUBLIC" (e.g., PUBLIC_URL, PUBLIC_KEY)
  "*_TEST",  // Ends with "_TEST" (e.g., API_TEST, SECRET_TEST)
  "DEBUG"    // Exact match only (only "DEBUG")
]

Pattern Matching Rules

The same pattern matching rules apply to both keyPatterns and excludeKeys:

• *KEY* - Matches keys containing "KEY" anywhere
• KEY* - Matches keys starting with "KEY"
• *KEY - Matches keys ending with "KEY"
• KEY - Matches only the exact key "KEY"

With these settings:

# This will be hidden (matches *KEY* pattern)
API_KEY=hidden_value

# This will be hidden (matches API* pattern)
API_SECRET=hidden_value

# This will be hidden (matches *SECRET pattern)
JWT_SECRET=hidden_value

# This will NOT be hidden (doesn't match any pattern)
SOME_VALUE=visible_value

# This will NOT be hidden (matches PUBLIC* exclude pattern)
PUBLIC_URL=https://example.com

# This will NOT be hidden (matches *_TEST exclude pattern)
API_TEST=test_value

# This will NOT be hidden (matches DEBUG exclude pattern)
DEBUG=true

When selective hiding is disabled, all values will be hidden regardless of their keys (except those matching exclude patterns).

Quick Value Toggling

You can quickly toggle individual values by:

1. Placing your cursor on the line containing the value
2. Right-clicking and selecting "Toggle Selected Value" from the context menu
3. Or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+T / Cmd+Shift+T

When toggling a value, you'll be prompted to choose a pattern type:

• Exact match: Only affects the specific key (e.g., "API_KEY")
• Starts with: Affects all keys starting with the pattern (e.g., "API_*")
• Ends with: Affects all keys ending with the pattern (e.g., "*_KEY")
• Contains: Affects all keys containing the pattern (e.g., "KEY")

This adds or removes the selected pattern from the exclude list, effectively toggling visibility for all matching keys.

Adding to Exclude List

You can also add keys to the exclude list without removing existing patterns:

1. Place your cursor on the line containing the value
2. Right-click and select "Add to Exclude List" from the context menu
3. Choose the pattern type (exact match, starts with, ends with, or contains)

This gives you more control over which values are hidden or visible based on your specific needs.

Security

Visual Protection Only

Camouflage only hides values visually in the editor. The actual file content remains unchanged. Always be cautious when sharing your screen or taking screenshots.

Reporting Security Issues

If you discover a security vulnerability, please follow our security policy for responsible disclosure.

Contributing

This extension is open source and available on GitHub. Contributions are welcome!

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Run tests with npm test
5. Ensure code passes linting with npm run lint
6. Submit a pull request

Please see our contributing guidelines for more details.

License

This extension is released under the MIT License.

Support

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions:

• File an issue on GitHub
• Contact: Ahmet Zeybek

Changelog

See the CHANGELOG.md file for details on each release.

Enjoy hiding your sensitive environment values with Camouflage!