Support workspace projects / folders under different colors in sidebar and tabs

[RobertoMalatesta]

• VSCode Version: Nightly
• OS Version: Any

Workspace feature is really useful as it is today, but could themes API be extended so to display different projects with different colors/nuances?

See:

It would be even better if tabs could have different colors, to resemble the project they belong to:

Thanks for all the beautiful code and the effort you put in this superb project.

Roberto.

[johnbrett]

I think this would be an awesome addition - one additional request I would have on this is that we could set colours, or underline to highlight a project's root, as when you have many they are hard to distinguish which is root at a glance, something like:

If this would be possible, I would be happy to work on a PR for this if someone could give me pointers!

[jpike88]

+1 on this. juggling projects in multi-root workspaces needs more distinction between the projects.

[spersico]

+1. This would be great!

[jpike88]

This is actually starting drive me insane, I think this should be given way more importance. I also think this color coding should show up in quick search results.

[malutanpetronel]

+1 Found this very important ! See Netbeans to find more details on how it works

[infoflocrm]

Yes really need this feature. .vscode setting should picked up in this case but its only works when you open as a folder not as workspace.

Tab color should be adjustable via .vscode settings in each project in workspace and one that does not have that settings should use default theme color settings, like same time with workspace folders we open files from ftp. Ftp files should use default settings. Thanks.

[logicbomb421]

Yeah this would make a huge difference for me as well. Would love to see this in an upcoming build!

[rjzheng]

+9001 this would be provide a much better dev experience!!

[RuiffCardoso]

I was looking for this as well, would be great for my multi-workspace setup.

[nhuesmann]

I could really use this for an app I'm currently working on, please make it happen MS!

[hdd113]

+1

[schwab]

Found this while searching the same feature.

For a little context as to why this is so important... when debugging installed python packages with the launch setting "debugStdLib": true, the debugger automatically opens up files from your lib directory even though the breakpoint is set on your local file. This means you end up with files like ~.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/... opened in what used to be just your local project. This allows debugging and stepping through the installed code which is probably good since it's possible the running files are different from your local dev project files, BUT when you decide to make a change to the code, you have remember to change over to the local files in the current project director, not the lib files. This Texas Two-Step (debugging one file, but having to change to the other file for editing) has made many a developer loose code changes since the next build/install overwrites the lib packages with local files you thought were edited.. Naturally, we want to edit the same file we found the bug in, right?

Well, if there was a way to set warning color on all ~.local/lib... files, then you'd at least have a visual indicator you're doing something bad.

So, here's my +1, though I wonder if this could be done through an extension. Continuing to search...

[lamnguyenx]

Hi there,

It'd be really wonderful if VSCode supports this feature! I've switched from Atom and planned to stay with VSCode in next 3 - 5 years ;)

[malutanpetronel]

something not ok... now even if I uninstall colortabs extension, the title bar remains red

[oreporan]

the extension changes the color by modifying the titleBar
Go to workspace settings and look for workbench.colorCustomizations
You can delete that line completely

[eine]

I think this would be an awesome addition - one additional request I would have on this is that we could set colours, or underline to highlight a project's root, as when you have many they are hard to distinguish which is root at a glance, something like:

Ref #74229.

I've built a vscode extension that does exactly this (and a bit more)
Built for people who have monorepos or large projects and want to distinguish files/folders easily.

It can color the tab/title-bar and add a label based on a regex that you provide

Ref #76399.

[LucaGabi]

please also read this feature request here: #95182 in my opinion it is similar request with less clutter

[SDAdham]

Hello team, any news about this coming to vscode?

We tried the colortabs extension but it's not working for us. The colors only changes when switching tabs which still defeats the purpose of having colorful tabs to easily determine which tab belongs to what before selecting the tab.

We have #167205 which received high votes as well.

[jdreina7]

Hi! There's any news about this feature??? We really need it pls @VSCodeTriageBot

[MattyMags]

Why is this still not a thing yet? Its been 5 years. So aggravating. There are so many issues asking for this feature and nothing ever gets done. About to abandon Microsoft once and for all.

[dilirity]

Hey! Just found this thread. Sad to see it's been 6 years and this hasn't shipped.

There are a few extensions, but they are limited.

Any ETA on this?

[muditdev]

well i am using this extension working well for me

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=orepor.color-tabs-vscode-ext

[dgtvan]

The extension ColorTabs is great, however, what it provides differs from what is described in this thread.

Still looking for a way to color project files using different colours.

[McDusty]

I would like to upvote this feature request.
ColorTabs looks like a cool extension but it only works on windows. Mac users are are out luck.
I would very much like to color my tabs to denote important files I want to reference.

[neilyoung]

well i am using this extension working well for me

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=orepor.color-tabs-vscode-ext

Seems to not work on Mac

[neilyoung]

My two cent here: It is rediculous to see that such a useful feature request remains unresolved for that long, while I'm getting updates every month, I will never ever use in my life.

[nullbio]

Just for record, #213003 is not a duplicate of this issue and is referring to filename colors based on a regexp match (for example, applying text color to all hidden files via \.+, not projects.

[dimateos]

Wanted to summarize a bit the status of this long-pending issue. Best regards!

Coloring tabs: existing extensions

• ColorTabs: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=orepor.color-tabs-vscode-ext

This solution is very nice for a visual reference when you are inside potentially dangerous sources etc.
But does nothing to inactive tabs nor file tree text area.
I guess it resorts to editing local config files dynamically based on current active file path.

• Tabs color: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mondersky.tabscolor

This one can edit the style of inactive tabs

Both extensions are a nice start and one could contribute to it, but it would be much preferable if they were built-in.
For example, the second one is severely lacking:

• Due to a lack of vscode API, it resorts to editing internal CSS to change inactive tabs: this triggers a warning about corrupt vscode install the first time.
• Cannot change tabs based on regex: only filetype and ABSOLUTE parent path (not relative nor partial).

Coloring filenames in file explorer: an example

I guess there is no API for this, I could not find any extension.

See the following example. IntelliJ has a limited predefined set of groups, nonetheless I would implement a general solution for any file/folder.

Conclusion

Overall it seems like vscode is lacking the required API / settings:

• Style any tab based on regex
  • ATM there is styling only for the active tab, which I guess should not override style based on regex but overlay on it.
  • Recently custom labels were introduced in vscode. This feature already lets the user replace the TEXT of any tab for a custom one based on REGEX, I guess setting the style is the next logical step.
• Style text in file explorer based on regex
  • This would require more work... I believe there are no similar settings / features already in vscode.

In both cases, I would expect at least customizable text and bg color, but there could be more style properties like font family, size, etc. Moreover, there could also be many feature around them (e.g. context menu to set tmp color), but I think a static setting should be first.