Issue #188 (New VS Code Private Marketplace)11/26/25
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In this week's featured theme (see below), I'm including a nice looking dark theme that has one flaw: The background for the primary sidebar views is a little odd. It has a lighter background so it kind of looks like the sidebar items are 'selected'. It just didn't sit right with me.
You can see this in the screenshot below.
If you like everything about a theme except maybe a single color choice, it's not too difficult to source up the syntax for customizing that one thing you don't like. In this case, I added a few lines to my JSON settings file to override this background color choice:
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"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
"[Google Colab Dark Theme]": {
"sideBar.background": "#202124", // New sidebar color
"sideBar.foreground": "#e8eaed",
"sideBarSectionHeader.background": "#2a2b2d",
"sideBarSectionHeader.foreground": "#ffffff",
"sideBar.border": "#3c4043",
// optional explorer view tweaks
"list.inactiveSelectionBackground": "#303134",
"list.activeSelectionBackground": "#3c4043",
"list.hoverBackground": "#2a2b2d",
"tree.indentGuidesStroke": "#5f6368"
}
}
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The code includes a number of other optional tweaks. In this case, they're all the same as the original theme, with the exception of the sidebar background.
If you already have some JSON under workbench.colorCustomizations, then you would simply paste in the code under that. The [Google Colab Dark Theme] line ensures that the settings apply only to that theme.
The improved version is shown below.
You can see a full screen version of the original theme below so you can decide for yourself if you prefer the lighter background.
In either case, this is a quick tip on how a single color in a single theme might be customized.
Now on to this week's hand-picked links!
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VS Code Tools
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Flowistry — A VS Code extension that analyzes the information flow of Rust programs and understands whether it's possible for one piece of code to affect another. It provides a "focus mode" that helps you focus on the code that's related to your current task.
Vibe-Coder — A voice-powered coding assistant for AI-enabled VS Code forks that helps you navigate, control, and code through natural voice commands.
Get Cloudways BFCM Deal Now — Peak performance and easy scaling with Cloudways for 50% off. Sponsor
Colab — A new extension from Google that exposes servers for Colab (a hosted Jupyter Notebook service) directly in VS Code. See articles below for an announcement post.
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VS Code Theme of the Week
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Google Colab Dark — Speaking of Google Colab, here is an older theme that was originally inspired by the dark default theme on that platform. The creator explains that it's a simple theme that helps with focus and eye strain.
It's a fairly run-of-the-mill dark theme that mostly stays out of your way visually. Maybe the only flaw is the background color choice for the primary sidebar views, which I discussed above in this week's intro (including how to adjust it).
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VS Code Articles & Videos
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Introducing the Visual Studio Code Private Marketplace: Your Team's Secure, Curated Extension Hub — The VS Code team just announced details on a dedicated, enterprise-ready hub that puts you in full control of how extensions are sourced, reviewed, and distributed to your dev teams.
Google Colab is Coming to VS Code — Announcement post for the VS Code extension for Colab (see tools above), the hosted Jupyter Notebook service that has become the go-to platform for millions of AI/ML developers, students, and researchers.
The Best Time to Forecast? Now. — Q4 is the perfect window to turn this year’s numbers into a clear, actionable forecast aligned with your goals. Set your business up for a stronger 2026 with BELAY’s new guide. Sponsor
From VS Code to Helix — One VS Code developer discusses his aversion, as a VS Code user, to using Helix, the popular 'modal text editor' inspired by tools like Neovim.
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Best of the Rest
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Google Antigravity — Another Google release, this one is an AI IDE, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and "built for developers for the agent-first era," and apparently it is a VS Code fork, though that's not totally clear in the docs or the announcement post.
PyScripter — An open source Python IDE created with the ambition to become competitive in functionality with commercial Windows-based IDEs available for other languages.
A New Place to Read Your Newsletters — We’re trying out a free app for reading newsletters called Khaki. The interface is clean, distraction-free, and only shows the newsletters I’m subscribed to, no noise of everything else in my usual inbox. Sponsor
Duck-UI — A web-based interface for interacting with DuckDB, leveraging DuckDB's WebAssembly (WASM) capabilities to provide a seamless and efficient user experience directly in the browser.
If you have any link suggestions, including a tool, article, or other resource related to VS Code or another IDE, you can hit reply, send it via DM on X, or via chat on Bluesky.
That's it for this issue.
Happy VS Coding!
Louis
VSCode.Email
@LouisLazaris
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