README.md

March 18, 2026 · View on GitHub

Claude Code Theme

Warm Claude-inspired palettes for VS Code, built for long sessions and high signal syntax.

12 theme variants • 369 workbench colors each • 81 TextMate rules • 37 semantic token rules

Tip

Install in one line: code --install-extension ashwingopalsamy.claude-code-theme

A Visual Tour

Claude Code Dark	Claude Code Dark High Contrast

Claude Code Light	Claude Code Light High Contrast

Pick Your Cockpit

Variant	Character	Best fit
`Claude Code Dark`	Balanced warm dark	Daily coding + mixed workloads
`Claude Code Dark High Contrast`	Crisp high separation dark	Dense files, low-light focus
`Claude Code Dark Brand`	Claude-orange chrome accents	Brand-forward terminal + status bar look
`Claude Code Light`	Soft paper-like light	Daytime editing without glare
`Claude Code Light High Contrast`	Clear, punchy light	Bright rooms + accessibility-first setup
`Claude Code Light Brand`	Paper-like light with orange chrome	Daytime + brand-forward UI

Every variant above also ships a (No Bold) edition that disables bold emphasis on declarations, keywords, and data keys — same colors, zero bold in code tokens. Markdown headings and bold markup remain bold.

Activate any variant in Preferences: Color Theme.

What Is Actually Tuned

This is not just a palette swap. The build compiles:

full workbench theming (tabs, sidebar, panels, status bar, notifications, terminal + ANSI, git decorations, minimap, chat/inline chat, merge editor, notebook, testing)
semantic token rules for declarations, readonly/static modifiers, decorators, default libraries, and more

TextMate scope packs include:

JS/TS + JSX/TSX
Go
Python
Java
Rust
HTML/CSS
JSON/YAML
Markdown
SQL

Engine Map

flowchart LR
  A["brandTokens<br/>src/theme/palette.ts"] --> B["variant palettes<br/>dark/light + high contrast + brand"]
  B --> C["compileTheme()"]
  C --> D["Workbench colors<br/>getUiColors()"]
  C --> E["Semantic tokens<br/>getSemanticTokens()"]
  C --> F["TextMate tokens<br/>getTokenColors()"]
  D --> G["themes/*.json"]
  E --> G
  F --> G

Contrast Snapshot

Local run from pnpm contrast on February 10, 2026:

Variant	Editor	Comment	Keyword	Function	String	Number
Claude Code Dark	14.92	8.51	8.70	11.79	12.98	13.59
Claude Code Dark High Contrast	16.98	11.49	10.87	13.55	14.95	15.17
Claude Code Dark Brand	14.92	8.51	8.70	11.79	12.98	13.59
Claude Code Light	16.68	5.45	4.92	5.07	4.69	4.59
Claude Code Light High Contrast	16.61	5.34	5.35	4.73	4.88	5.08
Claude Code Light Brand	16.68	5.45	4.92	5.07	4.69	4.59

Quality gates in CI

pnpm build (generates themes/*.json)
pnpm compile (TypeScript no-emit check)
pnpm contrast (WCAG-oriented contrast checks)
pnpm test:theme (assertion checks for ANSI readability + modern surface coverage)
pnpm package (VSIX build)

CI workflow: .github/workflows/ci.yml
Publish workflow: .github/workflows/publish.yml

Install + Verify

Marketplace (recommended)

Open Extensions: Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + X
Search Claude Code Theme
Install publisher ashwingopalsamy
Run Preferences: Color Theme
Select a Claude Code ... variant

CLI

code --install-extension ashwingopalsamy.claude-code-theme

Dev Loop

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm check
pnpm package

Design Notes

Brand token normalization lives in docs/brand-tokens.md.¹

Important

This project is independent and is not affiliated with Anthropic.

Project Info

Maintainer: Ashwin Gopalsamy
Repository: ashwingopalsamy/claude-code-theme
Marketplace: Claude Code Theme
Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
Security: SECURITY.md
Support: SUPPORT.md
License: MIT

References include Anthropic brand-guidelines skill text and the Anthropic identity case study (docs/brand-tokens.md has source links). ↩