Colors

The colors object controls every non-code surface in VS Code — the editor background, sidebar panels, the status bar, borders, badges, buttons, input fields, scrollbars, and hundreds more.

Structure

colors is a flat object. Each key is a dot-separated identifier defined by VS Code, and each value is a hex colour string.

{
  "colors": {
    "editor.background": "#1a1a2e",
    "editor.foreground": "#abb2bf",
    "activityBar.background": "#16213e",
    "statusBar.background": "#0f3460",
    "focusBorder": "#56b6c280"
  }
}

That’s it. No nesting, no arrays, no sub-objects. Just string keys and hex values.

Colour Format

VS Code expects hex strings in colors:

Format	Example	Meaning
#RGB	#f00	Short hex (red)
#RRGGBB	#ff0000	Full hex (red)
#RRGGBBAA	#ff000080	Hex with alpha (50% transparent red)

Alpha is supported and widely used — transparent borders, subtle overlays, and faded highlights all rely on it. The alpha byte is appended at the end (00 = fully transparent, ff = fully opaque).

Finding Colour Identifiers

VS Code defines over 700 colour identifiers. The authoritative list is in the VS Code Theme Colour Reference.

Common groups:

Prefix	Controls
editor.*	Editor area (background, foreground, selection, line highlights)
editorGutter.*	Gutter (line numbers, folding, decorations)
activityBar.*	Left-hand icon bar
sideBar.*	File explorer, search results, source control panels
statusBar.*	Bottom bar
tab.*	Editor tabs
titleBar.*	Window title bar
input.*	Input fields (search, settings, command palette)
list.*	All list/tree views (file explorer, search results)
button.*	Buttons
badge.*	Notification badges
panel.*	Bottom panels (terminal, output, problems)

Tip

You don’t need to define every identifier. VS Code fills in sensible defaults from the base type (dark or light). Focus on the surfaces that matter to your design and let the rest fall through.

Gotchas

Alpha Compositing

When you use alpha in a colors value, VS Code composites it against the surface behind it. This means the same colour can look different depending on where it’s used. A #ffffff20 border on a dark background looks like a faint grey line; the same value on a light background is nearly invisible.

Some Properties Require Transparency

A significant number of colors properties must not be opaque. VS Code draws these as overlays on top of other content — selections, highlights, find matches, diff regions, and drop targets. If you set them to a solid colour, they’ll hide the text or decorations underneath.

The VS Code Theme Colour Reference documents which properties need transparency. Common groups include:

Group	Examples
Selection & highlights	editor.selectionHighlightBackground, editor.wordHighlightBackground, editor.findMatchHighlightBackground
Find results	editor.findRangeHighlightBackground, terminal.findMatchBackground
Diff editor	diffEditor.insertedTextBackground, diffEditor.removedTextBackground, diffEditor.insertedLineBackground
Merge conflicts	merge.currentHeaderBackground, merge.incomingHeaderBackground, merge.commonContentBackground
Overview ruler	editorOverviewRuler.findMatchForeground, editorOverviewRuler.wordHighlightForeground
Drop targets	sideBar.dropBackground, panel.dropBackground, terminal.dropBackground
Other	editor.foldBackground, editor.hoverHighlightBackground, editor.rangeHighlightBackground

Tip

If you use the $schema property in your theme config, VS Code will warn you in the editor when a colour that requires transparency is missing an alpha channel. This is one of the best reasons to include the schema.

In Sassy, fade() and alpha() make this easy to manage. Rather than manually calculating hex alpha bytes, you express the intent:

theme:
  colors:
    editor.selectionHighlightBackground: alpha($(accent), 0.3)
    editor.wordHighlightBackground: fade($(accent), 0.6)

No RGB/HSL — Hex Only

Unlike CSS, VS Code colors only accepts hex strings. You cannot use rgb(), hsl(), or named colours directly. This is one area where Sassy helps — you can write hsl(200, 80, 50) or css(tomato) in your source file and Sassy converts it to hex in the output.

Transparent vs Omitted

Setting a colour to #00000000 (fully transparent) is different from omitting it. A transparent colour is explicitly “nothing here.” An omitted colour falls back to VS Code’s default for the base type. Sometimes you want the default; sometimes you want true transparency.

In Sassy

Sassy maps the colors object directly under theme.colors. The main difference is that you use variable references and colour functions instead of raw hex:

# Raw VS Code JSON
# "editor.background": "#1a1a2e"
# "editor.foreground": "#abb2bf"
# "focusBorder": "#56b6c280"

# Sassy equivalent
theme:
  colors:
    editor.background: $(std.bg)
    editor.foreground: $(std.fg)
    focusBorder: fade($(accent), 0.5)

The output is identical — flat dot-separated keys with hex values. Sassy just lets you express the relationships between colours instead of repeating hex codes.

Sassy also supports nesting as a convenience. These are equivalent:

# Flat (matches VS Code structure)
theme:
  colors:
    editor.background: $(std.bg)
    editor.foreground: $(std.fg)

# Nested (Sassy flattens this for you)
theme:
  colors:
    editor:
      background: $(std.bg)
      foreground: $(std.fg)

Both produce the same editor.background and editor.foreground keys in the output.