VS Code Classics

VS Code Classics for Zed

All 19 built-in Visual Studio Code themes, ported to Zed.

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Miss your favorite VS Code look? This extension brings every built-in VS Code color theme to Zed — UI colors, syntax highlighting, and terminal palettes converted directly from the VS Code source. Zed uses Tree-sitter instead of TextMate for syntax, so some tokens may render slightly differently, but the overall look and feel stays close to the original.

Themes

Dark

Light

Installation

From Zed Extensions

1. Open Zed
2. Open the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P)
3. Search for "Extensions"
4. Search for "VS Code Classics"
5. Click Install

Manual Installation

Clone this repository into your Zed extensions directory:

macOS / Linux:

git clone https://github.com/alanisme/vscode-themes-for-zed \
  ~/.local/share/zed/extensions/vscode-classic-themes

Windows:

git clone https://github.com/alanisme/vscode-themes-for-zed `
  "$env:APPDATA\Zed\extensions\vscode-classic-themes"

Then restart Zed or run "zed: reload extensions" from the command palette.

Activating a Theme

1. Open the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P)
2. Search for "theme"
3. Pick any theme from the list

Or add it directly to your settings.json:

{
  "theme": {
    "mode": "system",
    "light": "Light Modern (VS Code)",
    "dark": "Dark Modern (VS Code)"
  }
}

How It Works

Themes are converted from the VS Code source repository (default: 1.119.0, configurable via VSCODE_REF) using an automated pipeline:

• Fetches original JSONC theme files from microsoft/vscode at the pinned version
• Recursively resolves the include chain (e.g., Dark Modern → Dark+ → VS Dark)
• Maps VS Code workbench colors to Zed UI tokens (curated subset — Zed has ~100 tokens vs VS Code's 500+)
• Translates TextMate scopes to Tree-sitter syntax tokens using prefix matching
• Applies VS Code semantic token colors as fallback for tokens not covered by TextMate rules
• Preserves font styles (italic, bold) and terminal ANSI palettes

Known limitations:

• Zed uses Tree-sitter, not TextMate — some syntax tokens map differently or lack a direct equivalent
• VS Code has ~500 workbench color keys; Zed has ~100. Not every UI detail can be represented
• Semantic highlighting coverage depends on what each theme defines

To re-generate themes (uses pinned version by default):

make

# or track latest VS Code source:
VSCODE_REF=main make

Project Structure

vscode-themes-for-zed/
├── extension.toml          Zed extension manifest
├── Makefile                Build orchestration
├── LICENSE                 MIT
├── README.md               This file
├── docs/                   Translated READMEs
├── themes/                 Generated Zed theme files (19 files)
└── scripts/
    ├── convert.ts          VS Code → Zed theme converter
    └── validate.ts         Theme structural linter

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. If a color looks off, open an issue with:

1. The theme name
2. A screenshot from VS Code and Zed side by side
3. The specific UI element or syntax token

To regenerate and validate all themes:

make

Credits

• Original themes by Microsoft under the MIT License
• Solarized palette by Ethan Schoonover
• Monokai palette by Wimer Hazenberg

License

MIT