Wear the right hat for each project.
Hats puts a button in your status bar to switch VSCode profiles and tint the window per profile — so a Java project looks (and loads) different from a Python one.
A quick look at switching profiles and per-profile window colors:
VSCode profiles already keep each context lightweight by loading only the extensions you need. Hats makes them faster to reach and gives every workspace its own color.
- Status bar button (bottom-right by default) showing the current workspace, one click away from everything below.
- Switch profile — opens the native profile switcher.
- New profile from template — jump straight into VSCode's built-in templates (Python, Java General, Java Spring, Node.js, Angular, …).
- Window color per workspace — tint the title bar, activity bar and status bar with a named hat or a custom hex color. Each element can be toggled.
- Click the 🎓 button in the status bar — or press
Ctrl+K Ctrl+H(Cmd+K Cmd+Hon macOS) — to switch profile right away (native picker). - Everything else lives in the Command Palette (
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P) underHats:- Hats: New Profile from Template (Python, Java General, Java Spring, …)
- Hats: Set Window Color (choose a hat or enter a
#rrggbbhex) - Hats: Clear Window Color
Colors are stored in the active profile's settings
(workbench.colorCustomizations), so the window color follows the profile:
switch profiles and the color changes with it.
- Keep Hats in every profile. Profiles each have their own extensions, so a new profile will not include Hats until you run Apply Extension to all Profiles from the Extensions view gear menu. There is no API to do this automatically; Hats shows a one-time tip on first run.
- Reload after switching. When you switch profiles, VSCode reassociates the workspace and asks you to reload so the new profile's extensions load. This is native VSCode behavior and cannot be suppressed by an extension.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
hats.elements |
Which elements to tint (titleBar, activityBar, statusBar). |
hats.palette |
Your named hats ({ name, color }). Falls back to a built-in palette. |
hats.statusBar.alignment |
left or right (default right). |
hats.statusBar.showWorkspaceName |
Show the workspace name on the button. |
hats.statusBar.icon |
Codicon name for the button (e.g. mortar-board, briefcase, versions). Empty for none. |
hats.color |
The applied color (managed by Hats). |
Hats deliberately leaves the theme to the profile and only manages the window accent color, so the two never fight.
The button shows the workspace name rather than the active profile name because VSCode does not yet expose a public API to read or change the active profile. Track these upstream requests: microsoft/vscode#226355 and #192852. Once that API ships, Hats can show the real profile name.
VSCode with Profiles support (1.75+). No other dependencies.
Issues and pull requests are welcome at NicolasArthurDev/vscode-hats.