Peacock for Visual Studio Code Files

4.3.3

Release update

• Re-published the full 4.3.x feature set as a clean patch release after Marketplace validation checks.
• Added validation-safe Marketplace badge URLs in README.md to avoid blocked SVG badge providers.
• Confirmed Peacock color customization behavior when workbench.experimental.modernUI is disabled; this workaround applies in Insiders and can also apply in Stable when modernUI is manually enabled.
• Added a guide FAQ entry documenting the temporary workbench.experimental.modernUI workaround and upstream tracking issue.
• Modern UI compatibility note: VS Code's experimental workbench.experimental.modernUI overrides the workbench color customizations Peacock relies on, making Peacock's colors effectively invisible while it is enabled. Peacock now detects this and shows a one-time notice with guidance, and we are iterating compatibility as upstream fixes land.
• Added a primary Peacock tracking issue for modernUI support updates: #652.

4.3.0

This release consolidates the previously unpublished 4.2.3-4.2.6 changelog drafts into the next Marketplace release after 4.2.2.

Features

• Added peacock.affectWindowBorder setting — when enabled, Peacock colorizes window.activeBorder and window.inactiveBorder to match the Peacock color. Window border support is available on Windows in VS Code 1.104+ (#569)
• Added peacock.surpriseMeInFavoritesOrder setting — when enabled (with startup surprise + favorites-only), Peacock now cycles favorite colors in deterministic list order across startups instead of choosing favorites randomly (#487)
• Startup surprise now persists and restores the last startup-selected color per workspace via mementos, so reopening workspaces (including large worktree setups) keeps expected startup surprise behavior (#582)
• Added peacock.affectTabActiveBackground setting — optionally colors the active tab's background with the Peacock color. Defaults to false to preserve existing behavior (#565)
• Added peacock.excludedSettings — an array of VS Code color customization keys (e.g. statusBar.background) that Peacock will never modify or delete, protecting your own workspace color settings when applying a color or resetting (#575). Completes and supersedes community PR #574. Thanks to @josh-tepper!
• Added Peacock: Set SideBar Darkness Level command — sets the SideBar background to a darker shade of the current Peacock color (Dark, Darker, or Darkest). Useful for maintaining color visibility when the activity bar is hidden (#560)
• Added commandCenter.foreground and commandCenter.border coloring to title bar handling (#583)
• Added color picker support in settings.json for all Peacock color settings (#531)

Fixes

• Improved reset/remove-all cleanup for uninstall scenarios by correctly reading workspace-folder workbench.colorCustomizations entries before deleting Peacock-managed keys, while preserving non-Peacock customization keys (#656)
• Fixed status bar disappearing (overridden by VS Code's default orange debugging color) during launch/debug sessions when affectDebuggingStatusBar is false (the default). Peacock now always writes statusBar.debuggingBackground and statusBar.debuggingForeground to match the regular status bar whenever the status bar is affected, preventing VS Code from overriding those tokens at debug start. The affectDebuggingStatusBar setting still works as before — enabling it produces a complementary distinctive color during debugging (#572).
• Fixed activity bar highlight not applying when the activity bar is in the "on top" layout (VS Code 1.84+, workbench.activityBar.location: top). Peacock now sets activityBarTop.* tokens in addition to the classic activityBar.* tokens so the highlight is visible in both classic (side) and top layouts (#538).
• Fixed Cursor IDE editor-toolbar action icons becoming invisible when Peacock colors the title bar. Cursor mis-uses var(--vscode-titleBar-activeForeground) for editor toolbar action icons (a Cursor CSS bug; VS Code is unaffected), so a dark Peacock title bar foreground made those icons disappear. Peacock now auto-detects Cursor via vscode.env.appName and uses a visible mid-gray title bar foreground only there — VS Code behavior is unchanged (#647). Thanks to @Prontsevich for the root-cause analysis.
• Fixed remote indicator badge blending into status bar: badge now uses a contrasting accent color instead of the same color as the status bar (#473)
• Fixed "Reset Workspace Colors" not clearing colors when peacock.color was already undefined — reset now directly removes color customizations instead of relying on a configuration change event (#554)
• Fixed remote color fallback: peacock.color is now used when peacock.remoteColor is not set in remote contexts (devcontainers, SSH, WSL) (#522, [#459])
• Fixed Squiggly Be Gone transparency so Peacock now matches the background color with a 00 alpha channel instead of applying the incorrect transparency value

Docs & Infrastructure

• Added copilot-setup-steps.yml for Copilot coding agent environment setup (mirrors CI: Node 20, npm ci, test-compile)
• Added paths-ignore to CI workflow to skip builds for docs-only changes (markdown, images, issue templates)
• Improved CHANGELOG.md pointer to reference authoritative changelog location at docs/changelog/README.md
• Clarified Marketplace release visibility and propagation expectations in docs, including stable vs pre-release guidance and troubleshooting steps (#649)
• Added FAQ entry explaining why Peacock commands can appear in the palette but silently do nothing — covers the Live Share conflict workaround and workspace requirement (#550). Thanks to @tjeanes, @ShrimpCryptid, @ralfaro17, and @diepes for identifying the root cause.
• Hardened docs delivery by pinning Docsify/Prism CDN versions, extracting docs site CSS to docs/assets/docs.css, and adding link-checking to docs CI (#671)
• Migrated documentation site from VuePress to Docsify, deployed via GitHub Pages
• New docs URL: https://johnpapa.github.io/vscode-peacock/
• Modern Peacock-branded design with responsive layout, client-side search, and syntax highlighting
• Added 69 Playwright e2e tests covering pages, navigation, images, links, styling, and search
• Added CI workflow with lint, build, and tests on all PRs
• Added unit tests for object-library (sortSettingsIndexer, settingsIndexersAreEqual)
• Added test requirement convention: every bug fix must include a regression test, every feature must include unit tests
• Added AI-Ready badge, AGENTS.md, copilot-instructions.md, and copilot-setup-steps.yml
• Upgraded issue templates from markdown to YAML issue forms
• Added Dependabot for npm and GitHub Actions dependencies
• Added CODEOWNERS and SECURITY.md

Contributors

• Thanks to @Prateek-Wayne for the SideBar darkness contribution behind Peacock: Set SideBar Darkness Level (#566).
• Thanks to @crewsd for the command center foreground contribution that shipped with the title bar command center support (#583).
• Thanks to @dembeck for the color picker support contribution for Peacock color settings (#531).
• Thanks to @dependabot for the automated dependency update PRs included in this release.

Dependencies

• Bumped webpack (5.61→5.106), ts-loader (9.2→9.5), lodash (4.17→4.18), Playwright, and other dev dependencies
• Bumped GitHub Actions (checkout v6, setup-node v6, upload-artifact v7, configure-pages v6, upload-pages-artifact v5)
• Security patches for serialize-javascript, picomatch, minimatch, braces, js-yaml, @babel/traverse
• Added skipLibCheck to tsconfig.json for TS 3.9 compatibility with newer dependency type definitions