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Find answers to frequently asked questions about installing, using, and troubleshooting Vibrancy Continued.

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Installation & Setup

  1. Make sure the VSCode theme you’ve selected is ‘Dark+’ or one of the supported themes
  2. Install the extension from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace
  3. Press F1 and activate command “Reload Vibrancy”
  4. Restart VSCode when prompted
Each time VS Code is updated, please re-enable Vibrancy using the same steps.
There are two methods to uninstall Vibrancy Continued:Method 1 (Recommended):
  1. Press F1 or ⌘+Shift+P
  2. Activate command “Disable Vibrancy”
  3. Restart Visual Studio Code
Method 2:
  1. Uninstall the extension through VSCode’s extension manager
  2. Restart VSCode
VSCode will automatically remove Vibrancy modifications when you uninstall the extension.
Vibrancy Continued supports:
  • macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon)
  • Windows 10/11 (x64 & ARM64)
Linux is not currently supported due to limitations with transparency effects in Electron on Linux.
Vibrancy Continued works with:
  • Visual Studio Code - Full support
  • VSCodium - Full support
  • Cursor - Supported (use Fix VSCode Checksums Next to remove persistent warnings)
Other Electron-based editors are not officially supported and may not work correctly.

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Common Issues

This is a known issue with Vibrancy sometimes not working on the first try after VSCode updates.Solution: Perform the same action again (Reload Vibrancy) to resolve the issue.
The terminal may not render transparency correctly with GPU acceleration enabled.Solution: Change the renderer type of the terminal to dom by adding this setting:
"terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration": "off"
After changing this setting, restart VSCode for the changes to take effect.
This usually appears on Windows when you are using the VSCode System Installer.Solution:
  1. Close VSCode completely
  2. Run VSCode as administrator (right-click and select “Run as administrator”)
  3. Retry what you did before (Enable/Reload/Disable Vibrancy)
You may need to run VSCode as administrator each time you update Vibrancy settings.

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macOS-Specific Questions

Your installation of VSCode is owned by another user.Solution: Run the following commands exactly as-is in the Terminal app to take ownership of the files:
sudo chown -R $(whoami):staff "/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/"
sudo chmod -R 755 "/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/"
You’ll be prompted to enter your password.Alternative solution: A reinstallation will also fix this issue without any loss of settings.
Your installation of VSCode is affected by App Translocation, a macOS security feature.Solution 1 (Using Finder): Move VSCode to /Applications using Finder, or move it out of /Applications and then back in.Solution 2 (Using Terminal): Run the following command:
sudo xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app"

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Windows-Specific Questions

This is a known issue related to the Acrylic blur effect on Windows 10.Solution: Please read this detailed discussion for workarounds and potential solutions.
This is a known issue with VSCode 1.86+ on Windows related to Electron 27 and hardware acceleration.Solution: Follow these steps:
  1. Update your VSCode shortcut to include --disable-gpu-compositing:
"C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe" --disable-gpu-compositing
  1. (Optional) Update your shell configuration to add the same argument to code
  2. Install Vibrancy Continued
  3. Go to settings and check Disable frameless window (vscode_vibrancy.disableFramelessWindow)
  4. Press F1 and select Reload Vibrancy
For more information, see the Windows installation guide.

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Effect & Visual Issues

There are several possible causes:1. Check OS transparency settings:Ensure that you don’t have transparency effects disabled globally through your OS settings:
  • Windows: Settings > Personalization > Colors > Transparency effects
  • macOS: System Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Reduce transparency
2. Check VSCode Developer Tools:Check the Console section in VSCode’s Developer Tools:
  1. Open the command palette (F1 or Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P)
  2. Search for “Developer: Toggle Developer Tools”
  3. Check the Console tab for errors
3. Reinstall VSCode:If nothing else worked, try reinstalling VSCode. You won’t lose any settings and this will ensure that your VSCode installation is consistent.
This extension works by editing VS Code’s checksum-verified HTML files, which triggers this warning.This warning is safe to disregard - all changes can be reverted by disabling Vibrancy.To hide the warning:
  1. Click on the cogwheel icon in the warning notification
  2. Select Don’t Show Again
Alternative solution:If you don’t have the option to hide the alert, or to fix an [Unsupported] warning in VSCode’s title bar, install this extension: Fix VSCode Checksums Next.
Yes, each time VS Code is updated, you need to re-enable Vibrancy:
  1. Press F1
  2. Activate command “Reload Vibrancy”
  3. Restart VSCode when prompted
This is necessary because VSCode updates overwrite the modified files that Vibrancy changes.

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Configuration Questions

Yes! Use the vscode_vibrancy.imports setting to import custom CSS/JS files.Examples:
{
  "vscode_vibrancy.imports": [
    "C:/Users/MyUserName/Documents/custom.css"
  ]
}
On Windows, forward slashes must be used in file paths.
Use the vscode_vibrancy.opacity setting:
{
  "vscode_vibrancy.opacity": 0.5
}
Values:
  • -1.0 - Theme default
  • 0.0 - Maximum transparency
  • 1.0 - No transparency (fully opaque)
  • Any value between 0 and 1 for custom transparency levels
Yes! Enable automatic theme switching:
  1. Enable the VSCode setting:
"window.autoDetectColorScheme": true
  1. Enable Vibrancy auto-theme:
"vscode_vibrancy.enableAutoTheme": true
  1. Set your preferred themes:
"vscode_vibrancy.preferedDarkTheme": "Default Dark",
"vscode_vibrancy.preferedLightTheme": "Default Light"
Vibrancy will now automatically switch between your preferred light and dark themes based on your OS settings.

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Getting Help

Please use the GitHub repository:
  • Report bugs: Open an issue
  • Request features: Open an issue with the “enhancement” tag
  • View known issues: Check the Known Errors page first
Before opening a new issue, please search existing issues to avoid duplicates.
Contributions are greatly appreciated! You can:
  1. Report bugs - Help identify issues
  2. Create themes - Design new Vibrancy themes
  3. Submit PRs - Fix bugs or add features
  4. Sponsor the project - Support ongoing development
See the Contributing guide for more details.

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Still Need Help?

If your question isn’t answered here:
  1. Check the Known Errors page
  2. Search existing GitHub issues
  3. Open a new issue with:
    • Your OS and version
    • VSCode version
    • Steps to reproduce the issue
    • Any error messages from Developer Tools console

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