A calm, focused theme for VS Code and its forks, in dark and light: a neutral monochrome workbench that stays out of your way, paired with refined, vivid syntax accents that make code structure obvious at a glance.
- Two variants, one language — Monobrain Pro Dark and Monobrain Pro Light share the same semantic color roles, so switching between them never re-teaches your eye: keywords stay "the red one", types stay "the teal one".
- Calm neutral UI — the activity bar, side bar, tabs, status bar, and panels share a quiet monochrome palette with translucent hairline borders, so the only thing that pops is your code.
- Refined vivid syntax — a disciplined eight-color accent set with a clear role for every hue: red keywords, yellow strings, blue functions, teal types, purple constants, orange parameters.
- Restrained typography — italics only where they carry meaning (comments, parameters, storage modifiers); bold reserved for markup headings. No keyword-soup italics.
- Full terminal ANSI theming — all 16 ANSI colors defined in both variants, so CLI output looks native to the theme.
- Terminal reads as its own plane — the integrated terminal sits on a subtly distinct surface with slightly higher-contrast, near-neutral text, so terminal tabs are easy to tell apart from editor tabs at a glance without breaking the palette.
- Semantic highlighting — semantic token colors for language servers (TypeScript, Rust, Python, Go, …) that agree with the TextMate rules, so colors don't shift when a language server kicks in.
- Warm light variant — the light theme sits on a warm paper base rather than clinical white, easier on the eyes in bright rooms, with a burnt-sienna UI accent.
- Accessible by design — every syntax color in the light theme meets WCAG AA (4.5:1) against the editor background; contrast ratios are computed and verified, not eyeballed.
- No-gaps workbench map — 292 workbench colors set explicitly in both variants: find/match highlights, bracket pair colorization, peek views, diff editor, notifications, quick input, minimap, and more.
Each role keeps its hue across both variants — only lightness and saturation shift.
Each role keeps its hue across both variants — only the base tones change. The light variant is built on a warm paper base; every syntax color meets WCAG AA (4.5:1).
| Role | Dark | Light | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Editor background | #1e2024 |
 |
#fbf6ec |
 |
| Chrome background | #17181b |
 |
#f6efe5 |
 |
| Foreground | #c5c8cf |
 |
#433b35 |
 |
| Keywords | #e8677d |
 |
#b83250 |
 |
| Parameters | #e0a06a |
 |
#a85717 |
 |
| Strings | #e3c778 |
 |
#8a6a00 |
 |
| Diff added / terminal green | #8ec07c |
 |
#3f7d33 |
 |
| Functions | #6cb6e6 |
 |
#1a6fa8 |
 |
| Types & classes | #5bc2a8 |
 |
#157a60 |
 |
| Constants & numbers | #b995e8 |
 |
#7c4dc4 |
 |
| UI accent | #5b9fd6 |
 |
#8b4023 |
 |
| Terminal background | #1b2732 |
 |
#f9edd7 |
 |
| Terminal foreground | #e0e0e0 |
 |
#312f2d |
 |
Screenshots show Monobrain Pro Dark.
Reproducing these shots: ready-made sample files live in
examples/— openexamples/showcase.tsx,examples/showcase.py, and runexamples/ansi-showcase.shin the integrated terminal, then capture each. Seeimages/README.mdfor capture guidelines.
- Open the Extensions view (
Cmd+Shift+X/Ctrl+Shift+X). - Search for Monobrain Pro.
- Click Install.
Or from the command line:
code --install-extension d4rkwinz.monobrain-proMonobrain Pro is also published to the Open VSX Registry:
codium --install-extension d4rkwinz.monobrain-proMonobrain Pro works out of the box in Antigravity (Google's VS Code fork), Cursor, VSCodium, and any editor that supports standard VS Code themes:
- Download the
.vsixfrom the GitHub releases page (or build it withnpm run package). - Either drag the
.vsixfile onto the Extensions view, or open the Extensions view menu (···) and choose Install from VSIX….
- Press
Cmd+K Cmd+T(macOS) orCtrl+K Ctrl+T(Windows/Linux). - Pick Monobrain Pro Dark or Monobrain Pro Light.
Or via settings:
Entirely optional — the theme is designed to look right with defaults — but these pair nicely:
{
"editor.fontLigatures": true,
"editor.semanticHighlighting.enabled": true,
"editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled": true,
"editor.guides.bracketPairs": "active",
"editor.cursorBlinking": "smooth",
"workbench.tree.indent": 12,
// keep the theme's terminal colors exactly as designed (no auto-contrast fixing)
"terminal.integrated.minimumContrastRatio": 1
}Issues and pull requests are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for the development setup and theming workflow.
MIT © 2026 d4rkwinz
{ "workbench.colorTheme": "Monobrain Pro Dark" // or: "Monobrain Pro Light" }