the in-browser editor on start.dev has its own look: graphite backgrounds, a single amber accent, quiet chrome so the syntax does the talking. people kept asking for it in their real editor. so it’s a theme now, live on the vs code marketplace and open vsx (so cursor, windsurf, and vscodium pick it up too).
why it was a day, not a week
the platform editor already runs a full vs code-compatible theme
object. it’s the same colors + tokenColors shape a .vscode-theme
file wants, and it drives both the monaco editor students type in and
the shiki blocks in the lessons. so 95% of a published theme already
existed. the actual work was packaging it as an extension and one
audit pass.
the audit: kill the cool cast
the theme started life as a one dark pro fork (credit to binaryify), and one dark pro carries a faint blue cast on the chrome. sidebar, tabs, and status bar all sit a few points bluer than neutral. start.dev’s design system has a hard rule against that: no neutral may read cooler than true gray. so i walked every workbench color and swapped the cool-cast neutrals for their graphite-ramp equivalents.
then i made amber the only interaction color. cursor, selection,
focus ring, active-tab accent, active line number all use the same
warm #F1B467, where one dark pro used blue. the terminal ansi ramp
got warmed up the same way. the syntax colors stayed exactly as they
are, since students already learn in them and information design beats
warmth-purity for token roles.
the result reads as one deliberate thing instead of a reskin with the name changed.
what’s not in it yet
dark only. no light variant, no high-contrast pass, no italic-free option. all of that is demand-driven later. v0.1 is the daily-driver dark theme and nothing else.
install start.dev from the marketplace, or search “start.dev” in cursor / windsurf / vscodium. then
ctrl+k ctrl+tand pick it. mit, free.