Syntalume Icon Studio

Icon Studio is the searchable browser and preset editor for the Syntalume file icon system. Open it with:

Syntalume: Open Icon Studio

The browser is built from the file-icon theme shipped with your installed version of Syntalume. Search by icon name, extension, filename, folder, or VS Code language ID, then select an icon and add an association.

Desktop Studio: exact Explorer customization#

Desktop VS Code uses one contributed Syntalume Icons – Studio theme whose manifest and SVGs belong to the installed Syntalume extension. When you choose Apply to Explorer, Icon Studio rebuilds only those bounded, extension-owned files. It never writes into your workspace, opens an arbitrary path, or edits a third-party icon theme.

The desktop Studio applies all of these together:

• Base, Noir, Frost, Paper, or Botanica colors, including automatic family changes when the active Syntalume color theme changes.
• Balanced, Minimal, Outline, or Pictorial shapes.
• The exact slider values shown: 0–200% saturation and 10–100% opacity.
• Exact file names and simple *.extension patterns, including multi-part extensions such as *.acme.ts.
• Exact folder names, project-root folder names, and VS Code language IDs.

For file associations, the optional language selector is separate from the icon. Leave it empty to change only the Explorer glyph. Choose a language when you also want files.associations to change syntax recognition.

The four named starting points are:

VS Code can cache a selected icon-theme manifest. Reapplying Studio briefly switches through the selected shipped Syntalume family and back, so Explorer reliably reloads the new manifest without asking you to reload the window.

Web and read-only installations#

vscode.dev, github.dev, and other browser extension hosts cannot write extension assets. They use the finite generated fallback: all four named appearances across all five families. A safe file/language association can also apply when the chosen icon already has that shipped language mapping.

Custom folder, root-folder, and language maps and arbitrary slider values stay visible in the inventory and portable preset, but are read-only preview data in web hosts. The panel labels this boundary before Apply. If a desktop installation is not writable, Studio fails before taking settings ownership and leaves the previous theme, associations, and generated assets intact.

Import and export#

The JSON box always contains the current version-1 preset. Use Copy preset JSON to put it on the clipboard. To import, paste JSON into the same box and choose Import pasted JSON, review it, then apply.

Example:

{
  "version": 1,
  "name": "Acme platform",
  "family": "auto",
  "style": "outline",
  "saturation": 82,
  "opacity": 88,
  "associations": {
    "files": [
      {
        "pattern": "*.acme.ts",
        "icon": "_ts",
        "languageId": "typescript"
      }
    ],
    "folders": [
      {
        "name": "platform",
        "icon": "_folder-infra"
      }
    ],
    "rootFolders": [
      {
        "name": "acme-control-plane",
        "icon": "_folder-cloud"
      }
    ],
    "languages": []
  }
}

Exact reset#

Choose Exact reset inside Icon Studio, or run:

Syntalume: Reset Icon Studio Changes

Before its first write, Icon Studio records whether each affected User setting was absent or what its exact value was. It also records a content signature for its generated Studio manifest and SVGs. Reset restores only settings and assets that still equal what Icon Studio wrote. If you select another icon theme or a later change replaces an association, your newer setting wins. Independently, unchanged generated files return to the pristine packaged baseline while their content signature is still owned by that Apply, so a later manual reselect cannot unexpectedly revive an old preset.

Apply and reset are transactional. If any settings or asset write fails, Icon Studio restores the previous successful state instead of leaving half of a preset active.

Desktop asset changes use a shared filesystem lock across VS Code windows. Snapshots, swaps, and owned rollbacks are serialized, so simultaneous windows cannot interleave one manifest with another preset's SVGs. If the lock cannot be acquired, Studio reports that the assets are busy and you can retry.

On desktop, applied Studio assets are written into the installed extension's own icon directory. An extension update or reinstall replaces that directory with the packaged baseline, so on the next activation Syntalume detects the untouched baseline and silently rebuilds the assets for your applied preset — no settings change and nothing to reapply. Files that were edited by hand or by another tool are never overwritten. On hosts where the extension directory is read-only, Icon Studio reports the failed write instead of applying partially.

Request a missing icon#

Enter the filename, folder, language, framework, and a short reason, then choose Open prefilled icon request. Icon Studio opens the public Syntalume support repository with the issue title and details filled in. Nothing is sent until you review and submit the issue on GitHub.