Vinay Kumar

Posted on May 16

I built my own VS Code theme from scratch because nothing felt right at 2am

#productivity #webdev #vscode #opensource

It was 2am. I was deep in a coding session and my theme just looked… off.

I'd tried everything — One Dark Pro, Dracula, Tokyo Night, Catppuccin. All great themes. None of them felt mine.

So instead of sleeping like a normal person, I built my own. 😭

The Story Behind It 🌙

I remember the exact night I decided to build this. It was maybe 1am, I was working on a React project, and I kept getting distracted by how my code looked. One Dark Pro felt too flat. Dracula felt too harsh. Tokyo Night was close but the purple felt cold.

I started tweaking colors in a JSON file just to see what happened. One color led to another. Before I knew it, it was 4am and I had something that actually felt right.

That was the beginning of Aura Dark.

Meet Aura Dark 💜

A deep purple VS Code theme built specifically for long coding sessions. Warm background, rich colors, every token means something different. Not just "slap some purple on it" — every single language has dedicated rules written manually.

What Makes It Different 🎨

Most themes pick colors that look good in screenshots. I wanted colors that feel good after hour 3 of coding.

Every color has a specific job:

#C792EA Purple - keywords and decorators. Most important tokens get the most distinctive color
#82AAFF Blue — functions and methods. Your eye naturally follows blue
#C3E88D Green — strings. Calm and readable, never harsh
#FFCB8B Yellow/Orange — class names and components. Warm and inviting
#1E1F29 Background — warm dark, not cold black. Reduces eye strain significantly

Features ✨

35+ languages with dedicated rules — not just copy paste colors
Warm #1E1F29 background — easy on eyes at 2am
Every syntax element has its own distinct color
Works beautifully on CSS, JS, Python, Rust, PHP and more

Language Support 🌍

One thing I'm really proud of is the language coverage. Most themes handle JavaScript well and then just… guess for everything else. Aura Dark has dedicated token rules for every single one of these:

Frontend: TypeScript, JavaScript, React/JSX, HTML, CSS, SCSS, Vue, Svelte
Backend: Python, Java, Go, Rust, PHP, C#, Ruby, Swift, Kotlin, Dart
DevOps: Docker, Bash, YAML, JSON, Terraform, GitHub Actions
Other: SQL, Markdown, GraphQL, Regex, Git Diff and more
Every language was tested manually. Not just "it probably works."

Recommended Setup ⚙️

To get the full Aura Dark experience:
Font: JetBrains Mono or Fira Code with ligatures enabled
Add this to your settings.json:

{
  "editor.fontFamily": "JetBrains Mono",
  "editor.fontSize": 14,
  "editor.lineHeight": 1.6,
  "editor.fontLigatures": true
}

What's Next 🚀

Planning to add:

Aura Dark for JetBrains IDEs
Aura Dark for terminal (iTerm2, Windows Terminal)
Maybe a light variant someday (scary thought lol 😂)

Open to suggestions — drop them in the comments or open a GitHub issue!

Try It Yourself

🔗 VS Code Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vinaycodes-io.aura-dark-theme
🔗 GitHub: https://github.com/vinaycodes-io/aura-dark-theme
🔗 Preview: https://vscodethemes.com/e/vinaycodes-io.aura-dark-theme/aura-dark

Would love honest brutal feedback — what looks off, what could be better, what language support is missing. Drop it in the comments! 😄

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