posit-dev / posit-dev/positron

Zombie builtin themes

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area: core area: extensions bug
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

This came up in the course of preparing workshop materials.

Many of the themes seen in the Themes section of the Extensions View when you filter for @builtin themes aren't actually available if you do Preferences: Color Theme from the command palette. Examples include Abyss or Monokai Dimmed. This is kind of confusing, if you're looking over the builtin extensions.

Image Image

Apparently we intentionally exclude these themes:

https://github.com/posit-dev/positron/blob/e8471b543a76af57f04f328e5f1f0813d378f5dc/src/vs/workbench/services/themes/browser/workbenchThemeService.ts#L384-L400

Should we exclude them more systematically? E.g. literally remove them or maybe disable them in some more profound way that prevents them from appearing in our @builtin extensions.

Screenshots made with:
Positron Version: 2025.07.0 (Universal) build 88
Code - OSS Version: 1.100.0
Commit: 27dd8feb5758b5ccecb38b33cbdb0c034c67d786
Date: 2025-06-12T03:34:40.909Z
Electron: 34.5.1
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.0
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.5.0

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with src/vs/workbench/services/themes/browser/workbenchThemeService.ts around the linked exclusion logic. Reproduce the mismatch by comparing the @builtin Themes results with Preferences: Color Theme, then trace how each list is populated. Done means themes unavailable from the command palette no longer appear as builtin extensions, with the behavior verified in both views.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
desktop, frontend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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