VSCode Settings Switcher

Define groups of settings to be easily switched and managed. These may be defined in either global User Settings or your current Workspace settings.

Command

Provides a Switch Settings command that can be used to switch between groups of settings.

You can also invoke the command with arguments from a keybinding that controls its behavior (✨ new in v0.8.0).

Configuration Example

The following example shows 2 groups of settings to switch:

"settingsSwitcher.lists": {
    "Vertical rulers": {
        "Ruler 80": {
            "description": "Cyan ruler line at column 80",
            "editor.rulers": [{"column": 80, "color": "#4f717a" }]
        },
        "Ruler 85": {
            "description": "Yellow ruler line at column 85",
            "editor.rulers": [ { "column": 85, "color": "#615f44" }]
        },
        "Ruler 95": {
            "description": "Blue ruler line at column 95",
            "editor.rulers": [ { "column": 95, "color": "#00028a" }]
        },
    },
    "Fonts and theme": {
        "Big font dark":{
            "editor.fontSize": 18,
            "workbench.colorTheme": "Default Dark+"
        },
        "Small font light":{
            "editor.fontSize": 10,
            "workbench.colorTheme": "Default Light+"
        },
        "Big font light":{
            "editor.fontSize": 18,
            "workbench.colorTheme": "Default Light+"
        },
        "Medium font dark":{
            "editor.fontSize": 12,
            "workbench.colorTheme": "Default Dark+"
        },
    }
},

By running the command Switch Settings, the two groups of settings "Vertical rulers" and "Fonts and theme" will appear as a list in your command palette. So, first you select which group of settings you want to switch.

If already set, the current configuration will appear with small font, indicating the current state. The "Ruler 85" and "Big font dark" that you see in the screenshot above indicates the current state of the setting. Before ever choosing a setting, the current state will be empty.

Next, a second list will appear indicating the available settings to switch in the chosen group. A small "description" property may be provided in each configured setting and, if so, the description will appear with small font in this second list.

You can specify any amount of settings inside each group definitions. These settings will simply be written to your top-level settings object. For instance: the showed example has a group of settings "Fonts and theme" and each definition inside it changes the fontSize and the colorTheme together at the same time.

Descriptions

You may include the "description" key property in each setting definition to provide more clarity around what switching the setting will do. The following example uses a setting from the Python extension for Visual Studio Code

"settingsSwitcher.lists": {
    "Arguments to run python in terminal": {
        "Normal mode": {
            "description": "No args, just run `python script.py`",
            "python.terminal.launchArgs": [""]
        },
        "Interactive mode": {
            "description": "Keep the opened terminal, run `python -i script.py`",
            "python.terminal.launchArgs": [ "-i" ]
        },
        "IPython interactive mode": {
            "description": "Use IPython module and keeps open, run `python -m IPython -i script.py`",
            "python.terminal.launchArgs": [ "-m", "IPython", "-i" ]
        },
    },
},

If no "description" is provided, it will appear as empty, like in the first example in the group of settings "Fonts and theme".

User Settings vs Workspace settings

You can switch between groups of settings in either global User Settings or your local Workspace settings. To do so, the setting "settingsSwitcher.lists" with the groups of settings to switch must be defined in the corresponding settings.json file (either global or local). The local file (i.e., workspace settings) takes precedence.

Scope property

✨ new in v0.6.0

Alternatively, you can also change which file (global or workspace) is modified by including a "_scope" key in the defined group of settings. This key accepts the values "global" (or "user"), "local" (or "workspace") and "select". If the value is "select", an additional third list will appear letting you choose between "global" and "local" on the fly (✨ new in v0.11.0).

Cycler property

✨ new in v0.9.0

You can include a "_cycler" key with a Boolean true in the defined group of settings to give that group a "cycling behavior". It makes the setting to cycle through the definitions list of the group (in a similar way as the Settings Cycler extension). In this case, the second list of the command will not appear showing the available settings to switch in the chosen group: it simply chooses the next setting in the sequence.

This may be useful when the group of settings has only 2 definitions, and you just want to change between them: it saves one additional list to select (that would contain only 2 values).

Extension Settings

This extension adds VS Code setting "settingsSwitcher.lists", which may have any amount of groups of settings, each group may have a scope property and/or a cycler property and any amount of definitions and each definition may have a description and any amount of settings. So, there are 3 levels of keys:

"settingsSwitcher.lists": {
    "First group of settings": {
        "_scope": "workspace",  // optional: "workspace","local" ; "user","global" or "select"
        "_cycler": true,  // optional: `true` or `false`
        "First definition": {
            "description": "...", // optional
            [vscode settings ...] // Any amount of VSCode settings
        },
        "Second definition": {
            "description": "...", // optional
            [vscode settings ...] // Any amount of VSCode settings
        },
        "Third definition": {
            "description": "...", // optional
            [vscode settings ...] // Any amount of VSCode settings
        },
    "Second group of settings": {
        "_scope": "workspace",// optional: "workspace","local" ; "user","global" or "select"
        "_cycler": true,  // optional: `true` or `false`
        "First definition": {
            "description": "...", // optional
            [vscode settings ...] // Any amount of VSCode settings
        },
        "Second definition": {
            "description": "...", // optional
            [vscode settings ...] // Any amount of VSCode settings
        },
        ...
    },
    ...
},

Show information on settings list

✨ new in v0.10.0

To help manage the settings groups and identify where they are defined and/or applied, now this extension also contributes the following boolean settings.

These settings let you know information about the groups of settings in the first list to select.

• "settingsSwitcher.showFileInfo":
  if true, shows information about which setting.json file the group of settings is defined ("workspace" or "user")
• "settingsSwitcher.showScopeInfo":
  if true, shows the scope property of the group, ("local" or "global") if it is set.
• "settingsSwitcher.showCyclerInfo":
  if true, indicates if the group has a cycler property set to true.

These information appear in the first command palette list, along with the current state of the setting.

Merging vs Overwriting Settings

Settings that are objects will be merged into existing settings, while any other type of value will simply overwrite the previous setting. For example, the Tests settings below will merge the values in files.exclude with whatever the current setting is for that key.

"settingsSwitcher.lists": {
    "Tests": {
        "Include tests": {
            "files.exclude": {
                "**/__tests__": false,
                "**/__mocks__": false,
                "**/__fixtures__": false,
                "**/*.spec.js": false,
            }
        },
        "Exclude tests": {
            "files.exclude": {
                "**/__tests__": true,
                "**/__mocks__": true,
                "**/__fixtures__": true,
                "**/*.spec.js": true,
            }
        }
    }
}

Keybindings

✨ new in v0.8.0

You can invoke the command Switch Settings with arguments, by adding a custom keyboard shortcut (with "args" key) to take exactly the setting you want, to cycle through the setting list or to jump some steps.

The "args" key value must be an object with 3 possible properties: "group", "definition" (both are Strings) and "cycler" (a Boolean value: true or false).

The following is an example that creates a keybinding which applies directly the setting definition "Small font light" from the group of settings "Fonts and theme" of the previous configuration example:

{
    "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+o",
    "command": "vscode-settings-switcher.switchSettings",
    "args": {
        "group": "Fonts and theme",
        "definition": "Small font light"
    }
}

If you pass the "cycler" property with a Boolean true (and don't pass a "definition"), the keybinding makes the setting to cycle through the definitions list of the group (in a similar way as the Settings Cycler extension), doing the same as if the group of settings had a "_cycler" property itself.

The following is an example of keybinding configuring a command to cycle through setting "editor.rulers" in the list of definitions of the group "Vertical rulers" in the previous example.

{
    "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+u",
    "command": "vscode-settings-switcher.switchSettings",
    "args": {
        "group": "Vertical rulers",
        "cycler": true
    }
}

⚠️ Note: If you pass a "definition" AND the "cycler" property together with a "group", then the "cycler" property (as well as the cycling behavior) is ignored. This also happens when you pass a "definition" with a "group" that has a "_cycler" property itself.

Some combinations of the "args" properties are also possible, and they may save some time when doing actions to change settings:

1. If you pass the args with only the "group" property, the keybinding will make the command to jump forward to open the list of definitions of that group in your command palette.
2. If you pass only the "definition" property, a first list will appear in your command palette showing the groups of settings to choose. Then, if you choose a group that has the passed definition in its list, the definition will be applied directly. So, the second list of the default command call will not appear for that group.
3. If you pass only the "cycler" property with Boolean true, the first list will appear in your command palette, showing the groups of settings to choose, but the settings will cycle through the definitions of any chosen group, applying the cycling behavior. So, the the second list of the default command call will not appear.
4. If you pass the "definition" and the "cycler" properties, a first list will appear in your command palette showing the groups of settings to choose. Then, if you choose a group that has the passed definition in its list, the definition will be applied directly. If not, the settings will cycle through the definitions of any other chosen group. So, the second list of the default command call will not appear.

Credits

The code of this extension was largely based on the ericbiewener's extension VScode Settings on Fire.