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diode

Differences from VS Code

Diode aims to be VS Code in a terminal: the same layout, commands, keys, settings.json and extensions. Where it differs, it is either something a terminal can’t do or a deliberate choice. This page collects both in one place; what is missing altogether is on Status.

What a terminal changes

Section titled “What a terminal changes”
  • Some keys don’t arrive. A classic terminal can’t deliver Ctrl+Shift+<letter>, Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+` ; every such command has a Ctrl+K chord that works anywhere, and modern terminals deliver the originals (keyboard).
  • Cmd on a Mac reaches Diode only in terminals that forward it (kitty, ghostty, iTerm2) and never inside tmux; elsewhere Diode uses its Ctrl layout (on a Mac).
  • Copy and paste go through the terminal: copy is sent with OSC 52 and reaches your local clipboard even over ssh; text from outside comes in through the terminal’s own paste gesture. Selecting text with the terminal’s own selection needs its usual override, Shift+drag in most terminals (clipboard).
  • Colors are 24-bit only, as the theme defines them; there is no 256-color fallback (colors).
  • No webviews. Anything in an extension that needs a browser is a no-op: the rest of the extension keeps working (what can’t work).
  • File links in the integrated terminal open with Ctrl+click on every platform: a terminal doesn’t report Cmd with the mouse. There is no “Follow link” hover, and only paths that exist are links: URLs, and words looked up with Quick Open, are not yet. Terminal: Open Detected Link… (Ctrl+Shift+O) lists the files and folders only, and doesn’t preview the file in an editor; in a terminal that can’t tell Ctrl+Shift+O from Ctrl+O it runs from the Command Palette.
  • No tooltips, no drag and drop. Hover information is a widget under the caret, a status bar item’s tooltip is not shown, and tabs and tree items are not draggable.

Deliberate choices

Section titled “Deliberate choices”
  • No activity bar. Click the sidebar title (EXPLORER ⌄) or press Enter on it to switch between Explorer, Search, Source Control, Extensions and the views extensions add. Each view also has a key (first run).
  • .diode/ instead of .vscode/. Workspace settings and tasks live in <folder>/.diode/settings.json and <folder>/.diode/tasks.json; Diode doesn’t read the .vscode folder, so a project can carry both. User data lives under ~/.diode (where things live).
  • No settings UI. Ctrl+, opens settings.json with completion for every key; the settings catalog lists them. A VS Code setting missing from the catalog has no effect.
  • A curated extension store, not a mirror of the VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX: every extension in it has been checked to work in a terminal. Any .vsix still installs (extensions).
  • Extensions load at startup. After an install, update or uninstall, run Reload Window; there is no hot reload, and extensions don’t update themselves.
  • Notifications are toasts without a notification center. A message that went away can’t be brought back yet.
  • Window title is <folder> - <profile> - Diode, like VS Code’s, and inside tmux it is the pane title (window title).
  • Ctrl+Shift+E, Ctrl+Shift+F and Ctrl+Shift+G in the integrated terminal always show Explorer, Search and Source Control, even when a program in the terminal (Claude Code, for one) turns on the kitty keyboard protocol; VS Code sends them to the program then. To give one to the program, add -workbench.view.explorer (or .search, .scm) to terminal.integrated.commandsToSkipShell.