ULTR[A] · MFD

Phosphor amber on iron. The MFD chrome you've been missing in VS Code.

A phosphor-amber multi-function-display theme for VS Code. Iron #0F0E0C base, warm phosphor #FFAE3B foreground, dense monospace layout. Reads as a cockpit MFD rather than a corporate IDE — without sacrificing legibility on long sessions.

Five operator-pick accent variants — amber, phosphor green, cyan, magenta, rust — for envelope-matching in different working contexts.

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Install

1. Install the theme from the VS Code marketplace, or code --install-extension xultrax-web.ultra-mfd.
2. Install Apc Customize UI++ (declared as an extension dependency, should auto-prompt).
3. Reload VS Code.
4. Pick a theme: Cmd/Ctrl + K, Cmd/Ctrl + T → search "ULTR[A]" → pick a variant.

Enable the workbench chrome (the MFD character)

The theme JSON paints colors. The Apc CSS adds the phosphor glow on chrome panels, L-bracket section headers, square corners, dense padding, and the glowing cursor. Without Apc you get the colors but lose the chrome character.

Add to your VS Code settings.json:

{
  "apc.imports": ["vscode-file://vscode-app/path/to/extension/apc/ultra-mfd.css"],
}

The exact path resolves via the marketplace install location. After install, run Developer: Open Webview Developer Tools to copy the resolved extension path, or use the Apc command palette helpers.

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Eight themes · four envelopes × two accents

Four primary phosphor envelopes. Each ships in two flavors — the pure envelope, and the same envelope with white keyword/string accents for higher contrast.

Envelope	Pure	With white accents
Amber (default)	ULTR[A] · MFD · Amber	ULTR[A] · MFD · Amber + White Accent
Green	ULTR[A] · MFD · Green	ULTR[A] · MFD · Green + White Accent
Cyan	ULTR[A] · MFD · Cyan	ULTR[A] · MFD · Cyan + White Accent
Rust	ULTR[A] · MFD · Rust	ULTR[A] · MFD · Rust + White Accent

Body phosphor values:

Envelope	Body	Bright (pure variant)	Bright (white-accent variant)
Amber	#FFAE3B	#FFB81E	#F0E8D5
Green	#9FE633	#B8FF3D	#F0E8D5
Cyan	#6BCFE8	#3DD6FF	#F0E8D5
Rust	#E0704A	#FF8050	#F0E8D5

Iron base (#0F0E0C), the bad semaphore (#FF6A3D), and the caution semaphore (#E8B020) stay constant across all eight themes for accessibility.

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What's in the box

• 5 color themes — full workbench coverage (editor, sidebar, status bar, terminal, panels, badges, lists, peek view, diff editor, git decorations, breadcrumbs, all hover states)
• Apc workbench CSS — phosphor glow on chrome panels (status bar, breadcrumbs, sidebar headers, activity bar), square panel corners, 8×8 L-bracket section header decorations, dense 22px sidebar header height, phosphor cursor with glow
• Semantic highlighting support
• No telemetry — pure local config
• No bundled fonts — declares a IBM Plex Mono → Cascadia Code → Consolas → monospace fallback stack; install IBM Plex Mono for the brand match

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Recommended font

IBM Plex Mono. Stencil-cut, slightly wide, reads as instrument-panel typography rather than UI font.

Set in VS Code:

{
  "editor.fontFamily": "'IBM Plex Mono', 'Cascadia Code', Consolas, monospace",
  "editor.fontSize": 13,
  "editor.fontWeight": "400",
  "editor.fontLigatures": false,
}

Ligatures off because Drake doctrine: utility over decoration.

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Design philosophy

This theme started as "what does a working operator want to look at all day." Three rules from the start:

1. Editor body code never gets a text-shadow. Phosphor glow is reserved for chrome panels (status bar, breadcrumbs, sidebar headers). Code reads as code, not as a Sci-Fi prop.
2. Square panel corners. No rounded chrome. Hero surfaces (quick-open, dropdowns) get 4px max.
3. Status bar at full opacity. Operational truth — git branch, line/col, encoding, problems count — never muted to chrome decoration.

These come from professional dev-tool history (VS Code's own status bar, tmux modelines, the IBM Plex monospace terminal tradition) combined with aviation MFD conventions (multi-function displays — the cockpit screens pilots have used since the 1970s).

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Roadmap

v0.2 — opt-in CRT character:

• Save-pulse keyframe (brief amber border pulse on file save)
• Subtle scanline overlay on chrome panels (off by default)
• CRT flicker (off by default, prefers-reduced-motion aware)

v0.3 — daylight envelope:

• Light-mode counterpart following the same MFD chrome geometry
• Stencil-cream #F0E8D5 background with deep-amber ink

v1.0 — file icon theme + product icon theme for full chrome coverage

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License

MIT. Use it for whatever.

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Author

@xultrax-web · part of the xULTRAx family. Built for operator-grade developer environments.

If you find a workbench element that doesn't pick up theme tokens cleanly, open an issue with a screenshot.