Remvs - VSCode Rebranding Tool

A command line tool for customizing VSCode.

Installation

npm install -g remvs

Usage

Create a New Project

remvs new <project-name>

This command will perform the following tasks:

1. Initialize a new git repository
2. Set git configuration (git config --global protocol.file.allow always) to allow file protocol
3. Cache only the latest commit of Microsoft/vscode (shallow clone) and add it as a submodule
   • First time it will clone only the latest commit and save it to ~/vscode/[tagName] directory
   • Subsequent uses will use the cache, which is much faster
4. Create the following folder structure for the project:

   ./branding/vscode
   ./branding/website
   ./.project/
   ./vscode   /// submodule

5. Automatically navigate to the project directory and run the remvs reinit command

Reinitialize Project

remvs reinit

This command will perform the following tasks:

1. Create a .remvs.json configuration file, which includes:
   • Which files to copy
   • Source and target paths for each file
   • How to copy files (full copy or partial copy)
   • Which fields to extract for partial JSON file copies
2. Copy all files from the VSCode submodule to the .project directory
3. Copy partial JSON files separately to the branding/vscode directory

Merge and Sync Files

remvs merge

This command will perform the following tasks:

1. Using the .remvs.json configuration file:
   • Determine which files to copy
   • For partial JSON files, update only specified fields
   • Copy full files directly
2. Monitor file changes in the branding/vscode directory
3. When a file changes:
   • If it's a JSON file: merge specified fields into the .project directory
   • For other files: copy to the .project directory

Partial JSON File Copy Example

For example, copying specific fields from the package.json file:

// Original: vscode/resources/app/package.json -> branding/vscode/resources/app/package.json
// Only these fields are extracted:
{
  "name": "your-vscode",
  "displayName": "Your VS Code",
  "description": "Your Custom Code Editor"
}

Watch Files and Build

remvs watch

This command will perform the following tasks:

1. Monitor file changes in the branding/vscode directory
2. When a file changes:
   • Automatically process the file to the .project directory
   • Show build status

About Caching

The remvs tool automatically caches only the latest commit (shallow clone) of the Microsoft/vscode repository in the ~/vscode/[tagName] directory. As a result:

1. The first time you run the remvs new command, it downloads and caches only the most recent commit of the repository (using --depth=1)
2. Subsequent uses of the same command will copy from the cache, which is much faster
3. Each time it tries to update the cache, bringing only the latest commit

This approach:

• Uses less disk space (by not downloading the entire history)
• Reduces download time (by downloading only the latest commit)
• Updates quickly (from the latest commit)
• Runs git config --global protocol.file.allow always command to enable file protocol, which is necessary for submodules to work

Command List

• remvs new <n>: Creates a new VSCode rebranding project
• remvs reinit: Reinitializes the project
• remvs merge: Monitors file changes and merges them
• remvs watch: Monitors file changes and builds
• remvs run <script>: Runs npm scripts in the .project directory
• remvs test: Checks rebranding status

License

UNLICENSED