Better-VSCode

Opinionated vs code where i try to remove all the bs and keep things i like about vscode(there aren't very many left). The goal is to make it private, relatively faster, and debloated.

how it works

Uses a patch system similar to Helium, where i use patches to make changes to the vscode fork and dsitribute binaries

AmaanBilwar/vscode - clean fork of microsoft/vscode(source code)

AmaanBilwar/better-vscode - patches and tooling (no source code)

Contributing

Contributing setup and workflows live in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Commands

# Sync fork with upstream microsoft/vscode
uv run utils/patches.py sync --vscode-dir "C:\...\coding\vscode" --force-push

# Apply all patches to a clean vscode tree
uv run utils/patches.py apply "C:\...\coding\vscode"

# Dry run (check without applying)
uv run utils/patches.py apply "C:\...\coding\vscode" --dry-run

# Reverse applied patches
uv run utils/patches.py apply "C:\...\coding\vscode" --reverse

# List patches in series
uv run utils/patches.py list

Patch format

Standard unified diff. Patches go in patches/ (subdirectories for organization, e.g. patches/debloat/). Order is defined in patches/series.

Build + Release automation

• Cross-platform builder script: utils/build_release.py
• GitHub workflow: .github/workflows/release.yml

Local build (no release)

python utils/build_release.py \
  --vscode-dir "C:\...\coding\vscode" \
  --platform windows-x64 \
  --artifact-dir "./artifacts/windows-x64"

Platforms: windows-x64, linux-x64, darwin-arm64

Create release

1. Commit/push changes.
2. Tag version and push tag:

   git tag v1.0.0
   git push origin v1.0.0

3. GitHub Actions builds all platforms and publishes release with attached artifacts.

Manual CI build

Run Build and Release workflow from Actions tab (workflow_dispatch) to test build without tag.