Using macOS Tabs with Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code has a great built-in tabs interface that lets me switch between files in my workspace quickly. Meanwhile, macOS Sierra introduced native tabs functionality to the Mac UI that allows me to have multiple “windows” of one program in one physical window, just like web browsers. What was lost on me when I first started using VS Code is that the program’s window.nativeTabs setting does not replace VS Code’s built-in tabs with macOS tabs; it lets me use them together.

Unfortunately, this feature was broken on High Sierra until pretty recently, which obviously reduced its visibility as a productivity booster. There was a workaround which got the feature working on my machine, but only as of VS Code 1.25 are things finally working automatically again without command-line intervention.

VS Code’s tabs, split-screen, and grid layout features allow for multiple files in a workspace. macOS tabs let me also have multiple workspaces per window. This is an incredibly useful feature, especially if you prefer to give VS Code its own Full Screen space like I do. Rather than having multiple such spaces to swipe through, or even multiple open VS Code windows to manage if Full Screen isn’t your thing, one can open as many projects as one wants in a single physical window. Or if you prefer, you can still have multiple windows, but use tabs to group related projects by window.