Project notes
A closer look at the design decisions, technical choices, and problems this project was built to solve.
Publishing my browser theme to the Chrome Web Store
Santi020k Chrome Theme is the browser companion to my Santi020k VS Code Theme. It brings the same deep violet surfaces, muted lavender text, and violet accents into Chrome, then packages that design as a real published theme on the Chrome Web Store.
Goals
- Unified visual environment: bring the same deep violet and muted lavender palette from the editor into the browser.
- Token-level precision: each Chrome surface traces back to a specific VS Code token, ensuring colors update in lockstep across both extensions.
- Chrome Web Store readiness: ship complete listing copy, screenshots, privacy policy, packaging scripts, and a repeatable validation path.
- Zero attack surface: themes ship as declarative JSON with no permissions and no remote code.
What I built
- A Chrome Manifest V3 theme covering the frame, toolbar, tab strip, active/inactive tabs, New Tab page, omnibox, and incognito variant.
- Color sync scripts that pull token values directly from the VS Code theme source, keeping both extensions consistent across releases.
- Validation tooling that checks manifest structure, color contrast, and packaging readiness before every release.
- A packaging pipeline that produces a Chrome Web Store-ready zip from a single command.
- Store listing assets including screenshots, promo tiles, privacy documentation, and English listing copy.
Results
- Published Chrome Web Store theme under the Santi020k Theme listing, with a public install path for Chrome users.
- Auditable and privacy-respecting — no permissions requested, no data collected, fully open source.
- Repeatable release workflow backed by validation scripts, automated packaging, and Changesets versioning.
Why it matters
A theme that only covers the editor still leaves the browser feeling unrelated to the rest of the workspace. This project treats Chrome as a first-class surface in the same design system: same tokens, same release discipline, same calm palette.
