[FEATURE] Native VSCode extension: customizable background color for user messages
Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Jun 6, 2026 by nmettais Closed Jul 13, 2026
What feature would you like?
In the native VSCode extension chat panel, allow giving the user's own messages a distinct background color so they're easy to spot when scrolling back through a long conversation.
Current behavior
- In the terminal CLI (fullscreen rendering mode), the
userMessageBackgroundtheme token (set via a custom theme in~/.claude/themes/) colors the background behind user messages. See https://code.claude.com/docs/en/terminal-config.md - The native VSCode extension has no equivalent: the chat panel's message styling appears hardcoded and does not honor
~/.claude/themes/custom themes, and there is no extension setting (claudeCode.*) or VSCodecolorCustomizationshook for it.
Request
Have the native extension webview honor userMessageBackground (and the related message-background tokens) from custom themes, or expose a setting to give user messages a distinct background.
Use case
Quickly locating my own prompts when scanning the conversation history. The "Session history" feature searches between sessions, not within the current conversation, so a visual marker on my own turns would help a lot.
Environment
- Claude Code v2.1.167, native VSCode extension on Windows 11.
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