What it does
Codicons packages the Visual Studio Code icon vocabulary for developer interfaces. It provides a searchable lookup, an npm package, font classes and SVG sprite references, with a sample for extension webviews.
Select a symbol in the linked Visual Studio Codicon Lookup, then install @vscode/codicons. The older unscoped vscode-codicons package is deprecated. Font markup combines codicon with the icon’s class, such as codicon-add; use a single element for each icon without child elements.
For the sprite route, reference the symbol inside codicon.svg, for example codicon.svg#add. Extension developers can also follow the Cat Codicons webview sample: install its dependencies, compile or watch the project, launch the debugger and run its Show Cat Codicons command.
A custom font build takes SVG artwork from src/icons and its character mappings from src/template/mapping.json. Exported SVGs sometimes need sanitizing before font conversion, particularly when shapes arrive from design software.
Artwork and documentation use CC BY 4.0, while code uses MIT. Retain creator and licence information and mark changes when sharing the artwork. Neither licence grants Microsoft trademark rights.
Strengths
- Keeps icon selection aligned with Visual Studio Code’s vocabulary.
- Supports font classes, sprites and an extension webview example.
Watch out for
- Custom SVG-to-font builds can need input cleanup.
- Microsoft names and trademarks have separate usage rights.
Best for
- Visual Studio Code extension interfaces.
- Developer tools adopting the Codicons symbol set.
Sources
- Codicons (Oct 27, 2026)
- Cat Codicons: Webview Extension Sample (Oct 27, 2026)
- Codicons: Attribution 4.0 International (Oct 27, 2026)