User Guide

🚀 Quick Start

To get started with Exclude Manager and optimize the visibility of your workspace:

1. Exclude items from the Explorer

You can hide any file or directory directly from the native VS Code File Explorer.

1. Right-click on the file or folder you wish to exclude in the Explorer.

2. Select the option 🗃️ Exclude with Exclude Manager… (or 🗃️ Excluir con Exclude Manager… if your editor is configured in Spanish).

3. A quick pick window (QuickPick) will open with smart pattern variants suggested automatically:

   • The specific selected file.
   • All files with the same extension (*.ext).
   • The entire parent folder.

4. Select one or more desired options and press Enter. The chosen patterns will be saved and hidden immediately.

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⚙️ Features & Management

2. Interactive Checkboxes

In the Exclude Manager sidebar panel, each pattern includes a checkbox to toggle its state:

• Enabled (Checked): The pattern is set to true in your files.exclude configuration, hiding matching items from the explorer.
• Disabled (Unchecked): The pattern changes to false in your settings.json, making the file or folder visible again while keeping it in your panel list so you can re-enable it whenever needed.

Note

Every change made through the checkboxes is synced directly to your settings.json file without requiring an editor restart.

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3. Virtual Groups (Folders)

Organize your exclusion patterns into custom virtual folders. This allows you to toggle entire sets of exclusions with a single click.

1. Click the new folder button (+📁 Create Group) in the panel toolbar.

2. Enter a name for your new group and press Enter.

   

3. To add patterns to a group, right-click any pattern in the list and select Move to Group…, then choose the destination group.

4. You can manage your groups by right-clicking on them:

   • Toggle entire group: Check or uncheck the group checkbox to affect all of its items.
   • Rename group: Change the virtual folder name at any time.
   • Delete group: When deleting a group, you can choose between keeping the patterns (they will move to the root) or deleting them as well.

Group actions context menu

Dialog to keep or remove patterns

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4. Pin / Unpin Patterns

Pin your most frequent exclusions to always keep them at the top of the list:

1. Right-click on any exclusion pattern.
2. Select Pin / Unpin.
3. Pinned items will move to the top of the view with a distinct pin icon.

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5. Real-Time Search (Live Search)

Find any pattern in seconds across extensive lists:

1. Click the search icon (🔍) in the panel header.
2. Type the pattern name or substring; the tree will filter in real time.
3. To clear the filter and display the full list again, click the clear button (×) or press Esc.

Real-time filtering

Quick clear button

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6. Scope Switching (Global and Workspace)

Manage your user global exclusions and project local exclusions completely independently:

• Global Scope (User): Applies patterns that will be hidden across all projects opened in VS Code.
• Workspace Scope (Local): Applies patterns exclusive to the currently opened repository or workspace folder (.vscode/settings.json).

Switch to Workspace Scope

Switch to Global Scope

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7. Empty State Hints

When a scope does not have exclusion patterns configured yet, the panel displays handy contextual shortcuts to add new patterns or switch scopes quickly.

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8. Collapse All

If you have multiple groups and patterns expanded, click the Collapse All button in the top toolbar to fold all virtual folders at once and keep a clean workspace.

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⚙️ Configuration & Synchronization

Exclude Manager directly reads and writes to native VS Code settings without requiring proprietary databases or external dependencies:

Setting	Type	Description
files.exclude	object	Standard VS Code glob pattern map managed visually by Exclude Manager.

Tip

Real-Time Synchronization: If you manually edit your settings.json file, Exclude Manager automatically detects the changes and updates the tree view immediately.

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🌎 Bilingual Support & Requirements

• Supported Languages: English (🇺🇸) and Spanish (🇪🇸), automatically adapting to your VS Code display language.
• Requirements: VS Code ^1.125.0 or higher.