A lightweight, fast file explorer for VS Code — file & folder sizes, modified dates, and colorful icons in clean, sortable, resizable columns.
Strata adds a sidebar view that shows your workspace as a clean, sortable table with the columns the built-in Explorer can't display: file size, folder size, and modified date. It's styled with VS Code's own theme variables and icons, so it looks like it shipped with the editor — and it stays out of your way: zero runtime dependencies, no telemetry, no network calls.
Because it reads file metadata through the extension host, it works transparently over Remote-SSH, Dev Containers, and WSL — connect to a remote machine and browse it with full size/date columns, as if you were local.
Why Strata?
VS Code's built-in Explorer can't show extra columns. The only inline text an extension can add there is a 2-character badge — far too small for a real file size. Strata sidesteps that with its own view rendered to match your theme, giving you a true "details" layout without giving up the native feel.
Features
- 📏 File & folder sizes — folder sizes are computed lazily (only when you expand
or hover a folder), so heavy trees like
node_modulesnever slow you down. - 🗓️ Modified column — relative times (
5m,3h,2d) then compact dates; full timestamp on hover. - ↕️ Sortable columns — click a header to sort by name, size, or date.
- ↔️ Resizable columns — drag the header dividers; widths persist across reloads.
- 🎨 Colorful, type-aware icons via the bundled Material Icon Theme, plus faint indent guides — all matching your active color theme (light, dark, high-contrast).
- 🌐 Remote-friendly — works over Remote-SSH / Dev Containers / WSL out of the box.
- 🪶 Lightweight — zero runtime dependencies, no telemetry, no network; fonts and icons are bundled (no CDN).
Settings
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
strata.computeFolderSizes |
true |
Compute folder sizes lazily (on expand/hover). |
strata.foldersFirst |
true |
Sort folders before files. |
strata.excludeHidden |
false |
Hide dot-files and dot-folders. |
strata.sizeUnits |
binary |
binary (1 KB = 1024 B) or decimal (1 KB = 1000 B). |
Requirements
- VS Code 1.84 or newer.
Install
Search for "Strata File Explorer" in the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X), or install
from the command line:
code --install-extension FlashCosmos.strata-file-explorer
Then open the Strata icon in the Activity Bar.
Building from source
npm install # also copies Codicon assets into media/
npm run compile # or: npm run watch (press F5 to launch an Extension Dev Host)
npm run package # produces a .vsix
Credits
File-type icons are from the Material Icon Theme (MIT) by Philipp Kief. See THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.
License
MIT © FlashCosmos