As part of my recent journey using Arch Linux as a daily driver, I have been deep into the weeds on customization. One of these items has been changing the font globally inside Visual Studio Code.

The file that controls the font is located at /opt/visual-studio-code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.css. And since this file is replaced every time code is updated, we need an automated method for configuring it.

Configure pacman to Allow Hooks:

$ sudo mkdir --parents /etc/pacman.d/hooks
$ sudo sed --in-place --expression '/^#HookDir *= *\/etc\/pacman.d\/hooks\// s/^#//' /etc/pacman.conf

Visual Studio Hook to Patch the Font:

Create /etc/pacman.d/hooks/visual-studio-code-bin.hook and populate it with the following contents:

[Trigger]
Operation = Install
Operation = Upgrade
Type = Package
Target = visual-studio-code-bin

[Action]
Description = [CUSTOM] Patching default font...
Exec = /usr/bin/sed --in-place='.pacorig' --expression='$ s/$/.monaco-workbench.linux{font-family: IBM Plex Mono}/' /opt/visual-studio-code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.css

When = PostTransaction
Depends = visual-studio-code-bin

Note: You can use any font you want by grabbing the name from fc-list : family.

Testing the Hook

$ yay -Sy visual-studio-code-bin
loading packages...
warning: visual-studio-code-bin-1.98.2-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (1) visual-studio-code-bin-1.98.2-1

Total Installed Size:  400.15 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:        0.00 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(1/1) checking keys in keyring                               [################################] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity                             [################################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files                                  [################################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts                            [################################] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space                          [################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
(1/1) reinstalling visual-studio-code-bin                    [################################] 100%
==> NOTE: Custom flags should be put directly in: ~/.config/code-flags.conf
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/4) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
(2/4) Updating the MIME type database...
(3/4) Updating the desktop file MIME type cache...
(4/4) [CUSTOM] Patching default font...

You can see the hook in action at: (4/4) [CUSTOM] Patching default font...

The next time you launch code, you will see the font in action. Also, this warning message will appear:

Installation appears to be corrupt [Unsupported]

You can read more about it on the official docs.