--app-name should set the page title

[code-asher]

Will need to add a variable to the HTML files to set the title to the app name (login.html, error.html).

And will need to patch for the VS Code HTML (workbench.html, workbench-dev.html) although not entirely sure how the titles there are set. see below, we just need to set appName somehow

[MicahZoltu]

Would this override the whole page title (my personal preference) or just the suffix (I suspect the path of least resistance)? This is what my browser tab bar looks like with 3 different projects open:

The actual titles of each are:

README.md - workspace - code-server
README.md - workspace - code-server
README.md - workspace - code-server

Due to limited horizontal space, the code-server portion of the name (presumably what would be changed with --app-name if something more isn't done) isn't actually visible.

What I would like to see by setting --app-name environment variable on each instance would be:

Alternatively, perhaps just naming like the following would still leave the extra info but make --app-name more meaningful:

<--app-name> - workspace - README.md

This way, when truncated the --app-name takes priority but you can still see the filename and opened directory if you have vertical tabs or mouse-over.

[code-asher]

Good point, if we do just the suffix we might get away with not even having to patch anything, but if we want to change the order we will have to patch for sure.

I am not sure if we should make that change here though, it sounds useful enough to go into VS Code core, if they are willing to accept such a patch. Generally we want to avoid drifting from VS Code too far, especially for things that are not bugfixes.

[MicahZoltu]

While the ordering isn't ideal in VSCode, it appears that github.dev already has "fixed" this problem to some extent. It seems they somehow name the workspace root, which then is reflected in the title bar. Is this something that can be done with code-server?

Since I'm using a different dockerized instance for each repository, my workspace root name is the same for each (workspace) because that is where I mount the volume. I assumed that meant I was stuck with a shared name for every workspace but I see now that github.dev has a name that I don't think is a valid path, suggesting there may be some way to control the workspace name. MyRepository [Codespaces: Fantastic Space Broccoli] is my workspace name which does show up in the title bar, before the --app-name would be.

[MicahZoltu]

I went to file a feature request with VSCode and learned they have an entire setting suite for setting the title bar!

I think that armed with this knowledge and the change to make --app-name apply everywhere my problem will be fixed. Thanks for the push to file upstream.

It looks like right now when you use the ${appName} variable it is hard coded to code-server which I now understand in hindsight what was being discussed in #5935 (comment)

[code-asher]

Ohh that is really good to know! Nice find. Now I understand the appName comment as well hahaha

[code-asher]

So we just need this appName variable to be configurable. It might require patching, not entirely sure where it comes from. Maybe it pulls it from the product.json and we need to patch it to use a flag instead, so we can then pass it in from code-server.

[MicahZoltu]

According to my LLM:

Source of ${appName}

The ${appName} variable is derived from the product configuration, specifically from productService.nameLong.

Key findings:

1. Definition in code (src/vs/workbench/browser/parts/titlebar/windowTitle.ts:361):

   const appName = this.productService.nameLong;
   

2. Interface definition (src/vs/base/common/product.ts:73-74):

   readonly nameShort: string;
   readonly nameLong: string;
   

3. Product configuration source (src/vs/platform/product/common/product.ts):

   • The nameLong value comes from the IProductConfiguration interface
   • It's loaded from product.json at build time
   • When running from source (development mode), it defaults to 'Code - OSS Dev'
   • For built releases, it's injected during the build process

4. Settings UI documentation (src/vs/workbench/browser/workbench.contribution.ts:807):

   localize('appName', "`${appName}`: e.g. VS Code.")
   

Summary:

The ${appName} variable is not an environment variable or CLI option. It's a build-time constant from the product configuration (product.json) that gets injected into the application during the build process. The value represents the full product name (e.g., "Visual Studio Code", "Code - OSS Dev", etc.) and is accessed through the IProductService service.