Closing Multiple Panels in VS Code

Problem

In VS Code I often find myself with multiple panels open (the terminal and the sidebar). I have keyboard shortcuts (cmd+b and cmd+t) to toggle the panels.

If the terminal isn't focused, then I have to do cmd+t twice to close. Once to focus, then again to toggle it off.

So in the end when I want to close all the panels and just focus on writing code I have to do cmd+t cmd+t cmd+b just to get to writing.

There has to be a way to close multiple panels at once.

Solution

The Commands extension. You could do a lot of powerful things with this extension. But for now, this is what I did to close both panels at once.

I added this to my settings.json to create a sequence of commands.

"commands.commands": {
    "Close Panels": {
        "sequence": [
            "workbench.action.closePanel",
            "workbench.action.closeSidebar"
        ]
    }
}

Then I added this to my key bindings to get have the command run with the chord cmd+k cmd+m.

{
    "key": "cmd+k cmd+m",
    "command": "Close Panels"
}

Now it's super easy to close panels and get to writing code. I love little things like this to improve my workflow.