Show HN: Camouflage: The modern way to hide sensitive values in VS Code

1 points by zeybek 7 hours ago

Hey fellow developers,

Ever been in a situation where you're screen sharing during a meeting or recording a tutorial, and suddenly realize your API keys and passwords are visible in your .env files? I've been there too many times, so I built Camouflage - a VS Code extension that automatically hides sensitive values in environment files.

Camouflage was inspired by John Papa's Cloak extension, but takes the concept much further with features like:

- Automatic Value Hiding: Automatically hides values in .env files while preserving the keys

- Multiple Hiding Styles: Choose from different styles (text, dotted, stars, or custom)

- Quick Toggle: Via status bar, context menu, or keyboard shortcuts - Selective Hiding: Hide only specific keys based on patterns (e.g., only hide keys containing "SECRET" or "PASSWORD")

- Value Preview: Optional value preview on hover

- Customizable Appearance: Configure colors and patterns to match your theme

Why I built this ?

While Cloak was a great start, I found myself needing more flexibility and features. Cloak relies on TextMate scopes and has limited customization options. Camouflage offers a more comprehensive solution with pattern matching, multiple hiding styles, and granular control over which values get hidden.

Features I'm particularly proud of:

- Pattern-based selective hiding: Hide only keys containing words like "KEY", "SECRET", "PASSWORD", etc.

- Quick toggling: Toggle individual values or all values with keyboard shortcuts

- Status bar indicator: Always know when protection is active

- Enhanced context menu: Right-click on any value to toggle its visibility

- This is one of my first VS Code extensions, so any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!