Limiting VS Code Notification Noise Without Losing Critical Alerts

Direct Answer

Yes. Set notifications.showToasts to "error" to show toast popups only for error‑level messages while warnings and info messages remain in the Notification Center. For temporary silencing, use Do Not Disturb (bell icon → gear → Do Not Disturb) with a timed duration (1–8 hours or “Until I turn it off”); all suppressed notifications are retained in the Notification Center.

Severity‑Based Toast Filtering

The notifications.showToasts setting accepts five values:

• always – every toast appears (default)
• error – only error toasts appear
• warning – errors and warnings
• info – errors, warnings, and info
• never – no toasts at all

Change it globally via Settings (Ctrl+,) → search “showToasts” → choose “Error”. All notifications still arrive in the Notification Center (bell icon); only the transient popup is filtered.

Per‑Extension Overrides

To silence a noisy extension without affecting others, add an extension‑scoped block in settings.json using the extension’s marketplace ID (not its display name):

"[ms-python.python]": {
  "notifications.showToasts": "never"
}

Find the ID in the Extensions view (right‑click → Copy Extension ID). The Settings UI also lets you filter by extension when editing notifications.showToasts.

Temporary Silencing Without Loss

Do Not Disturb is the built‑in mechanism:

1. Click the bell icon in the bottom‑right status bar.
2. Click the gear icon → Do Not Disturb.
3. Choose a duration: 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, or “Until I turn it off”.

While active, no toast popups appear, but every notification is queued in the Notification Center. The timer does not persist across VS Code restarts.

Focus Mode (View → Appearance → Focus Mode, or Command Palette “Toggle Focus Mode”) also suppresses toasts, but it hides the Activity Bar, Status Bar, and panels—use it only if you want a distraction‑free editing surface, not just notification quiet.

Caveats to Verify

• Some extensions (Git, built‑in TypeScript) use info severity for actionable prompts (e.g., “Reload required”). Setting showToasts: "error" will hide those confirmations.
• Per‑extension overrides require the exact marketplace ID; a typo silently fails.
• Do Not Disturb resets on window reload.

Quick Verification

1. Set notifications.showToasts to "error".
2. Run Command Palette → “Developer: Show Warning Message” → enter test text. No toast should appear; the bell badge increments.
3. Enable Do Not Disturb for 1 hour, trigger an info toast → verify it’s absent from screen but present in Notification Center.

One diagnostic detail: If you rely on a specific extension’s “info” prompts (e.g., a linter asking to apply fixes), tell me the extension name and I can confirm whether its messages use showInformationMessage or a custom notification type that might bypass the severity filter.