Showing a subset of directories in vscode 🤦‍♀️

settings.json5

{
  "files.exclude": {
    // ## WHATS THE DEAL?
    // 
    // VS Code doesn't support:
    // 
    //   * glob negation pattern (like globs usually have)
    //   * `false` values that can opt out
    //   * a `files.include`
    //   * support for auto excluding .gitignore
    //   * or any other seamingly sane way to do "not" patterns
    //
    // ## CREDIT
    //
    // https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/869#issuecomment-298878442
    //
    // ## EXAMPLE
    //
    // Hide everything except:
    //
    //   * node_modules/react-n*
    //   * node_modules/reacto*
    //   * node_modules/ax*
    //   * node_modules/api*
    //
    /**/"**/node_modules/[^ra]*": true,
    /*  */"**/node_modules/r[^e]*": true,
    /*    */"**/node_modules/re[^a]*": true,
    /*      */"**/node_modules/rea[^c]*": true,
    /*        */"**/node_modules/reac[^t]*": true,
    /*          */"**/node_modules/react[^o-]*": true,
    /*            */"**/node_modules/react-[^n]*": true,
    /*  */"**/node_modules/a[^xp]*": true,
    /*  */"**/node_modules/ap[^i]*": true,
    /**/"**/node_modules/react": true,
    //
    // ## INDENT MUCH?
    //
    // I added extra indentation to help illustrate the "tree" we're
    // trying to build. With a little more effort, we could totally make
    // a sailboat eh?
  }
}