README

Themer is a versatile command-line utility that monitors the org.freedesktop.appearance.color-scheme over DBus and seamlessly triggers color scheme switching in various applications, based on the user's configuration.

Build

Use the attached Makefile. Run make to see the available options.

Usage

Installation

To install the application system-wide, run sudo make install. Alternatively, to install it just for the current user, run PREFIX=~/.local SERVICE_PREFIX=~/.config/systemd/user XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/.config make install.

Configuration

To use Themer, create a JSON configuration file at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/themer/config.json, specifying the theme-switching adapters to execute. Here's an example configuration file:

{
    "no_preference_fallback": "dark",
    "adapters": [
        {
            "adapter": "alacritty",
            "dark_preference_file": "/home/user/.config/alacritty/themes/dark-theme.yml",
            "light_preference_file": "/home/user/.config/alacritty/themes/light-theme.yml",
            "target_file": "/home/user/.config/alacritty/themes/current-theme.yml",
            "alacritty_config_file": "/home/user/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml"
        },
        {
            "adapter": "tmux",
            "dark_preference_file": "/home/user/.config/tmux/themes/dark-theme.conf",
            "light_preference_file": "/home/user/.config/tmux/themes/light-theme.conf",
            "target_file": "/home/user/.config/tmux/themes/current-theme.conf",
            "tmux_config_file": "/home/user/.config/tmux/tmux.conf"
        },
        {
            "adapter": "konsole",
            "dark_profile_name": "Dark",
            "light_profile_name": "Light"
        }
    ]
}

This example configuration supports theme-switching adapters that execute when the org.freedesktop.appearance.color-scheme is modified, configuring theme switching for Alacritty, Tmux and Konsole.

Available adapters

Symlink

It receives the current color-scheme preference, selects the correct the theme file and symlinks it to the target path.

Tmux

It uses the symlink adapter internally, but also executes tmux source-file <tmux_config_file> to make tmux reload its configuration.

Tmux requires a manual trigger to detect config changes, but the rest follows the same setup as in case of Alacritty. Add the following line to your tmux configuration:

source-file ~/.config/tmux/themes/current-theme.conf

Alacritty

It uses the symlink adapter internally, but touches the <alacritty_config_file> to make alacritty reload its configuration.

Alacritty automatically detects config changes, but only on the main config file. Changing the included /home/user/.config/tmux/themes/current-theme.conf won't trigger the config reload. That's why this adapter touches the config file. Add the following line to your Alacritty configuration:

import:
 - ~/.config/alacritty/themes/current-theme.yml

Konsole

It utilizes the DBus integration to make Konsole switch to the configured profile.

To make this work, make sure you have two Konsole profiles configured for dark & light themes. Afterward, put their names into the dark_profile_name and light_profile_name properties.

⚠️ If you are running KDE: Make sure to set the no_preference_fallback to "light". Otherwise, switching to the light color scheme won't be possible.

See why.

Setup

To autostart themer, use your desktop environment's configuration or the provided *.service file to register a new systemd service. Make sure to use the correct unit-level dependency - default.target for user units, multi-user.target for system units.

License

This project is licensed under the 3-Clause BSD license.