1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
|
# Themes
First you'll need to place selected themes in your `themes` directory (i.e `~/.config/helix/themes`), the directory might have to be created beforehand.
To use a custom theme add `theme = <name>` to your [`config.toml`](./configuration.md) or override it during runtime using `:theme <name>`.
The default theme.toml can be found [here](https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/blob/master/theme.toml), and user submitted themes [here](https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/blob/master/runtime/themes).
## Creating a theme
First create a file with the name of your theme as file name (i.e `mytheme.toml`) and place it in your `themes` directory (i.e `~/.config/helix/themes`).
Each line in the theme file is specified as below:
```toml
key = { fg = "#ffffff", bg = "#000000", modifiers = ["bold", "italic"] }
```
where `key` represents what you want to style, `fg` specifies the foreground color, `bg` the background color, and `modifiers` is a list of style modifiers. `bg` and `modifiers` can be omitted to defer to the defaults.
To specify only the foreground color:
```toml
key = "#ffffff"
```
if the key contains a dot `'.'`, it must be quoted to prevent it being parsed as a [dotted key](https://toml.io/en/v1.0.0#keys).
```toml
"key.key" = "#ffffff"
```
Possible modifiers:
| Modifier |
| --- |
| `bold` |
| `dim` |
| `italic` |
| `underlined` |
| `slow\_blink` |
| `rapid\_blink` |
| `reversed` |
| `hidden` |
| `crossed\_out` |
Possible keys:
| Key | Notes |
| --- | --- |
| `attribute` | |
| `keyword` | |
| `keyword.directive` | Preprocessor directives (\#if in C) |
| `keyword.control` | Control flow |
| `namespace` | |
| `punctuation` | |
| `punctuation.delimiter` | |
| `operator` | |
| `special` | |
| `property` | |
| `variable` | |
| `variable.parameter` | |
| `type` | |
| `type.builtin` | |
| `type.enum.variant` | Enum variants |
| `constructor` | |
| `function` | |
| `function.macro` | |
| `function.builtin` | |
| `comment` | |
| `variable.builtin` | |
| `constant` | |
| `constant.builtin` | |
| `string` | |
| `number` | |
| `escape` | Escaped characters |
| `label` | For lifetimes |
| `module` | |
| `ui.background` | |
| `ui.cursor` | |
| `ui.cursor.insert` | |
| `ui.cursor.select` | |
| `ui.cursor.match` | Matching bracket etc. |
| `ui.cursor.primary` | Cursor with primary selection |
| `ui.linenr` | |
| `ui.linenr.selected` | |
| `ui.statusline` | |
| `ui.statusline.inactive` | |
| `ui.popup` | |
| `ui.window` | |
| `ui.help` | |
| `ui.text` | |
| `ui.text.focus` | |
| `ui.info` | |
| `ui.info.text` | |
| `ui.menu` | |
| `ui.menu.selected` | |
| `ui.selection` | For selections in the editing area |
| `ui.selection.primary` | |
| `warning` | LSP warning |
| `error` | LSP error |
| `info` | LSP info |
| `hint` | LSP hint |
These keys match [tree-sitter scopes](https://tree-sitter.github.io/tree-sitter/syntax-highlighting#theme). We half-follow the common scopes from [macromates language grammars](https://macromates.com/manual/en/language_grammars) with some differences.
For a given highlight produced, styling will be determined based on the longest matching theme key. So it's enough to provide function to highlight `function.macro` and `function.builtin` as well, but you can use more specific scopes to highlight specific cases differently.
## Color palettes
You can define a palette of named colors, and refer to them from the
configuration values in your theme. To do this, add a table called
`palette` to your theme file:
```toml
ui.background = "white"
ui.text = "black"
[palette]
white = "#ffffff"
black = "#000000"
```
Remember that the `[palette]` table includes all keys after its header,
so you should define the palette after normal theme options.
If there is no `[palette]` section, a default palette which uses the terminal's default 16 colors are used:
| Color Name |
| --- |
| `black` |
| `red` |
| `green` |
| `yellow` |
| `blue` |
| `magenta` |
| `cyan` |
| `gray` |
| `light-red` |
| `light-green` |
| `light-yellow` |
| `light-blue` |
| `light-magenta` |
| `light-cyan` |
| `light-gray` |
| `white` |
|
