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authoruser <user@clank>2026-09-22 12:42:15 +0200
committeruser <user@clank>2026-09-22 12:42:15 +0200
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theme: a name and a directory, not sixty colours in your config
Wearing a theme meant pasting its `theme { }` block into config.kdl, or including a path to a file you had copied there yourself. Both make the palette a literal in your config, and a literal is the one thing you cannot change cheaply: not from a script, not from a running session, not by a list of what is available, and never again from upstream -- the colours you pasted are the colours that theme had the day you pasted them. So a theme is a file in a directory now, and a config names it: theme_name "phosphor" theme { frame_focus "#00ff88" } // ...but that one colour is mine theme_name is applied after the includes and before everything the file says itself, which is the rule includes already follow and for the same reason: the loader reads a document by asking it for names rather than walking it in order, so "here" is not a position it could honour, and "what you asked for is the base, what you wrote is yours" is the rule worth having. Two directories, yours first: `themes/` beside the root config -- beside the file that was loaded, so a config somewhere else (SLOSH_CONFIG, or one handed to --check) takes its themes with it -- and then <prefix>/share/slosh/themes, compiled in from PREFIX. install(1) has been putting themes there all along and nothing could read them; now a shipped theme is nameable without being copied, and a file of yours with the same name shadows it, which is how a root-owned theme gets edited. A name, not a path. The directory is what makes a theme switchable, listable and shadowable, and a path silently does none of those, so `theme_name "../x.kdl"` is refused with a line pointing at `include`, which still works and is still the answer for a file somewhere a directory of names cannot reach. A theme that is not there is one complaint and no more (D9): the rest of the config applies, because losing your keybindings over a mistyped colour scheme would be the wrong trade. A theme file is read by the same loader, so it is watched like any other: saving one reloads the session wearing it, and the derivations (tab_status_fg, tab_idle_bg) run over the theme's own colours exactly as before. Switching without editing anything, over the socket a session already has: slosh -s main cmd theme # amber default* ... slosh -s main cmd '{"cmd":"theme","name":"amber"}' # now slosh -s main cmd '{"cmd":"theme","name":"amber","save":true}' The session holds the name over later reloads, so saving your config for an unrelated reason does not put the old colours back; `save` writes the theme_name line into the file, replacing the one already there and leaving every other line and comment alone -- dumping the whole config back over itself would reformat a hand-written file and drop its comments, which is not a fair price for changing a colour scheme. A name is tried on a throwaway config first, so a typo costs nothing. An empty name gives the answer back to the file. --dump-config stops writing colours: it writes the theme's name and the colours a config overrode by hand, so a dumped config keeps following its theme instead of freezing it. --dump-theme is the other half and is new: the resolved palette as a theme file, which is how you start one from the session in front of you rather than from an empty file. It is also what keeps contrib/themes/default.kdl honest -- that file is now the annotated reference (the commented palette moved there out of config.kdl, where it was 119 lines of colour in the middle of the prose), and a test compares it against the compiled-in one. While in there: tests/test_themes.py's "every theme sets every colour" guard had been grepping for `&c->`, the spelling before the colour table moved to offsetof, so it had been finding zero colours and passing for months. Fixed, with the derived and opt-in colours exempted for the reasons they are derived and opt-in, and with a check that the guard found a table at all.
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@@ -65,19 +65,62 @@ include "keys/vim.kdl" "shaders/crt.kdl"
## Themes
-Every colour the compositor draws has its own name under `theme { }`.
-
-Six ready-made themes are in
-`contrib/themes`:
-`amber`, `mono`, `paper`, `phosphor`, `sl0p`, `slate`, plus `default`, the
-compiled-in palette written out, so another theme is one include-swap away from
-coming back. Include one and put your own two lines on top:
+A theme is a file of colours in a directory, and a config names it:
```kdl
-include "~/.config/slosh/themes/phosphor.kdl"
+theme_name "phosphor" // themes/phosphor.kdl
theme { frame_focus "#00ff88" } // ...but that one colour is mine
```
+**Named rather than pasted, because a name is a thing you can change.** It is
+one line to edit, one `{"cmd":"theme","name":"amber"}` to switch while the
+session is running, and one row in a list something can show you. Sixty colours
+pasted into a config are none of those — and they freeze the palette at the
+moment they were pasted, so every later improvement to the theme they came from
+is one you never see.
+
+**Two directories, yours first.** `themes/` beside your config (so
+`~/.config/slosh/themes` for the usual one), then the themes slosh installed in
+`<prefix>/share/slosh/themes`. A shipped theme is therefore nameable without
+being copied anywhere, and a file of yours with the same name shadows it —
+which is how you edit a shipped theme without touching a root-owned file. Point
+`theme_dir` somewhere else and that replaces the first of the two, never the
+shipped set.
+
+`theme_name` takes a **name, not a path**: the directory is what makes a theme
+switchable, listable and shadowable, and a path quietly does none of that. For
+a file somewhere a directory of names cannot reach, `include` is unchanged and
+still works.
+
+Seven themes ship in `contrib/themes`: `amber`, `mono`, `paper`, `phosphor`,
+`sl0p`, `slate`, and `default` — the annotated reference, every colour with
+what it is for, matching exactly what no config at all gets you. A theme file
+*is* a config file with one `theme { }` block in it, so `slosh --check` lints
+one and saving one reloads the session wearing it.
+
+Start your own from the session in front of you rather than from an empty file:
+
+```bash
+slosh --dump-theme > ~/.config/slosh/themes/mine.kdl # the palette in force
+```
+
+`--dump-config` writes `theme_name` and the colours you overrode, not the
+resolved palette, so a dumped config keeps following its theme.
+
+**Switching without editing anything:**
+
+```bash
+slosh -s main cmd theme # amber default* mono ...
+slosh -s main cmd '{"cmd":"theme","name":"amber"}' # now
+slosh -s main cmd '{"cmd":"theme","name":"amber","save":true}' # ...and from now on
+```
+
+The session holds the name over later reloads, so editing your config does not
+put the old colours back; `save` writes the `theme_name` line into the config,
+replacing the one already there, and leaves every other line and comment alone.
+`{"cmd":"theme","name":""}` drops the session's own answer and goes back to
+whatever the file says.
+
## The knobs, briefly
| group | what is in it |