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https://github.com/shombando/alacritty-auto-theme

Alacritty theme switching based on system theme
https://github.com/shombando/alacritty-auto-theme

alacritty alacritty-config alacritty-theme alacritty-theme-changer alacritty-theme-switcher

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Alacritty theme switching based on system theme

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README 

        
# Alacritty Auto Theme Switcher



## About

[Alacritty](https://alacritty.org/) is a "fast, cross-platform, OpenGL terminal emulator" with [many themes available](https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty-theme), this project allows Alacritty theme to automatically change to a light/dark theme based on the current system theme. This only works for systems running Gnome and systemd (happy to receive contributions for other systems). 



This is not affliated/supported by the Alacritty team, please report issues here and not to the Alacritty project.



### Background

Alacritty provides the ability for an user to define themes (or override parts of a theme). All of this is achieved via the `alacritty.toml` configuration file. With the switch to TOML, Alacritty allows the import of other `.toml` files that have themes defined, so it's easy to keep configuration separate from the current theme. Also if any of the configuration files are updated, the terminal windows will auto-reload (if `live_config_reload = true` is set). This functionality mkakes it possible to import a `theme.toml` file and update the contents of the file and have Alacritty change themes live. Unfortunately, Alacritty does not automatically follow the current system theme preference. 



## Installation



### Normal

There are many ways to [install Alacritty](https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/blob/master/INSTALL.md) and they also have [instructions for installing themes](https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty-theme?tab=readme-ov-file#installation) that are maintained by the Alacritty team. Once Alacritty is installed and working with your chosen theme: 

``` sh

cd ~/.config/alacritty/

git clone https://github.com/shombando/alacritty-auto-theme.git

```



Now you can jump to the [Configuration](#Configuration) section.



### Git submodule

If you version control your Alacritty configuration as part of your dot files:

``` sh

cd ~/.config/alacritty/

git submodule add https://github.com/shombando/alacritty-auto-theme.git

git submodule update

git submodule init

```

Consider making a fork of this repo so I ever change the default light/dark themes my changes don't overwrite your selection. I could not make those files part of the repo but wanted to make it easier to just install and try with minimal config.



## Configuration

Edit both the `light_theme.toml` and `dark-theme.toml` file and set it to one of the options from the themes directory (or paste in your color scheme directly in light/dark file) and include the following in your main `alacritty.toml` file:

```toml

import = [

    "~/.config/alacritty/alacritty-auto-theme/theme.toml"

]

```

>NOTE: Make sure that is the only time you're importing a theme. If you followed the directions for the alacritty-theme installation make sure you don't have that import still in your `alacritty.toml` file



Then we'll install the systemd service, by opening a terminal in this current folder and running the following:

``` sh

cd ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty-auto-theme

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/

cp ./AlacrittyAutoTheme.service ~/.config/systemd/user/

systemctl --user enable AlacrittyAutoTheme.service

systemctl --user start AlacrittyAutoTheme.service

```

That's it, now when you switch your system theme, all Alacritty windows will also switch the respective light/dark themes you picked.



## Alternate Usage / Manual Override

If you want to manually override the light/dark theme independent of the system theme. It will reset to the system theme the next time the system theme changes. You can call `alacritty-light` or `alacritty-dark`.



Also, since this script is dependent on Gnome and systemd if you want to use it "manually" by calling the aliases.



``` sh

alias alacritty-light="echo \"import = [ '~/.config/alacritty/alacritty-auto-theme/light_theme.toml' ]\" > ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty-auto-theme/theme.toml"

alias alacritty-dark="echo \"import = [ '~/.config/alacritty/alacritty-auto-theme/dark_theme.toml' ]\" > ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty-auto-theme/theme.toml"

```