ghostty-theme-sync.nvim

Keep Neovim's colors in sync with the theme currently active in Ghostty. It reads Ghostty's own config and theme files, so it also understands light:Theme,dark:Theme and automatic light/dark switching.

Features

• Reads Ghostty's config, config-file includes, and theme files directly.
• Supports plain themes and light:...,dark:... theme pairs.
• Follows the desktop light/dark appearance on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
• Live-reloads when the Ghostty config or a theme file changes.
• Provides a full Neovim highlight set derived from the Ghostty palette.
• Adds :GhosttySync, :GhosttyInfo, and :checkhealth ghostty-theme-sync.

Requirements

• Neovim 0.10+.
• Ghostty with a readable config file.
• Linux: gsettings and/or gdbus for automatic appearance detection. Without them, Neovim's background option is used.
• macOS: the built-in defaults command.
• Windows: the built-in reg command; set config_path if Ghostty uses a nonstandard location.

Installation

lazy.nvim

{
  url = "git@git.tsivinsky.com:tsivinsky/ghostty-sync.nvim.git",
  config = function()
    require("ghostty-theme-sync").setup()
  end,
}

For local development:

{
  dir = vim.fn.expand("~/dev/personal/ghostty-theme-sync.nvim"),
  config = function()
    require("ghostty-theme-sync").setup()
  end,
}

vim.pack

Requires Neovim 0.12 or newer.

vim.pack.add({
  { src = "git@git.tsivinsky.com:tsivinsky/ghostty-sync.nvim.git" },
})
require("ghostty-theme-sync").setup()

Adjust the repository URL/name to match the remote you use. The Lua module name is ghostty-theme-sync, independent of the repository name.

Configuration

require("ghostty-theme-sync").setup({
  -- "auto" follows the desktop appearance; or force "light" / "dark".
  background = "auto",

  -- Follow desktop light/dark changes and reapply automatically.
  follow_system_theme = true,

  -- Remove the background color from normal windows.
  transparent = false,

  -- Update the palette used by `:terminal`.
  terminal_colors = true,

  -- Reapply when Ghostty's config or the selected theme file changes.
  watch = true,

  -- Reapply when `:set background=light|dark` changes.
  follow_background = true,

  -- Optional overrides for nonstandard installations.
  -- config_path = "/path/to/ghostty/config",
  -- theme_dirs = { "/path/to/ghostty/themes" },
})

Commands

Command	Description
:GhosttySync	Re-read Ghostty's config and reapply the theme
:GhosttyInfo	Show the active theme, variant, and detected appearance
:checkhealth ghostty-theme-sync	Check config discovery and platform support

How appearance detection works

Ghostty switches between the light:... and dark:... themes using the desktop environment's appearance. The plugin uses the same sources:

Platform	Source	Live updates
Linux	GSettings color-scheme, then XDG portal, then GTK theme	gsettings monitor / portal signal, 10s polling fallback
macOS	defaults read -g AppleInterfaceStyle	10s polling + focus events
Windows	AppsUseLightTheme registry value	10s polling + focus events

ghostty +show-config is deliberately not used: it does not run Ghostty's GTK appearance machinery, so it can report the light variant while a running Ghostty window is dark.

API

local ghostty = require("ghostty-theme-sync")

ghostty.setup(opts)          -- apply the theme and install commands/hooks
ghostty.sync()               -- reload the config and reapply
ghostty.load(opts)           -- load and apply once
ghostty.get()                -- last applied theme table
ghostty.info()               -- print theme information
ghostty.detect_appearance()  -- "light", "dark", or nil

License

MIT