Alacritty Theme Synchronization

Simple theme switching for Alacritty that allows you to switch between Catppuccin light and dark themes.

This solution uses Nix conditional configuration with a simple script to switch themes.

How It Works

The Nix configuration has a boolean variable isLightTheme in home.nix
When isLightTheme = true → Catppuccin Latte (light theme)
When isLightTheme = false → Catppuccin Mocha (dark theme)
A script updates this variable and rebuilds the configuration

Setup

The configuration is already set up! Your Alacritty is currently using the light theme.

To switch themes, use the script:

./scripts/switch-alacritty-theme.sh light   # Switch to light theme
./scripts/switch-alacritty-theme.sh dark    # Switch to dark theme
./scripts/switch-alacritty-theme.sh toggle  # Toggle between themes
./scripts/switch-alacritty-theme.sh status  # Show current theme

Usage

Manual Theme Switching

# Switch to light theme
./scripts/switch-alacritty-theme.sh light

# Switch to dark theme  
./scripts/switch-alacritty-theme.sh dark

# Toggle between themes
./scripts/switch-alacritty-theme.sh toggle

# Check current theme
./scripts/switch-alacritty-theme.sh status

Manual Configuration

You can also manually edit nixos/home/danny/home.nix and change:

isLightTheme = true;   # for light theme
isLightTheme = false;  # for dark theme

Then run: cd nixos && sudo darwin-rebuild switch --flake .#Daniel-Macbook-Air

Files

scripts/switch-alacritty-theme.sh - Script to switch themes
scripts/detect-system-theme.sh - Detects current macOS system theme (for reference)
nixos/home/danny/home.nix - Contains the conditional Alacritty configuration

Theme Colors

Catppuccin Latte (Light)

Background: #eff1f5 (base)
Foreground: #4c4f69 (text)
Accent colors optimized for light backgrounds

Catppuccin Mocha (Dark)

Background: #1e1e2e (base)
Foreground: #cdd6f4 (text)
Accent colors optimized for dark backgrounds

Integration with NixOS

The solution uses Nix's conditional configuration in home.nix:

colors = let
  isLightTheme = true;  # Change this to switch themes
  
  lightColors = { /* Catppuccin Latte colors */ };
  darkColors = { /* Catppuccin Mocha colors */ };
in if isLightTheme then lightColors else darkColors;

This approach:

✅ Works with Spotlight/Applications folder launches
✅ No complex file reading or external dependencies
✅ Integrates cleanly with NixOS configuration
✅ Simple and reliable - just change a boolean and rebuild
✅ Easy to understand and maintain

2.6 KiB Raw Blame History