Write selected theme from +list-themes preview to disk.

[jcollie]

Add a keybind to the +list-themes preview that would create/overwrite a file called ~/.config/ghostty/config.theme.auto or something like that. Contents would be:

theme = <selected theme>

Then the user could add config-file = ?config.theme.auto to their config file to load the theme that they chose in the preview.

Bonus points: allow the user to chose different light and dark themes.

[pluiedev]

I feel like this isn't much better than the status quo since the user has to manually link a configuration file anyways. My suggestion would be to trigger a pop-up dialog asking the user if they would like the theme chooser to edit their config file automatically, or to open their $EDITOR so they can add the line themselves (maybe paste the line into the clipboard too so people can paste the line in one key).

[geoffbeier]

I just upgraded and my theme name changed. Finding the new name was easy using +list-themes, but I can never spell Catppuccin correctly on the first try. Having the copy_to_clipboard keybind put the name of the selected theme on the clipboard would be really nice.

[moritzdietz]

Truth be told: when I first used Ghostty I somehow also expected this to be a thing :D

[jcollie]

c will copy the name to the clipboard. Use ? to see all the keybinds that work in +list-themes.

[geoffbeier]

c will copy the name to the clipboard. Use ? to see all the keybinds that work in +list-themes.

I learned that when I pulled the source about an hour ago with the intention of offering a patch. I'm embarrassed that I didn't discover that without reading the code.

I do still think using the ghostty-wide keybind would be a good idea, but needing to use Xcode 26 makes that a little bit too much ceremony for me to contribute a patch today.

[lukasschwab]

I'd like something a little more unix: instead of directly modifying a file, write the theme name or path to stdout when the user exits the theme previewer.

The instructions ("To apply this theme...") can be written to stderr.

This arrangement makes it easier to use the theme finder in a script. User can take the output and write it to a file (satisfies @jcollie's use case), or they could use it differently.

Personally I want to use it to launch a new Ghostty terminal with a specific theme without updating my global configuration:

# Select a theme
theme=$(ghostty +list-themes)
# Launch a new Ghostty
nohup ghostty --theme="$theme" </dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1 &
disown
echo "Launched Ghostty with theme: $theme"

[lukasschwab]

It would also be nice to render a single preview in a standalone operation, without the full switcher TUI — something like

ghostty +preview-theme "TokyoNight"

Such that one could use fzf in lieu of the full switcher TUI. This may be overkill, and I don't want to distract from my main suggestion: having the TUI emit a selected theme name solves for this use case just fine.

[flyerAI2025]

I built a tool that does exactly this: ghostty-themes — an interactive theme selector with live preview.

What it does:

• Browse all 300+ themes with fzf fuzzy search
• Right-side panel shows an accurate code preview (same content and color mapping as +list-themes, sourced from list_themes.zig)
• Theme applies to your terminal in real-time as you navigate
• Enter to confirm and write to config, Esc to restore original

Install (macOS, requires fzf):

git clone https://github.com/flyerAI2025/ghostty-themes.git
cd ghostty-themes
ln -sf "$PWD/ghostty-themes" ~/.local/bin/ghostty-themes

Then just run ghostty-themes.

How it works: Lists themes via ghostty +list-themes, pipes into fzf with --preview rendering ANSI 24-bit true color, and on each focus change updates theme = ... in your config + reloads via Cmd+Shift+,.

Single zsh script, no dependencies beyond fzf. Feedback welcome!

[8bittts]

i built a simple settings page to expose themes to the user as an alternative. Pretty easy to make new ones ofc: