Skip to main content
The Kanagawa dotfiles provide two scripts for switching themes: theme-selector for interactive selection and theme-switcher for the actual theme application.

​
Quick Start

Switch themes interactively: 
theme-selector
Or switch directly from the command line: 
theme-switcher kanagawa
theme-switcher gruvbox
theme-switcher catppuccin
theme-switcher everforest
Both scripts are installed to ~/.local/bin/ and should be in your PATH by default.

​
Interactive Theme Selection

The theme-selector script provides a graphical menu using Wofi (dmenu for Wayland): 
#!/bin/bash

# Definimos la lista de temas disponibles
TEMAS="kanagawa\ngruvbox\ncatppuccin\neverforest"

# Lanzamos Wofi y guardamos la elección del usuario en una variable
ELECCION=$(echo -e "$TEMAS" | wofi --dmenu --prompt "🎨 Elige un tema:" --width 250 --height 350)

# Si el usuario eligió algo (es decir, no pulsó Escape), ejecutamos set-theme
if [ -n "$ELECCION" ]; then
  ~/.local/bin/theme-switcher "$ELECCION"
fi
What it does:
  1. Defines available themes
  2. Launches Wofi with a menu prompt
  3. Passes the selected theme to theme-switcher
  4. Does nothing if ESC is pressed
Bind this script to a keyboard shortcut in your Hyprland config for quick theme switching!
bind = $mainMod SHIFT, T, exec, theme-selector

​
Theme Switcher Internal Process

The theme-switcher script is the workhorse that actually applies themes across all applications. Here’s how it works:
1

Validate theme input

Checks if a theme name was provided and validates it against known themes.
if [ -z "$THEME" ]; then
  echo "❌ Error: No has especificado ningún tema."
  echo "💡 Uso: set-theme <kanagawa|gruvbox|catppuccin>"
  exit 1
fi
2

Update CSS-based applications

Updates Waybar and Wofi by writing import statements with absolute paths.
# Usamos rutas absolutas para que GTK3 no se pierda nunca
echo "@import url(\"$HOME/.config/wofi/colors/custom/$THEME.css\");" >"$HOME/.config/wofi/colors/colors.css"
echo "@import url(\"$HOME/.config/waybar/colors/custom/$THEME.css\");" >"$HOME/.config/waybar/colors/colors.css"
3

Update Hyprland colors

Creates a source directive pointing to the theme file.
echo "source = ~/.config/hypr/colors/custom/$THEME.conf" >"$HOME/.config/hypr/colors/colors.conf"
4

Update Ghostty terminal

Sets the config-file directive for terminal colors.
echo "config-file = custom/$THEME" >"$HOME/.config/ghostty/colors/colors"
5

Map theme names

Translates short theme names to full application-specific theme names.
case $THEME in
kanagawa)
  VSCODIUM_THEME="Kanagawa Wave"
  NVIM_THEME="kanagawa"
  NOTIFY_ICON="🌊"
  ;;
gruvbox)
  VSCODIUM_THEME="Gruvbox Dark Hard"
  NVIM_THEME="gruvbox"
  NOTIFY_ICON="📦"
  ;;
catppuccin)
  VSCODIUM_THEME="Catppuccin Mocha"
  NVIM_THEME="catppuccin"
  NOTIFY_ICON="☕"
  ;;
everforest)
  VSCODIUM_THEME="Everforest Night Hard"
  NVIM_THEME="everforest"
  NOTIFY_ICON="🌲"
  ;;
esac
6

Update VSCodium

Uses sed to replace the workbench.colorTheme in settings.json.
VSCODIUM_SETTINGS="$HOME/.config/VSCodium/User/settings.json"
if [ -f "$VSCODIUM_SETTINGS" ]; then
  sed -i -E "s/\"workbench.colorTheme\": \".*\"/\"workbench.colorTheme\": \"$VSCODIUM_THEME\"/g" "$VSCODIUM_SETTINGS"
  echo "⚙️  Tema de VSCodium actualizado a $VSCODIUM_THEME"
fi
7

Update Neovim

Creates a Lua bridge file that returns the theme name.
mkdir -p "$HOME/.config/nvim/lua"
echo "return '$NVIM_THEME'" >"$HOME/.config/nvim/lua/theme_bridge.lua"
8

Update SwayNC and Wlogout

Creates import statements for notification and logout styling.
echo "@import \"custom/$THEME.css\";" >"$HOME/.config/swaync/colors/colors.css"
echo "@import \"custom/$THEME.css\";" >"$HOME/.config/wlogout/colors/colors.css"
9

Update Btop and Cava

Creates symbolic links to the selected theme files.
ln -sf "$HOME/.config/btop/themes/custom/$THEME.theme" "$HOME/.config/btop/themes/colors.theme"
ln -sf "$HOME/.config/cava/themes/custom/$THEME" "$HOME/.config/cava/themes/colors"
10

Reload running applications

Triggers live reloads without requiring logout/restart.
# Reload SwayNC CSS
swaync-client -rs

# Reload Hyprland configuration
hyprctl reload &>/dev/null

# Restart Waybar
killall waybar &>/dev/null
waybar &>/dev/null &
disown

# Hot-reload Ghostty
killall -SIGUSR2 ghostty
11

Select wallpaper (optional)

Finds wallpapers matching the theme name and prompts selection if multiple are found.
WALLPAPER_DIR="$HOME/.config/hypr/wallpapers"
AVAILABLE_WALLPAPERS=$(find "$WALLPAPER_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -type f -iname "${THEME}*" | sort)

if [ -n "$AVAILABLE_WALLPAPERS" ]; then
  COUNT=$(echo "$AVAILABLE_WALLPAPERS" | wc -l)
  
  if [ "$COUNT" -eq 1 ]; then
    SELECTED_WALLPAPER="$AVAILABLE_WALLPAPERS"
  else
    BASENAMES=$(echo "$AVAILABLE_WALLPAPERS" | xargs -n 1 basename)
    CHOICE=$(echo "$BASENAMES" | wofi --dmenu --prompt "🖼️ Elige fondo para $THEME:")
    
    if [ -n "$CHOICE" ]; then
      SELECTED_WALLPAPER="$WALLPAPER_DIR/$CHOICE"
    else
      SELECTED_WALLPAPER=$(echo "$AVAILABLE_WALLPAPERS" | head -n 1)
    fi
  fi
  
  hyprctl hyprpaper preload "$SELECTED_WALLPAPER" >/dev/null
  hyprctl hyprpaper wallpaper ",\$SELECTED_WALLPAPER" >/dev/null
  hyprctl hyprpaper unload all >/dev/null
fi
12

Show notification

Displays a notification confirming the theme change.
notify-send "$NOTIFY_ICON Tema aplicado" "El entorno ahora usa $THEME" -t 2000 -a "Theme Switcher"

​
What Happens During a Theme Switch

Modified files:
  • ~/.config/hypr/colors/colors.conf
  • ~/.config/waybar/colors/colors.css
  • ~/.config/wofi/colors/colors.css
  • ~/.config/ghostty/colors/colors
  • ~/.config/swaync/colors/colors.css
  • ~/.config/wlogout/colors/colors.css
  • ~/.config/nvim/lua/theme_bridge.lua
  • ~/.config/VSCodium/User/settings.json
Symlinks updated:
  • ~/.config/btop/themes/colors.theme
  • ~/.config/cava/themes/colors

​
Command Line Examples

# Switch to Kanagawa theme
theme-switcher kanagawa

# Switch to Gruvbox theme
theme-switcher gruvbox

# Switch to Catppuccin theme
theme-switcher catppuccin

# Switch to Everforest theme
theme-switcher everforest
If you specify an invalid theme name, the script will exit with an error:
❌ Error: Tema no reconocido.

​
Keyboard Shortcuts

Add this to your Hyprland config (~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf): 
# Theme selector
bind = $mainMod SHIFT, T, exec, theme-selector

# Quick theme switches
bind = $mainMod ALT, 1, exec, theme-switcher kanagawa
bind = $mainMod ALT, 2, exec, theme-switcher gruvbox
bind = $mainMod ALT, 3, exec, theme-switcher catppuccin
bind = $mainMod ALT, 4, exec, theme-switcher everforest

​
Troubleshooting

Some applications require a restart to load the new theme:
# Restart Neovim sessions
# Restart VSCodium
# Restart Btop if currently running
If Waybar doesn’t restart automatically:
killall waybar && waybar &
Ensure all theme files exist:
ls ~/.config/*/colors/custom/
All directories should contain matching theme files.
Make sure wallpaper files are named with the theme prefix:
# Good:
kanagawa-mountains.png
gruvbox-sunset.jpg

# Bad:
mountains.png
sunset.jpg

​
Next Steps

Create Custom Themes

Learn how to create your own custom themes with personalized colors

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us