varna

Varna (वर्ण) is Sanskrit for "colour".

A Linux desktop is a dozen programs, each with its own colour settings in its own format: hex codes in sway's config, CSS in waybar, #{} formats in tmux, a colour table in kitty, Lua in Neovim. Changing the look means editing all of them, and they drift apart. varna keeps one theme (a small TOML file of named colours) and writes each tool's colours from it, into a file the tool's config includes. Switch the theme and every tool changes within a second, reloaded in place.

#Features

• Thirteen tools from one theme: sway (borders, gaps, corners), waybar, tmux (bar, borders, popups, copy mode), kitty, mako, Vyom panels, Neovim, powerlevel10k, fzf, lazygit, swaylock, btop and GTK apps, plus a JSON palette any program can read.
• Live: every running tool reloads in place (sway, waybar, every tmux server, every kitty window, every Neovim through its socket, mako, Vyom).
• Your configs stay yours: each tool includes one generated file; nothing else in its config is touched, and without varna it keeps working on its own values.
• Per-tool themes: varna tool nvim tokyo-night gives one tool its own theme while the rest follow the desktop.
• Ten themes to start: Vayu, Catppuccin Mocha and Latte, Rosé Pine and Dawn, Tokyo Night, Gruvbox, Nord, Kanagawa, Everforest; light/dark twins switch with varna mode toggle.
• Your own themes: varna new "Rose Dusk" --from nord, then edit the colours (or use vinyasa's editor).
• Any file: varna template add themes any config with {{accent}}-style placeholders.
• Safe: a typo in a template is an error, never a silently broken colour; a throwaway HOME never restyles the running desktop.
• No dependencies beyond Python 3.11's standard library.

#Install

With kosha: kosha install varna.

Or the installer (clones into ~/.local/share/varna, links ~/.local/bin/varna, no root):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Theyashsawarkar/varna/main/install.sh | bash

Or by hand: git clone https://github.com/Theyashsawarkar/varna ~/.local/share/varna && ln -s ~/.local/share/varna/bin/varna ~/.local/bin/varna.

#Getting started

varna doctor            # what each tool's config needs to include (one line each)
varna apply             # write and reload every tool with the current theme (Vayu)
varna apply rose-pine   # switch
varna set accent blue   # keep the theme, change the accent
varna mode toggle       # its light / dark twin

vinyasa, Vayu's settings app, is a window over all of this: theme cards, accent swatches, a theme editor, and a per-tool page.

#Themes

varna show <theme> prints its palette and roles as swatches.

#Commands

Shorthand: varna nord = varna apply nord.

#Hooking up each tool

Each tool's config includes varna's file once. varna doctor checks every one and prints the line that's missing; put your current colours in the config before the include, and they become the fallback.

waybar and mako refuse to start when an included file is missing: run varna ensure before them at login.

#A tool with its own theme

varna tool nvim tokyo-night    # Neovim alone uses Tokyo Night
varna tool nvim follow         # back to the desktop's theme
varna tools                    # who uses what

~/.config/varna/varna.toml (written by varna and vinyasa; edit freely):

theme = "rose-pine"
accent = "iris"            # optional: a palette name or a hex
gtk = true

[ui]
gaps = 8
opacity = 0.9

[tools]
nvim = "tokyo-night"
kitty = { opacity = 0.95 }  # or just tweak one value for one tool

#Making a theme

varna new "Rose Dusk" --from vayu     # ~/.config/varna/themes/rose-dusk.toml
varna edit rose-dusk
varna apply rose-dusk

[meta]
name = "Rose Dusk"
variant = "dark"          # "light" for a light theme
light = "rose-dawn"       # optional: its twin, for `varna mode`

[palette]                 # these 26 names (Catppuccin's), all #rrggbb
crust = "#11111b"  mantle = "#181825"  base = "#1e1e2e"  # ... text, red, green, blue, mauve ...

[roles]                   # optional: a palette name, another role, or a hex
accent = "mauve"          # the active workspace, tmux session, selections
accent2 = "pink"          # popup and pane borders
border = "accent"         # the focused window
urgent = "red"
ink = "crust"             # text on a coloured capsule

[ui]                      # optional
radius = 12
gaps = 4

[tools.tmux]              # optional: extra colours one tool's template asks for
window_idle = "#9a9faa"

Roles not set take their defaults (varna show lists them all).

#Theming any file

Any file can be a template: {{accent}} and friends are replaced on every apply.

varna template add ~/.config/foo/config.varna ~/.config/foo/config --tool foo

An unknown name is an error, so a typo never ships a broken colour.

#For tool authors

~/.local/state/varna/palette.json has the desktop's colours, roles and ui values, and a tools table with each tool's own pick. Read it at start, and watch its modification time to recolour live:

import json, os
p = os.path.expanduser("~/.local/state/varna/palette.json")
try:
    data = json.load(open(p))
    colors = data.get("tools", {}).get("mytool", data)["colors"]   # my own pick, else the desktop's
except (OSError, ValueError, KeyError):
    colors = {}                                                    # no varna: keep my defaults
accent = colors.get("accent", "#cba6f7")

#Troubleshooting

• A tool didn't change: varna tools shows whether its config includes varna; varna doctor prints the line to add.
• waybar or mako won't start: their included file is missing; varna ensure.
• The prompt, fzf, lazygit or lock screen didn't change: they take it on their next start (a new shell, the next lock).
• GTK apps keep their old look: varna set gtk on; apps that ignore gtk.css still get the dark/light signal.

#Contributing

New themes, tool templates and fixes are welcome: see CONTRIBUTING.md. Design decisions are in docs/adr.

#License

MIT. The shipped themes' palettes are from their projects (credited in each file), all MIT or Apache-2.0.