Themes 

Kimün ships with 67 built-in themes, and you can write your own as a small TOML file.

To pick one, open the theme picker with Ctrl+B v t (or t in the CFG drawer). Type to filter the list by name; moving the selection restyles the app as you go; Enter saves the choice and Esc reverts it. You can also set the theme in your config:

theme = "Nord"

Built-in Themes 

Family	Dark	Light
Gruvbox	Gruvbox Dark (default)	Gruvbox Light
Catppuccin	Catppuccin Mocha, Catppuccin Macchiato, Catppuccin Frappé	Catppuccin Latte
Tokyo Night	Tokyo Night, Tokyo Night Storm, Tokyo Night Moon	Tokyo Night Day
Solarized	Solarized Dark	Solarized Light
Dracula	Dracula	Alucard (Dracula's official light variant)
One	One Dark	One Light
Everforest	Everforest Dark	Everforest Light
Rosé Pine	Rosé Pine, Rosé Pine Moon	Rosé Pine Dawn
Kanagawa	Kanagawa Wave, Kanagawa Dragon	Kanagawa Lotus
Nord	Nord	—
Monokai	Monokai	—
GitHub	GitHub Dark, GitHub Dark Dimmed	GitHub Light
Ayu	Ayu Dark, Ayu Mirage	Ayu Light
Material	Material, Material Palenight, Material Ocean	—
Night Owl	Night Owl	Night Owl Light
Nightfox	Nightfox, Carbonfox	Dayfox
Oxocarbon	Oxocarbon Dark	Oxocarbon Light
Flexoki	Flexoki Dark	Flexoki Light
Selenized	Selenized Dark	Selenized Light
Modus	Modus Vivendi	Modus Operandi
Melange	Melange Dark	Melange Light
Tomorrow	Tomorrow Night	Tomorrow
PaperColor	PaperColor Dark	PaperColor Light
Edge	Edge Dark	Edge Light
VS Code	VS Code Dark+	VS Code Light+
Others	Zenburn, Cobalt2, Synthwave '84, Everblush, Sonokai, Vesper, Iceberg	Quiet Light
ANSI	uses your terminal's 16-color palette, light or dark

Color depth 

Themes adapt to what your terminal supports: truecolor where available, quantized to 256 colors otherwise, or mapped onto the 16 ANSI slots on basic terminals. On a 16-color terminal every theme behaves like the ANSI theme and follows your terminal's palette.

Creating a Custom Theme 

Theme File Location 

Place custom theme files in the themes/ subdirectory of your Kimün config directory:

• Linux / macOS: ~/.config/kimun/themes/
• Windows: %USERPROFILE%\kimun\themes\

Each file must have a .toml extension. The filename doesn't matter; the theme's display name comes from the name field inside the file.

Theme File Format 

A theme file is a TOML file with a name field and up to 27 color roles. Only name and the core roles you want to change are required. Any role you omit is derived from a related one (for example, bg_hard and bg_soft derive from bg, focus_border from green, and selection_fg from fg_bright), so a minimal theme can be a few lines long.

name = "My Theme"

# Backgrounds
bg            = "#1e1e2e"   # main/editor background
bg_hard       = "#11111b"   # modals and input fields (harder contrast)
bg_soft       = "#24243a"   # alternating rows, horizontal rules
bg_panel      = "#181825"   # drawer / panel background
selection_bg  = "#313244"   # selected row background

# Text
fg            = "#cdd6f4"   # primary text
fg_bright     = "#f5f7ff"   # titles, headings
fg_secondary  = "#a6adc8"   # filenames, metadata, hints
gray          = "#6c7086"   # placeholders, separators, disabled
selection_fg  = "#f5f7ff"   # text on selected rows

# Chrome
border_dim    = "#45475a"   # unfocused borders
focus_border  = "#a6e3a1"   # focused borders (the green frame)
accent        = "#89b4fa"   # title bars, active markers
cursor        = "#f5e0dc"   # block cursor in text fields

# Accent palette (query highlighting, status, markdown)
red           = "#f38ba8"   # errors, query negation
green         = "#a6e3a1"   # success, quoted query terms
yellow        = "#f9e2af"   # warnings, field keys, keycaps
blue          = "#89b4fa"   # wikilink targets
purple        = "#cba6f7"   # numbers and dates
aqua          = "#94e2d5"   # tags, group labels
orange        = "#fab387"   # operators, strong accents

# Semantic
color_directory    = "#89dceb"  # directory rows in the file list
color_journal_date = "#94e2d5"  # journal date annotations
color_search_match = "#a6e3a1"  # highlighted search matches
color_tag          = "#fab387"  # #hashtag spans in the editor
blockquote_bar     = "#585b70"  # the ▏ bar replacing > markers
code_bg            = "#181825"  # fenced/indented code-block background
color_replace_preview = "#3e3450"  # background behind replace-preview text

color_replace_preview is a background color, so give it a muted shade rather than an accent color. It marks the text the replace preview shows in place of a match (text that is not in the note yet), so it should be clearly distinct from selection_bg and code_bg. If you omit it, it falls back to accent, which makes a very loud highlight.

Color Formats 

Colors can use these formats:

Format	Example	Notes
6-digit hex	"#1e1e2e"
3-digit hex (shorthand)	"#abc"	Expands to #aabbcc
RGB function	"rgb(30, 30, 46)"
ANSI index	"ansi:4"	0-255
Terminal default	"reset"	Uses the terminal's default fg or bg

Activating a Custom Theme 

Once the file is saved, start (or restart) Kimün. Your theme appears in the theme picker (Ctrl+B v t) alongside the built-in ones. You can also set it directly in config.toml:

theme = "My Theme"

The name must match the name field in your .toml file exactly.

Overriding the Default Theme 

If you save a file named default.toml in the themes directory, it will be loaded as an additional theme option. It does not replace the built-in default. To make it the active theme, set the top-level theme key to its name, as shown above.

Example: Ayu Dark Theme (minimal) 

Derivation fills everything not listed:

name = "Ayu Dark"

bg           = "#0a0e14"
bg_panel     = "#0d1017"
selection_bg = "#273747"
fg           = "#b3b1ad"
fg_secondary = "#6c7380"
gray         = "#4d5566"
border_dim   = "#11151c"
accent       = "#e6b450"

red    = "#d95757"
green  = "#7fd962"
yellow = "#e6b450"
blue   = "#39bae6"
purple = "#d2a6ff"
aqua   = "#95e6cb"
orange = "#ff8f40"

Save this as ~/.config/kimun/themes/ayu-dark.toml and set theme = "Ayu Dark" in your config.

Theme files are plain TOML, so you can share them by copying the file. For other settings, see Configuration.