The themes directory in an extension should contain one or more theme files.

Each theme file should adhere to the JSON schema specified at https://zed.dev/schema/themes/v0.2.0.json.

See this blog post for additional background on creating themes.

The structure of a Zed theme is defined in the Zed Theme JSON Schema.

A Zed theme consists of a Theme Family object including:

  • name: The name for the theme family
  • author: The name of the author of the theme family
  • themes: An array of Themes belonging to the theme family

The core components of a Theme object include:

  1. Theme Metadata:
    • name: The name of the theme
    • appearance: Either "light" or "dark"
  2. Style Properties under the style, such as:
    • background: The main background color
    • foreground: The main text color
    • accent: The accent color used for highlighting and emphasis
  3. Syntax Highlighting:
    • syntax: An object containing color definitions for various syntax elements (e.g., keywords, strings, comments)
  4. UI Elements:
    • Colors for various UI components such as:
      • element.background: Background color for UI elements
      • border: Border colors for different states (normal, focused, selected)
      • text: Text colors for different states (normal, muted, accent)
  5. Editor-specific Colors:
    • Colors for editor-related elements such as:
      • editor.background: Editor background color
      • editor.gutter: Gutter colors
      • editor.line_number: Line number colors
  6. Terminal Colors:
    • ANSI color definitions for the integrated terminal

You can use Zed's Theme Builder to design your own custom theme based on an existing one.

This tool lets you fine-tune and preview how surfaces in Zed will look. You can then export the JSON and publish it in Zed's extension store.