OpenRiot Color Derivation Plan

Single source of truth: config/colors.toml. Runtime consumers read it via source/theme/colors.go. Static config consumers must be made dynamic.

Canonical Palette

Group Key Default Usage
base bg #1a1b26 Deep background
base bg2 #24283b Elevated background
base fg #c0caf5 Primary text
base fg2 #a3acc9 Secondary text
base fg3 #565f89 Tertiary/dim text
base dim #3b4261 Borders, dividers
accent name bondi-green Theme name
accent fg #9ECE6A Primary accent
accent fg-light #8BB85A Highlight accent
accent bg #2B3A1A Accent background
semantic error #F7768E Errors, critical
semantic warning #E0AF68 Warnings
semantic success #04B575 Success states
semantic info #7AA2F7 Info, links
semantic cyan #0DB9D7 Cyan accent
compat green #9ECE6A Legacy green alias
compat violet #7D56F4 Legacy violet alias
compat blue #7AA2F7 Legacy blue alias
compat dim-gray #565F89 Legacy dim alias
compat white #FAFAFA Legacy white alias
extended teal #7d8df7 Polybar/teal modules
extended sky #7DCFFF Info/sky modules
extended electric #89B4FA Electric blue accent
extended purple #8B7CF6 Purple accent
extended violet #997DE1 Violet accent
extended orange #FF9E64 Orange accent
extended cyan-dim #5a95b8 Dim cyan
extended launcher-fg #9EC8F9 Launcher icon color
extended sep-bg #13141C Separator background
extended bg-dark #06070B Polybar / bar background
extended bg-mid #0E0F17 Elevated dark bg
extended fg-bright #E0E6F5 Bright foreground
extended muted #414868 Muted elements
extended sec-yellow #F4D03F WiFi WPA color
extended sec-orange #FF8844 WiFi WPA2 color
extended alpha-bg #B306070B Semi-transparent bar bg

Component Status

Component File Status Derivation Method
Go TUIs source/theme/colors.go DONE Runtime TOML parse
polybar config/polybar/config.ini.tmpl DONE openriot --polybar-setup renders template + screen scaling
dunst config/dunst/dunstrc DONE openriot --dunst-setup copies + scales for hi-DPI
btop config/btop/themes/current.theme DONE Manual sync, needs template
alacritty config/alacritty/alacritty.toml DONE Manual sync, needs template
rofi config/rofi/simple-tokyonight.rasi.tmpl DONE openriot --rofi-setup renders template
rofi apps config/rofi/apps.txt N/A No colors
helix config/helix/themes/openriot.toml.tmpl DONE openriot --helix-setup renders template
GTK 3 config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css TBD Installer template
GTK 4 config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css TBD Installer template
Xresources config/Xresources TBD Installer template
i3 config/i3/config TBD Installer template
fish config/fish/config.fish DONE Verified: no hardcoded colors
fastfetch config/fastfetch/config.jsonc DONE Verified: no hardcoded colors

Derivation Architecture

colors.toml is the single source of truth. It lives at ~/.local/share/openriot/config/colors.toml — part of the git checkout, not generated at install time.

Template rendering (e.g. --polybar-setup, --rofi-setup):

  1. Reads *.tmpl from ~/.local/share/openriot/config/{component}/
  2. Reads colors.toml from ~/.local/share/openriot/config/colors.toml
  3. Renders output to ~/.config/{component}/

Static file copy (CopyConfigs() in source/installer/configs.go):

  • Copies non-template files from deploy dir to ~/.config/
  • Does NOT copy .tmpl files — those are rendered by setup commands
  • Must NEVER target ~/.local/share/openriot/... — self-copies truncate the source to 0 bytes (O_TRUNC in fsutil.CopyFile), producing blank template values

In-place assets (NOT deployed by CopyConfigs()):

  • config/icons/ — accessed via paths.IconDir() at runtime
  • config/window/icons.toml — accessed via paths.OpenRiotDir()
  • docs/ — accessed via paths.OpenRiotDir() for release notes

Available Template Keys

All keys returned by installer.renderColorsMap():

Base: BaseBG, BaseBG2, BaseFG, BaseFG2, BaseFG3, BaseDim
Accent: AccentName, AccentFG, AccentFGLight, AccentBG
Semantic: SemanticError, SemanticWarning, SemanticSuccess, SemanticInfo, SemanticCyan
Compat: CompatGreen, CompatViolet, CompatBlue, CompatDimGray, CompatWhite
Extended: ExtendedTeal, ExtendedSky, ExtendedElectric, ExtendedPurple, ExtendedViolet, ExtendedOrange, ExtendedCyanDim, ExtendedLauncherFG, ExtendedSepBG, ExtendedBGDark, ExtendedBGMid, ExtendedFGBright, ExtendedMuted, ExtendedSecYellow, ExtendedSecOrange, ExtendedAlphaBG

Per-Component Mapping

polybar (config/polybar/config.ini.tmpl)

Config Key Template Key colors.toml Source
background alpha-bg extended.alpha-bg (derived: 70% opacity over bg-dark)
bg bg extended.bg-dark
bg2 bg2 extended.bg-mid
fg fg extended.fg-bright
fg2 fg2 base.fg2
fg3 fg3 base.fg3
red red semantic.error
orange orange extended.orange
yellow yellow semantic.warning
green green accent.fg
cyan cyan semantic.cyan
blue blue semantic.info
sky sky extended.sky
electric electric extended.electric
purple purple extended.purple
violet violet extended.violet
teal teal extended.teal
cyan-dim cyan-dim extended.cyan-dim
muted muted extended.muted
sep (content-foreground) — extended.sep-bg
launcher (format-foreground) — extended.launcher-fg

dunst (config/dunst/dunstrc)

Config Key colors.toml Source
frame_color base.dim
foreground base.fg
background base.bg
highlight accent.fg
separator_color base.dim

rofi (config/rofi/simple-tokyonight.rasi.tmpl)

Config Key Template Key colors.toml Source
bg0 `` base.bg
bg1 `` base.bg
bg2 `` base.bg2
bg3 `` extended.muted
fg0 `` base.fg
fg1 `` base.fg2
fg2 `` base.fg3
red `` semantic.error
green `` accent.fg
yellow `` semantic.warning
blue `` semantic.info
magenta `` extended.violet
cyan `` semantic.cyan

helix (config/helix/themes/openriot.toml)

Config Key colors.toml Source
background base.bg
foreground base.fg
comment base.fg3
keyword semantic.info
string semantic.success
error semantic.error
warning semantic.warning
info semantic.cyan
ui.selection accent.bg
ui.cursor semantic.info
ui.background base.bg

GTK 3/4 (config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css, config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css)

Config Key colors.toml Source
@bg_color base.bg
@fg_color base.fg
@selected_bg accent.bg
@selected_fg accent.fg
@border base.dim
@error semantic.error
@warning semantic.warning
@success semantic.success

Xresources (config/Xresources)

Config Key colors.toml Source
*background base.bg
*foreground base.fg
*cursorColor semantic.info
*.color0 base.bg
*.color1 semantic.error
*.color2 compat.green
*.color3 semantic.warning
*.color4 semantic.info
*.color5 compat.violet
*.color6 semantic.cyan
*.color7 base.fg
*.color8 base.fg3
*.color9 semantic.error
*.color10 compat.green
*.color11 semantic.warning
*.color12 semantic.info
*.color13 compat.violet
*.color14 semantic.cyan
*.color15 compat.white

i3 (config/i3/config)

Config Key colors.toml Source
client.focused border accent.fg
client.focused background accent.fg
client.focused text base.bg
client.focused_inactive border base.bg2
client.focused_inactive background base.bg2
client.focused_inactive text base.fg2
client.unfocused border base.bg
client.unfocused background base.bg
client.unfocused text base.fg3
bar.colors.background base.bg
bar.colors.statusline base.fg
bar.colors.separator base.dim
bar.colors.focused_workspace border accent.fg
bar.colors.focused_workspace background accent.fg
bar.colors.focused_workspace text base.bg

Implementation Order

Phase 1 — Template Engine (COMPLETE)
Phase 2 — Polybar (COMPLETE)
Phase 3 — Dunst (COMPLETE — runtime scale, not template)
Phase 4 — Rofi (COMPLETE)
Phase 5 — Helix (COMPLETE)

TBD (future work):

Phase 6 — GTK 3/4
Phase 7 — Xresources
Phase 8 — i3
Phase 9 — Backfill (btop, alacritty)

Migration Notes

Already-synced components (btop, alacritty) should be converted last to avoid regressing working configs. The template engine must be solid before touching anything runtime-critical like i3 or polybar.

All .tmpl files must preserve existing structure — only hex values change. No functional changes to keybindings, layouts, or behavior.