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Version: 2.0

Custom Themes

Dux Shell

Custom Themes

Dux Shell supports custom color themes using arbitrary color schemes. You can create your own themes or use pre-made ones.

Theme Structure​

Custom themes are defined in JSON files that generally map to matugen color keywords. Themes can have separate dark and light variants, or use a single color scheme for both modes.

Complete Theme Example​

{
  "dark": {
    "name": "Cyberpunk Electric Dark",
    "primary": "#00FFCC",
    "primaryText": "#000000",
    "primaryContainer": "#00CC99",
    "secondary": "#FF4DFF",
    "surface": "#0F0F0F",
    "surfaceText": "#E0FFE0",
    "surfaceVariant": "#1F2F1F",
    "surfaceVariantText": "#CCFFCC",
    "surfaceTint": "#00FFCC",
    "background": "#000000",
    "backgroundText": "#F0FFF0",
    "outline": "#80FF80",
    "surfaceContainerLowest": "#0A0A0A",
    "surfaceContainerLow": "#152315",
    "surfaceContainer": "#1A2B1A",
    "surfaceContainerHigh": "#264026",
    "surfaceContainerHighest": "#33553F",
    "error": "#FF0066",
    "warning": "#CCFF00",
    "info": "#00FFCC",
    "matugen_type": "scheme-expressive"
  },
  "light": {
    "name": "Cyberpunk Electric Light",
    "primary": "#00B899",
    "primaryText": "#FFFFFF",
    "primaryContainer": "#66FFDD",
    "secondary": "#CC00CC",
    "surface": "#F0FFF0",
    "surfaceText": "#1F2F1F",
    "surfaceVariant": "#E6FFE6",
    "surfaceVariantText": "#2D4D2D",
    "surfaceTint": "#00B899",
    "background": "#FFFFFF",
    "backgroundText": "#000000",
    "outline": "#4DCC4D",
    "surfaceContainerLowest": "#FAFFFA",
    "surfaceContainerLow": "#F9FFF9",
    "surfaceContainer": "#F5FFF5",
    "surfaceContainerHigh": "#EBFFEB",
    "surfaceContainerHighest": "#E1FFE1",
    "error": "#B3004D",
    "warning": "#99CC00",
    "info": "#00B899",
    "matugen_type": "scheme-expressive"
  }
}

Single Mode Theme​

For themes without light/dark variants, define colors at the top level:

{
  "name": "Theme Name",
  "primary": "#eeeeee",
  "primaryText": "#000000",
  "surface": "#ffffff",
  "surfaceText": "#000000",
  "background": "#f5f5f5",
  "backgroundText": "#000000",
  "outline": "#cccccc",
  "matugen_type": "scheme-tonal-spot"
}

Required Color Properties​

Primary Colors​

  • primary - Main accent color for buttons, highlights, and active states
  • primaryText - Text color contrasting with primary background
  • primaryContainer - Variant of primary for containers. Exported to app templates as is. DMS paints a softer container derived from primary, see softPrimaryContainer under Derived colors

Secondary Colors​

  • secondary - Supporting accent color for variety and hierarchy
  • surfaceTint - Tint color applied to surfaces (usually derived from primary)

Surface Colors​

Surface Colors HierarchySurface Colors Hierarchy
  • surface - Default surface color for cards and panels
  • surfaceText - Primary text color on surface backgrounds
  • surfaceVariant - Alternate surface for subtle differentiation
  • surfaceVariantText - Text color for surfaceVariant backgrounds
  • surfaceContainerLowest - Lowest elevation container (darkest in dark mode, lightest in light mode) — matugen-only, see note below
  • surfaceContainerLow - Low elevation container, between surface and surfaceContainer — matugen-only, see note below
  • surfaceContainer - Container surface, slightly different from surface
  • surfaceContainerHigh - Elevated container for layered interfaces
  • surfaceContainerHighest - Highest elevation container for top-level surfaces

DMS paints its containers through four semantic roles instead of picking these tokens directly: hostSurface (surface) for anything floating over the desktop, cardSurface (surfaceContainer) for the first container inside a host, chipSurface (surfaceContainerHigh) for a container inside a card, and chipSurfaceNested (surfaceContainerHighest) for a chip inside a nested row. The tokens are exported unchanged and keep their palette meaning, so a theme that sets them shifts the whole ladder with them.

Not all colors are used by DMS itself

A few keys complete the Material palette but aren't rendered by DMS's own UI — currently surfaceContainerLowest, surfaceContainerLow, and backgroundText. They are still required and are exported to matugen templates (VS Code, KDE, Firefox, Zed, etc.), so external apps themed by DMS use them even though the shell does not.

Background Colors​

  • background - Main background color for the interface
  • backgroundText - Text color for background areas — matugen-only, see note above

Outline​

  • outline - Color for subtle borders, dividers, muted icons, and extra subtle text

Optional Properties​

Derived colors​

Everything below is derived from the required keys when a color set leaves it out. A value you set is used as is, never adjusted, even when it fails a contrast check. Derivation only fills gaps. The one exception is onPrimaryContainer on a derived softPrimaryContainer, described below.

  • surfaceContainerHighest - falls back to surfaceContainerHigh
  • surfaceBright - surface in light mode, surfaceContainerHighest in dark mode
  • surfaceDim - surfaceContainer in light mode, background in dark mode
  • outlineVariant - outline at 60% opacity
  • secondaryContainer, tertiaryContainer - surfaceContainerHigh blended 35% toward secondary / tertiary
  • softPrimaryContainer - the tinted fill DMS paints wherever a primary container appears: clock and weather cards, badges, icon boxes, floating action buttons. Derived as a mix of two colors at one tone, 16 above surfaceContainer on dark surfaces (30 at least) and 4 below it on light ones (90 at most): surfaceContainer lifted to that tone, and primary at that tone with its HCT chroma capped at 48. Fading toward your surface instead of grey keeps the accent reading as its own hue on tinted surfaces. primaryContainer does not feed it, because many themes use that key as a second accent
  • containerTint - the share of primary in that mix, from 0 to 1. Defaults to 0.5 on dark surfaces and 1 on light ones. Lower reads more pastel, 0 is your surface at the container tone. Users scale it with Settings → Interface style → Container saturation
  • onPrimaryContainer, onSecondaryContainer, onTertiaryContainer - the first of surfaceText, surface, white, black that reads at 4.5:1 on the container. An onPrimaryContainer you set was written for primaryContainer, so on the derived softPrimaryContainer it is kept only when it reads at 4.5:1. Set softPrimaryContainer as well and both are used as is
  • inverseSurface, inverseOnSurface - surfaceText and surface swapped
  • selectedContainer - the fill behind the selected item of every list (launcher rows, settings rows and sidebar, control center lists, dropdowns, context menus, file browser). Derived as secondaryContainer when you set it and both onSecondaryContainer and surfaceText read on it at 4.5:1, otherwise surfaceContainerHigh tinted 20% toward primary, backed off until surfaceText reads at 4.5:1
  • selectedContainerTint - the tint amount used by that fallback, 0.2 by default
  • onSelectedContainer - text and icons on selectedContainer. Derived as the readable pick when you set selectedContainer, else onSecondaryContainer or surfaceText following the branch above
  • accentOnSelectedContainer, accentOnPrimaryContainer - accent glyphs on those containers: primary when it reads at 3:1, else the container's on-color

Accents​

Category badges, such as the settings sidebar icons, use a small set of categorical colors derived from primary: fixed hues nudged toward the primary hue, saturation following the primary, lightness fixed per mode so the glyph stays readable. Add an accents object to a color set to pick your own hues. Each value sets the hue and saturation of that slot; DMS still derives the fill and glyph lightness. Slots you leave out are derived.

{
  "accents": {
    "red": "#fb4934",
    "orange": "#fe8019",
    "yellow": "#fabd2f",
    "green": "#b8bb26",
    "teal": "#8ec07c",
    "blue": "#83a598",
    "purple": "#d3869b",
    "pink": "#d3869b"
  }
}

Semantic Colors​

  • error - Error states, delete buttons, critical warnings
  • warning - Warning states and caution indicators
  • info - Informational states and neutral indicators

Matugen Type​

The matugen_type property controls the color scheme algorithm used for system app theming. Default is scheme-tonal-spot if not specified.

Available options:

  • scheme-content - Content-based color extraction
  • scheme-expressive - Expressive, vibrant color schemes
  • scheme-fidelity - High fidelity to source material
  • scheme-fruit-salad - Colorful, fruit salad-like schemes
  • scheme-monochrome - Monochromatic color schemes
  • scheme-neutral - Neutral, subdued color schemes
  • scheme-rainbow - Rainbow-like color schemes
  • scheme-smart - Picks the variant automatically from the wallpaper (requires matugen 4.2+)
  • scheme-tonal-spot - Tonal spot color schemes (default)

Example Themes​

The official registry carries dozens of themes in this format. Browse them in Settings → Theme & Colors, or copy a theme.json as a starting point.

Applying Custom Themes​

Via Settings UI​

  1. Open Settings → Theme & Colors
  2. Select Custom from the theme dropdown
  3. Choose your theme file path

Via Configuration File​

Edit ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/settings.json or ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/config.d/*.json:

{
  "currentThemeName": "custom",
  "customThemeFile": "/path/to/mytheme.json"
}

Live Editing​

Custom theme files are reactive - editing the JSON file automatically updates the shell if it's the currently active theme.

Theme Development Tips​

  • Start from examples: Use the pre-built themes as templates
  • Adjust incrementally: Change one color at a time to see the impact
  • Test both modes: If providing dark/light variants, test both thoroughly
  • Consider contrast: Ensure text colors have sufficient contrast with backgrounds
  • Experiment with matugen_type: Different schemes work better with different color palettes
  • Version control: Store themes in your dotfiles for easy synchronization

Distributing Themes​

To share themes with others, publish them in a registry — a Git repository with a themes/<theme-id>/theme.json layout. Users add it with dms registry add or via Settings → Plugins → Registries, and your themes appear in their theme browser alongside the official ones. See Custom Registries for the format and resolution rules, or submit to the official dms-plugin-registry.