list-themes

Preview or list all available themes for Ghostty

The list-themes command displays or previews all available themes for Ghostty, with an interactive TUI when run from a terminal.

Usage

ghostty +list-themes [options]

Description

When run from a TTY, this command launches an interactive TUI that allows you to preview themes with live color palettes and examples. When output is piped or --plain is specified, it outputs a simple list of theme names.

Ghostty searches for themes in two directories:

1. User themes directory: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ghostty/themes or ~/.config/ghostty/themes
2. System themes directory: Ghostty’s resources directory (shipped themes)
   • macOS: Ghostty.app/Contents/Resources/ghostty/themes
   • Linux: share/ghostty/themes (installation-dependent)
   • From source: zig-out/share/ghostty/themes

You can override the resources directory with the GHOSTTY_RESOURCES_DIR environment variable.

Options

--path · boolean

Show the full path to each theme file alongside the theme name.

--plain · boolean

Force plain listing mode even when running in a TTY. Disables the interactive TUI preview.

--color · string · default: "all"

Specify the color scheme of themes to include in the list:

• all - Show all themes (default)
• dark - Show only dark themes
• light - Show only light themes

-h, --help · flag

Display help information for this command.

Interactive TUI Keys

When running in interactive mode (TTY), use these keys:

Navigation

j, ↓, +          Move down 1 theme
k, ↑, -          Move up 1 theme
ScrollDown       Move down 1 theme
ScrollUp         Move up 1 theme
PgDown           Move down 20 themes
PgUp             Move up 20 themes
Home             Go to start of list
End              Go to end of list

/                Start search
Esc, ⏎           Close search/save window
^X, ^/           Clear search
f                Cycle theme filters (all/dark/light)
c                Copy theme name to clipboard
C                Copy theme path to clipboard
⏎                Show save instructions
w                Write theme to auto config file

h, x             Show palette numbers in hexadecimal
d                Show palette numbers in decimal
F1, ?, ^H        Toggle help window
q, Esc, ^C       Quit

Examples

Launch Interactive Preview

ghostty +list-themes

Opens the interactive TUI with theme previews, color palettes, and navigation.

List All Themes (Plain)

ghostty +list-themes --plain

Output

3024-day (builtin)
3024-night (builtin)
aesthetic (builtin)
afternoon (builtin)
alien-blood (builtin)
alucard (builtin)
argonaut (builtin)
atom (builtin)
...

List with Paths

ghostty +list-themes --path --plain

Output

3024-day (builtin) /usr/share/ghostty/themes/3024-day
3024-night (builtin) /usr/share/ghostty/themes/3024-night
custom-theme (user) /home/user/.config/ghostty/themes/custom-theme

List Only Dark Themes

ghostty +list-themes --color=dark --plain

Filters to show only themes designed for dark mode.

Pipe to Grep

ghostty +list-themes --plain | grep -i nord

Find themes matching “nord” in the name.

Applying Themes

To apply a theme from the preview:

1. Navigate to the desired theme
2. Press ⏎ to view save instructions
3. Either:
   • Press w to write to auto/theme.ghostty and add config-file = ?auto/theme.ghostty to your main config
   • Manually add theme = <theme-name> to your config file

Notes

The TUI preview shows the actual color palette, foreground/background colors, and example terminal output with syntax highlighting to help you see how the theme looks in practice.

User themes in your config directory take precedence over built-in themes with the same name.

See Also

• Theme Configuration
• list-fonts
• show-config