akari-theme
A terminal color theme inspired by Japanese alleys lit by round lanterns.
Akari (灯) means light in Japanese. This theme is not about darkness, rain, or neon — it is about warm light, quiet streets, and the presence of life. Akari provides two palettes:
- Akari Night — lanterns are the primary light source
- Akari Dawn — the same alley, as the night fades into morning

Concept
Akari is inspired by a familiar Japanese scene:
- Narrow residential alleys
- Soft, round lanterns glowing above
- Wood, stone, plants, and warm shadows
- A night that feels alive, not silent
The goal is to translate this atmosphere into a terminal experience that feels calm, warm, and readable for long sessions.
Color Philosophy
- Light is singular — Only one warm color (lantern orange) serves as the primary accent
- Blue is air, not light — Blue represents the night sky, not a light source
- Purple stays quiet — Muted purple for distance, never neon
- Green is life — Represents plants and human presence
- Black is gray — True black doesn't exist in a lit alley; use warm grays instead
Supported Tools
| Tool | Category | Installation |
|---|---|---|
| Ghostty | Terminal Emulator | Copy theme to ~/.config/ghostty/themes/ |
| Alacritty | Terminal Emulator | Import theme in alacritty.toml |
| Helix | Editor | Copy theme to ~/.config/helix/themes/ |
| Neovim | Editor | Install via plugin manager |
| Visual Studio Code | Editor | Install from Marketplace or Open VSX |
| Starship | Prompt | Add palette to ~/.config/starship.toml |
| tmux | Terminal Multiplexer | Source config in .tmux.conf |
| Zellij | Terminal Multiplexer | Copy theme to ~/.config/zellij/themes/ |
| macOS Terminal | Terminal Emulator | Double-click to import profile |
| zsh-syntax-highlighting | Shell | Source in .zshrc |
| fzf | CLI | Source in .bashrc or .zshrc |
| bat | CLI | Copy theme to $(bat --config-dir)/themes/ |
| Lazygit | CLI | Copy theme to ~/.config/lazygit/themes/ |
| gh-dash | CLI | Copy theme to ~/.config/gh-dash/config.yml |
| Chrome | Browser | Load unpacked extension |
| Slack | App | Import theme string in Preferences |
Palette
Color definitions are the single source of truth in TOML format:
Crate Usage
Use akari-theme as a library to access palette colors in your Rust projects:
# Palette only (minimal dependencies: serde, toml, thiserror)
= "1.9"
# With generator functionality
= { = "1.9", = ["generator"] }
use ;
let night = night;
let bg: Rgb = night.base.background.parse.unwrap;
let color = bg.to_array; // [f32; 3] for wgpu