Oshen.nvim

June 12, 2026 · View on GitHub

A Neovim colorscheme inspired by deep ocean water — five colors drawn from the sea's amber bioluminescence, sea foam, midnight navy, and the shifting blues between shallow and abyss. Ships dark (oshen-night) and light (oshen-day) variants, with first-class support for transparent terminals, and built to stay out of the way while you work.

Named after shenfiles, my personal dotfiles.

Code

Oil

Snacks picker

Requirements

Neovim >= 0.9
A terminal with termguicolors support
JetBrainsMono Nerd Font (recommended)

Installation

lazy.nvim

{
  "54L1M/Oshen.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    require("oshen").setup({
      transparent = true, -- set false for opaque background
    })
    vim.cmd.colorscheme("oshen-night") -- or "oshen-day" for light
  end,
}

rocks.nvim

[plugins]
"Oshen.nvim" = "scm"

Configuration

require("oshen").setup({
  -- Remove all background colors so your terminal wallpaper shows through.
  -- Pairs well with ghostty's background-opacity setting.
  transparent = false, -- default
})

Light mode

Oshen ships both a dark and a light palette as two colorscheme variants. Each sets Neovim's background option for you, and Oshen re-applies itself automatically whenever background changes. Pick one in your config:

vim.cmd.colorscheme("oshen-night")  -- dark
vim.cmd.colorscheme("oshen-day")    -- light

Toggle at runtime — the colorscheme updates live:

:set background=light
:set background=dark

Both variants (oshen-day, oshen-night) appear as separate, previewable entries in colorscheme pickers like fzf-lua and Telescope.

Note: transparent is a dark-mode feature. The light palette depends on its solid backgrounds, so transparency is automatically disabled when background=light.

Features

Transparent background support — your wallpaper shows through everywhere
Treesitter semantic highlight groups
LSP diagnostics and semantic tokens
Modular architecture — groups and integrations are isolated files, easy to extend
JetBrainsMono Nerd Font glyph-aware

Plugin support

Plugin
gitsigns.nvim	✓
blink.cmp	✓
oil.nvim	✓
snacks.nvim	✓
lualine.nvim	✓ built-in theme
which-key.nvim	✓
vim-illuminate	✓
nvim-ufo	✓
render-markdown.nvim	✓
todo-comments.nvim	✓
nvim-treesitter-context	✓
nvim-dap	✓
harpoon	✓
mini.nvim	✓
tiny-inline-diagnostic.nvim	✓

Palette

Source colors

The entire scheme is derived from five source colors. Nothing more.

Role	Hex	Preview
Keywords / Numbers	`#ffb703`
Foreground	`#f1faee`
Functions	`#abdadc`
Borders / Accents	`#457b9d`
Selection / UI	`#1d3567`

Full palette

Backgrounds

Name	Hex	Usage
`crust`	`#060810`	Deepest background, extreme fills
`mantle`	`#090c12`	Panels, popups, sidebars
`base`	`#0e1117`	Main editor background

Surfaces

Name	Hex	Usage
`surface0`	`#131c2b`	Cursorline, word highlights
`surface1`	`#1e2d42`	Raised UI (TreesitterContext, etc.)
`surface2`	`#2a3f58`	Hover states, picker selections

Overlays

Name	Hex	Usage
`overlay0`	`#3d5570`	Invisible guides, whitespace chars
`overlay1`	`#526d82`	Comments, inactive line numbers
`overlay2`	`#6a8599`	Operators, punctuation, conceal

Text tiers

Name	Hex	Usage
`subtext0`	`#8899aa`	Secondary info, statusline text
`subtext1`	`#b0c4d8`	Brighter secondary, parameters
`text`	`#f1faee`	Main foreground

Accents

Name	Hex	Usage
`amber`	`#ffb703`	Keywords, numbers, cursor
`peach`	`#e8944a`	Warnings, orange tokens
`green`	`#a8c97f`	Strings, git added
`sky`	`#7ab8d4`	String escapes, special punctuation
`teal`	`#abdadc`	Functions, info diagnostics
`steel`	`#457b9d`	Borders, accents
`lavender`	`#c3a0d8`	Types, hints, constructors
`red`	`#e05c6e`	Errors, git deleted
`navy`	`#1d3567`	Visual selection, deep UI chrome

Lualine

A built-in lualine theme is included. The b and c sections use NONE background so they blend into a transparent terminal.

require("lualine").setup({
  options = {
    theme = require("oshen.integrations.lualine").get(),
    section_separators = "",
    component_separators = "",
  },
})

Mode colors:

Mode	Hex	Name
NORMAL	`#abdadc`	teal
INSERT	`#a8c97f`	green
VISUAL	`#c3a0d8`	lavender
COMMAND	`#ffb703`	amber
REPLACE	`#e05c6e`	red

Plugin structure

lua/oshen/
├── init.lua                   public API (setup / load / get_palette)
├── palette.lua                all color definitions
├── highlights.lua             thin orchestrator — loads groups + integrations
├── groups/
│   ├── editor.lua             core editor UI
│   ├── syntax.lua             legacy vim syntax groups
│   ├── treesitter.lua         @capture groups
│   ├── lsp.lua                LSP diagnostics
│   ├── semantic_tokens.lua    @lsp.type.* and @lsp.mod.*
│   └── terminal.lua           vim.g.terminal_color_N
└── integrations/
    ├── lualine.lua
    ├── gitsigns.lua
    ├── illuminate.lua
    ├── blink.lua
    ├── oil.lua
    ├── snacks.lua
    ├── whichkey.lua
    ├── ufo.lua
    ├── render_markdown.lua
    ├── todo_comments.lua
    ├── treesitter_context.lua
    ├── dap.lua
    ├── harpoon.lua
    ├── mini.lua
    └── tiny_inline_diagnostic.lua

Adding a new integration

Create lua/oshen/integrations/myplugin.lua following this pattern:

local M = {}

local function hi(group, opts)
  vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, group, opts)
end

function M.apply(p, transparent)
  hi("MyPluginNormal", { fg = p.text, bg = transparent and p.none or p.mantle })
end

return M

Then add "oshen.integrations.myplugin" to the integrations list in highlights.lua.

Accessing the palette

Other plugins or your own config can read the full color table:

local p = require("oshen").get_palette()

-- Example: custom indent-blankline colors
vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, "IblIndent", { fg = p.overlay0 })
vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, "IblScope",  { fg = p.overlay2 })

Ghostty + tmux

A matching Ghostty config and tmux palette are included in shenfiles.

Ghostty settings used with this theme:

background-opacity = 0.65
font-family = "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font Mono"

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome — especially for plugin integrations not listed above.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions, the integration pattern, commit style, and PR guidelines.

License

MIT