🧛🏻‍♂️ Darcula Dark for Neovim

January 12, 2026 · View on GitHub

The Darcula Dark theme is a Neovim colorscheme that's designed to emulate the popular Darcula color scheme from JetBrains' GoLand IDE. It is ideal for long hours of coding, offering a dark theme that's easy on the eyes. Despite trying various alternatives in Neovim, we found nothing quite matched up, hence we embarked on creating this color scheme ourselves.

comparing with the original Darcula theme in GoLand:

Installation

To install this color scheme, add the following to your plugin configuration:

lazy.nvim

{
    "xiantang/darcula-dark.nvim",
    dependencies = {
        "nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter",
    },
}

Customization

You can customize darcula-dark in several ways:

Option 1: Disable plugin integrations

return {
	{
		"xiantang/darcula-dark.nvim",
		config = function()
			-- setup must be called before loading
			require("darcula").setup({
				opt = {
					integrations = {
						telescope = false,
						snacks = true,
						lualine = true,
						lsp_semantics_token = true,
						nvim_cmp = true,
						dap_nvim = true,
					},
				},
			})
		end,
	},
}

Option 2: Override specific colors

require("darcula").setup({
	override = function(c)
		return {
			background = "#333333",
			dark = "#000000"
		}
	end,
})

Option 3: Use custom theme file (NEW!)

You can create your own theme JSON file and load it:

require("darcula").setup({
	theme = "darcula"  -- loads built-in colors/themes/darcula.json
})

-- Use Darcula Solid theme (darker backgrounds, flatter UI)
require("darcula").setup({
	theme = "darcula-solid"  -- loads built-in colors/themes/darcula-solid.json
})

-- Use Dracula theme (official Dracula spec-compliant theme)
require("darcula").setup({
	theme = "dracula"  -- loads built-in colors/themes/dracula.json
})

-- Or load from custom path
require("darcula").setup({
	theme = "~/.config/nvim/themes/my-darcula.json"
})

-- Combine theme with override
require("darcula").setup({
	theme = "darcula",
	override = function(c)
		return { background = "#1E1E1E" }
	end
})

Creating Custom Themes

You can create your own theme by making a JSON file with the following structure:

{
  "name": "my-custom-theme",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "colors": {
    "green": "#98be65",
    "red": "#f43753",
    "dark": "#2B2B2B",
    ...
  }
}

Key points:

The colors object must contain color definitions in #RRGGBB hex format
You can define only the colors you want to override (partial themes are supported)
Missing colors will fall back to default values
See colors/themes/darcula.json for a complete reference of all available color names

Color names reference: Primary colors: green, red, grey, dark, background, etc. See the full list in colors/themes/darcula.json

packer.nvim

  use {
    'xiantang/darcula-dark.nvim',
    requires = {"nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter"}
  }

Built-in Themes

darcula - The original Darcula theme (default)
darcula-solid - Darcula Solid theme with darker backgrounds and flatter UI
dracula - Official Dracula theme (spec-compliant)

TODO

support Darcula Solid Theme https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/13920-darcula-solid-theme
support Dracula Theme https://spec.draculatheme.com/
support more plugins

Supported Plugins

telescope
Treesitter
cmp-nvim
copilot.vim
dap.nvim
eyeline.nvim
gitsign.nvim
hop.nvim
nerdtree.vim
lspsaga.nvim
scrollbar.nvim
lualine.nvim
snacks.nvim

Usage

Lua

-- Use default Darcula theme
vim.cmd.colorscheme("darcula-dark")

-- Use Darcula Solid theme
vim.cmd.colorscheme("darcula-solid")

-- Use Dracula theme
vim.cmd.colorscheme("dracula")

VimScript

" Use default Darcula theme
colorscheme darcula-dark

" Use Darcula Solid theme
colorscheme darcula-solid

" Use Dracula theme
colorscheme dracula

Requirements

This color scheme requires Neovim v0.8.3 or higher, as it uses LSP Semantic tokens. It also depends on nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter.

Health Check

Run :checkhealth darcula to verify your setup and troubleshoot any issues:

:checkhealth darcula

The health check will verify:

✅ Neovim version compatibility (>= 0.8.3)
✅ True color (24-bit) support detection
✅ Terminal configuration ( $TERM,$ COLORTERM)
✅ termguicolors setting
✅ Required dependencies (nvim-treesitter)
✅ Theme loading status
💡 Terminal-specific configuration advice (tmux, alacritty, kitty, etc.)

Auto-fix for termguicolors

If the health check reports that termguicolors is not enabled, you can:

Temporary fix (current session):

:lua vim.o.termguicolors = true

Permanent fix - add to your config:

Lua (init.lua):

vim.o.termguicolors = true

VimScript (init.vim):

set termguicolors

Troubleshooting

If you're experiencing color issues:

Run the health check first: :checkhealth darcula
Test your terminal's true color support:
```
curl -s https://gist.githubusercontent.com/lifepillar/09a44b8cf0f9397465614e622979107f/raw/24-bit-color.sh | bash
```
You should see smooth color gradients. If not, your terminal needs configuration.
Common issues and solutions:
- Colors look wrong: Enable termguicolors (see health check)
- Using tmux: Add to ~/.tmux.conf:
```
set -g default-terminal "tmux-256color"
set -ag terminal-overrides ",xterm-256color:RGB"
```
- Using Alacritty: Add to alacritty.yml:
```
env:
  TERM: xterm-256color
```
  Or alacritty.toml:
```
[env]
TERM = "xterm-256color"
```
Complete terminal setup guide: https://gist.github.com/andersevenrud/015e61af2fd264371032763d4ed965b6