zsh-vivid

April 23, 2026 · View on GitHub

vivid LS_COLORS for Zsh — Catppuccin theming with automatic light/dark detection.

Give your file listings a consistent look across every tool that respects LS_COLORS. zsh-vivid generates and exports LS_COLORS via vivid, with automatic light/dark theme detection for tmux sessions and support for custom Catppuccin and other themes.

Requirements

vivid (vivid)

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install vivid

Nix:

nix profile install nixpkgs#vivid

Installation

Using zinit

zinit load zsh-contrib/zsh-vivid

Using sheldon

[plugins.zsh-vivid]
github = "zsh-contrib/zsh-vivid"

Manual

git clone https://github.com/zsh-contrib/zsh-vivid.git ~/.zsh/plugins/zsh-vivid
source ~/.zsh/plugins/zsh-vivid/zsh-vivid.plugin.zsh

Configuration

Theme Selection

Set VIVID_THEME before loading the plugin:

export VIVID_THEME="catppuccin-mocha"  # default

Automatic Light/Dark Detection

When inside a tmux session, the plugin automatically detects the session's light/dark theme and applies the appropriate color scheme:

export VIVID_THEME_LIGHT="catppuccin-latte"   # used in light tmux theme
export VIVID_THEME_DARK="catppuccin-mocha"    # used in dark tmux theme

If you set VIVID_THEME explicitly, it takes precedence and light/dark detection is skipped.

Theme Resolution Order

Inside tmux — detects #{client_theme}:
- light → uses VIVID_THEME_LIGHT (default: catppuccin-latte)
- dark → uses VIVID_THEME_DARK (default: catppuccin-mocha)
Outside tmux — uses VIVID_THEME (default: catppuccin-mocha)
Explicit VIVID_THEME — if set, disables auto-detection

Available Themes

Run vivid themes to list all themes. Commonly used:

Theme	Description
`catppuccin-latte`	Light Catppuccin theme
`catppuccin-frappe`	Dark Catppuccin (soft)
`catppuccin-macchiato`	Dark Catppuccin (medium)
`catppuccin-mocha`	Dark Catppuccin (deep) — default
`molokai`	Molokai color scheme
`one-dark`	One Dark theme
`nord`	Nord color scheme

Usage

Basic

# Just load the plugin — uses default theme
zinit load zsh-contrib/zsh-vivid

LS_COLORS is generated once at load time and picked up by ls, tree, fd, eza, and any other tool that reads it.

Custom Light/Dark Themes

# Use custom themes for tmux light/dark modes
export VIVID_THEME_LIGHT="rose-pine-dawn"
export VIVID_THEME_DARK="rose-pine"

zinit load zsh-contrib/zsh-vivid

Conditional Loading

if (( $+commands[vivid] )); then
  zinit load zsh-contrib/zsh-vivid
fi

Troubleshooting

Colors not showing — ensure your terminal supports 256 colors (echo $TERM should be xterm-256color or similar)

Theme not found — list available themes with vivid themes

Changing themes — LS_COLORS is generated at load time; reload your shell after switching: exec zsh

The zsh-contrib Ecosystem

Repo	What it provides
zsh-aws	AWS credential management with aws-vault and tmux
zsh-eza	eza with Catppuccin and Rose Pine theming
zsh-fzf	fzf with Catppuccin and Rose Pine theming
zsh-op	1Password CLI with secure caching and SSH key management
zsh-tmux	Automatic tmux window title management
zsh-vivid ← you are here	vivid LS_COLORS generation with theme support