Theming Architecture

Theming runs in two stages. switchwall.sh writes palette files to ~/.local/state/quickshell/user/generated/, then applycolor.sh hands them to each app.

Palette generation

• Inputs: a wallpaper (switchwall.sh --image), a seed colour (--color), light or dark (--mode), a scheme (--scheme), and iRiS’s surface (iris-surface.json) when iRiS is the family and its apps follow Material. Presets in modules/common/ThemePresets.qml write colors.json and palette.json directly.
• inir-accel material-colors, called by switchwall.sh, is the only palette generator. It renders the templates in ~/.config/matugen (installed from defaults/matugen/) with {{colors.<token>.<mode>.<prop>}} placeholders. matugen is gone, but the paths keep its name.

File	Use
colors.json	Shell and UI palette, read by MaterialThemeLoader.qml
palette.json	Shell palette, read by most target modules
app-palette.json	Palette for the app targets
terminal.json	Terminal palette
material_colors.scss	Compatibility values for the terminal, editor and Zed targets
theme-meta.json	source, mode and scheme

palette.json and terminal.json override matching values from material_colors.scss.

Target application

• applycolor.sh runs every enabled target module. MaterialThemeLoader.qml, the installer and the Settings button for open terminals call it.
• apply-targets.sh runs the targets you name (inir theme apply).
• Manifests are in scripts/colors/targets/, modules in scripts/colors/modules/. See Theming Targets and Theming Modules.

Runtime

• services/ThemeService.qml picks the theme. Auto themes run switchwall.sh. A manual change also runs system24_palette.sh for Vesktop when enableVesktop is on.
• services/MaterialThemeLoader.qml reads colors.json and app-palette.json, and debounces the applycolor.sh run.
• services/Lume.qml keeps text readable over the wallpaper. It reads WallpaperLuma, not these files.