token

Token is a Neovim 0.12+ colorscheme with three first-class appearances: classic Token's warm, muted palette, Token Flint's restrained cool-gray grammar, and Token Temper's cool-gray teal and purple grammar. All have dark and light variants, selective plugin integrations, and a shared optional configuration API.

Terminal themes for Ghostty, fish, delta, tmux and others are generated from the matching appearance palette, so everything stays consistent without extra work.

Features

• Classic Token, Token Flint, and Token Temper appearances, each with dark and light variants
• Treesitter capture groups for accurate syntax highlighting
• LSP semantic token highlights
• LSP diagnostic signs, virtual text, and underlines
• Diff highlights for buffers and signs
• Legacy syntax group coverage for non-Treesitter filetypes
• Terminal color support (ANSI colors 0–15)
• Lualine theme included
• Opt-in plugin integrations and configuration-keyed bytecode compilation
• Contrib themes for external tools and apps generated from each appearance palette

Showcase

Appearance	Dark	Light
Token
Token Flint
Token Temper

Install

-- vim.pack (Neovim 0.12+)
vim.pack.add({ 'https://github.com/ThorstenRhau/token' })

-- lazy.nvim
{ 'ThorstenRhau/token' }

Usage

local token = require('token')

---@type token.Config
local config = {
  transparent = false,
  plugins = { gitsigns = true, snacks = true },
}

token.setup(config)

vim.cmd.colorscheme('token')        -- classic and default
vim.cmd.colorscheme('token-flint')  -- Token Flint
vim.cmd.colorscheme('token-temper') -- teal and purple Token Temper

The colorscheme name selects classic Token, Token Flint, or Token Temper. vim.o.background selects dark or light within that appearance. Set the background before loading the colorscheme, or change it at runtime to switch variants.

setup() is shared by all appearances and is optional. Each call starts from the defaults and deep-merges the provided options. It does not reload an active colorscheme automatically.

Token v2

Token is configurable starting with v2. Call require('token').setup() before loading the colorscheme to customize its appearance, semantic styles, palette, highlights, terminal colors, and plugin integrations. Calling setup() is optional, so the minimal vim.cmd.colorscheme('token') configuration continues to work.

V2 also changes plugin integrations from eagerly loading every supported module to a core-only default. Select integrations under plugins, or use plugins = { all = true } to retain the v1 integration behavior.

Configuration

local token = require('token')

---@type token.Config
local config = {
  -- Clear base UI surfaces while preserving semantic backgrounds.
  transparent = false,

  -- Set Neovim's ANSI terminal palette when the colorscheme loads.
  terminal_colors = true,

  -- Give inactive windows a quieter foreground and background.
  dim_inactive = false,

  -- Disable an attribute globally, including in overrides and plugin groups.
  attributes = {
    bold = true,
    italic = true,
    underline = true,
    undercurl = true,
    strikethrough = true,
  },

  -- Overlay attributes on semantic highlight categories.
  styles = {
    booleans = {},
    comments = {},
    conditionals = {},
    constants = {},
    functions = {},
    keywords = {},
    loops = {},
    numbers = {},
    operators = {},
    preprocessor = {},
    properties = {},
    strings = {},
    types = {},
    variables = {},
  },

  -- Apply shared colors first, then the active background variant.
  colors = { all = {}, dark = {}, light = {} },

  -- Replace complete highlight definitions; variant entries take precedence.
  highlights = { all = {}, dark = {}, light = {} },

  -- Integrations are opt-in. `all = true` restores v1 behavior.
  plugins = {
    all = false,
    gitsigns = true,
    snacks = true,
  },

  -- Mutate the configured palette after declarative color overrides.
  on_colors = function(colors, background, colorscheme) end,

  -- Mutate final highlights before global attribute gates are applied.
  on_highlights = function(highlights, colors, background, colorscheme) end,
}

token.setup(config)

Style entries accept the boolean attributes shown under attributes. They are overlaid on Token's existing definitions. Broad categories run before their more specific counterparts: keywords before preprocessor, conditionals, and loops, constants before booleans, and variables before properties.

Color overrides apply in the order all, current background, then on_colors. Existing palette keys and additional keys must contain #RRGGBB values. Highlight entries are complete nvim_set_hl definitions: a variant entry replaces an entry with the same name from all. on_highlights runs afterward and can mutate existing definitions. Both callbacks mutate their arguments in place and receive an explicit dark or light background followed by the active token, token-flint, or token-temper colorscheme name. Existing callbacks that omit the trailing argument remain compatible.

Transparency clears Token's base surfaces while retaining cursor-line, selection, search, diff, diagnostic, and accent backgrounds. Highlight overrides and callbacks can restore individual backgrounds. dim_inactive uses fg1 and bg1 for core and enabled-plugin NormalNC groups. Global attribute gates run last and also apply to plugin, callback, and Lualine output. Links to targets outside Token are preserved because Neovim links cannot combine inherited styling with attribute overrides.

Unknown options, style categories, attributes, and plugin names are rejected with a token: error.

Compilation

Token works out of the box without compilation. For faster startup, you can pre-compile the theme into bytecode:

:TokenCompile

This writes six configuration-keyed variants to stdpath('cache')/token/: classic, Flint, and Temper, each in dark and light. On next load, matching appearance and background bytecode is used instead of the dynamic highlight path. Compiled output contains only enabled integrations and omits terminal assignments when terminal_colors = false.

Rerun :TokenCompile after changing Token's source or any global, captured, or external inputs read by callbacks. Static configuration and callback-body changes use a different cache key and fall back dynamically until recompiled. Legacy unkeyed caches are ignored. A corrupt matching cache is deleted automatically and the dynamic path is used as fallback.

Supported plugins

Plugin integrations are opt-in and the default is core-only. Set plugins = { all = true } to restore the historical behavior of loading every integration. An explicit boolean overrides all. Keys match the module filenames below; Lualine remains available on demand and is not selected here.

blink, blink_indent, claudecode, cmp, dap_ui, diffview, flash, fugitive, fzf, gitsigns, hlchunk, ibl, lazy, markview, mason, matchup, mini, neo_tree, neogit, noice, nvimtree, oil, render_markdown, snacks, telescope, todo_comments, treesitter_context, trouble, and whichkey.

blink.indent defaults to rainbow scope guides. To use Token's muted guides and single brighter neutral scope guide, configure it with Token's neutral groups:

require('blink.indent').setup({
  scope = {
    highlights = { 'BlinkIndentScope' },
    underline = {
      highlights = { 'BlinkIndentUnderline' },
    },
  },
})

Contrib themes

Pre-generated themes for external tools and apps. Auto-generated from the registered appearance palettes; rebuild after palette changes with make contrib.

Tool	Files	Usage
bat	contrib/bat/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.tmTheme	Copy to the bat themes directory, then run bat cache --build
Blink Shell	contrib/blink/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.js	Paste the selected raw file URL in Appearance > Themes > New Theme
Carapace	contrib/carapace/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.json	Merge the selected carapace object into styles.json
ChatGPT desktop	contrib/chatgpt/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.txt	Import the share string for the matching variant
delta	contrib/delta/{token,token-flint,token-temper}.gitconfig	Include one file and select its named dark or light feature
Emacs	contrib/emacs/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}-theme.el	Copy to the themes directory and load the selected theme name
fish	contrib/fish/{token,token-flint,token-temper}.theme	Copy to the fish themes directory and choose the matching appearance
fzf	contrib/fzf/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.{fish,zsh}	Source the matching shell file
Ghostty	contrib/ghostty/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}	Copy to the Ghostty themes directory and select the matching pair
GtkSourceView	contrib/gtksourceview/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.xml	Copy to the GtkSourceView styles directory and select the scheme
iTerm2	contrib/iterm2/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.itermcolors	Import from Profiles > Colors > Color Presets
kitty	contrib/kitty/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.conf	Include the selected file in kitty.conf
lazygit	contrib/lazygit/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.yml	Merge the selected file into config.yml
Obsidian	contrib/obsidian/, contrib/obsidian/{token-flint,token-temper}/	Install the selected appearance directory
ripgrep	contrib/ripgrep/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.ripgreprc	Point RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH at the selected file
Starship	contrib/starship/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.toml	Append the file and select the matching palette name
Sublime Text	contrib/sublime/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.sublime-color-scheme	Copy to Packages/User/ and select the scheme
tmux	contrib/tmux/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.conf	Source the selected file from tmux.conf
VS Code	contrib/vscode/	Run scripts/install_vscode_theme.sh, then select any Token appearance
Windows Terminal	contrib/windows-terminal/{token,token-flint,token-temper}.json	Copy the selected schemes into settings or fragments
Xcode	contrib/xcode/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.xccolortheme	Copy to the Xcode theme directory and select the visible name
Zsh	contrib/zsh/{token,token-flint,token-temper}-{dark,light}.zsh	Source the selected file from .zshrc

The recommended classic Token Obsidian accent, #bc6a49, is deliberately a compromise between its light and dark accents. Keeping one user-level accent avoids having to change the Obsidian setting whenever macOS switches appearance. Token Flint and Token Temper are independently installable as Token Flint and Token Temper.

License

BSD 3-Clause