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Theme Development

Community Themes

Build vault-scoped Cortex themes with paired light and dark CSS files.

On this page

Community themes are vault-scoped CSS themes. Cortex discovers theme folders in the active vault, parses each manifest.json, registers a light/dark theme family, and loads only the active CSS variant on demand.

Install location

<vault>/.cortex/themes/<theme-id>/
  manifest.json
  light.css
  dark.css

Start here

Getting Started With ThemesCreate a minimal theme with manifest, light.css, and dark.css.Theme ManifestDefine theme identity and safe stylesheet paths.CSS VariablesUse Cortex tokens before reaching for selectors.Stable Hooks and SelectorsTarget documented hooks when variables are not enough.

Mental Model

  • The manifest describes identity and stylesheet paths.
  • The CSS files define variables and targeted rules.
  • Cortex injects community CSS directly and lets the browser own the cascade.
  • Theme CSS should be scoped to body.theme-<theme-name>-light and body.theme-<theme-name>-dark.

Deeper references

Markdown and CalloutsStyle Markdown surfaces, code, headings, and callout colors safely.Light, Dark, and System ModesPair theme variants with user appearance settings.Publishing and ReviewPrepare theme assets for reviewed community listing.Theme Best PracticesKeep contrast, performance, and user overrides healthy.