A deep dive into pattern templating
How Gtheme turns a single config pattern into a correctly themed file for any of 350+ palettes — no per-theme copies, no manual editing.
The core trick that makes Gtheme work is deceptively simple: instead of keeping one config file per theme, you keep one pattern with placeholders, and Gtheme fills in the active theme’s values when you apply.
Placeholders
A pattern is just your normal config with {{...}} attributes where colors go:
[colors.primary]
background = "{{base00}}"
foreground = "{{base05}}"
[colors.normal]
red = "{{red}}"
green = "{{green}}"
blue = "{{blue}}"At apply time, Gtheme resolves each placeholder against the selected theme and writes the finished file to where the app expects it.
Why this scales
Adding a new theme costs nothing on the app side — every pattern already knows how to render it. And adding a new app is a one-time job: drop in the placeholders once, and that app joins the themed set for all 350+ palettes at once.
$ gtheme theme apply catppuccin
✓ resolved 18 patterns
✓ repainted 42 targets in 131msNo copies to keep in sync. No file you forgot to update. Just one pattern, many themes.