Highlight Groups

Highlight groups

Neotheme defines a small set of owned semantic groups, then maps Vim, Tree-sitter, LSP, diagnostics, terminal colors, and integrations onto the resolved palette.

Neotheme-owned groups

Text and surfaces

Group	Palette role	Attributes
NeothemeText	text.primary foreground	None
NeothemeTextBright	text.bright foreground	None
NeothemeTextStrong	text.strong foreground	Controlled by bold
NeothemeTextMuted	text.muted foreground	None
NeothemeSurfaceDark	surface.dark background	None
NeothemeSurface	surface.base background	None
NeothemeSurfaceRaised	surface.raised background	None
NeothemeSurfaceSelected	surface.selected background	None
NeothemeBorder	surface.border foreground	None

Syntax

Group	Palette role	Attributes
NeothemeComment	syntax.comment	Controlled by italic.comments
NeothemeString	syntax.string	Controlled by italic.strings
NeothemeKeyword	syntax.keyword	Controlled by bold
NeothemeFunction	syntax.function_name	None
NeothemeNumber	syntax.literal	None
NeothemeType	syntax.type	None
NeothemeProperty	syntax.property	None
NeothemeOperator	syntax.operator	Controlled by italic.operators
NeothemePunctuation	syntax.punctuation	None

Diagnostics and version control

Group	Palette role	Attributes
NeothemeError	diagnostic.error	Controlled by bold
NeothemeWarning	diagnostic.warning	Controlled by bold
NeothemeInformation	diagnostic.information	Controlled by bold
NeothemeHint	diagnostic.hint	None
NeothemeSuccess	diagnostic.success	Controlled by bold
NeothemeAdded	version_control.added	None
NeothemeChanged	version_control.changed	None
NeothemeRemoved	version_control.removed	None

Sidebar groups

Group	Definition
NeothemeSidebar	text.primary on surface.dark
NeothemeSidebarSign	surface.muted on surface.dark

Help and quickfix windows receive these groups through a window-local winhighlight mapping.

Core editor coverage

Core highlights cover:

• Standard Vim syntax groups
• Editor, inactive window, cursor line, and color column
• Search, current search, substitute, matching, and focus states
• Diff, added, changed, removed, and conflict states
• Line numbers, signs, folds, and separators
• Floats, shadows, titles, borders, and footers
• Popup menu, completion match, hints, and scrollbar states
• Messages, prompts, questions, errors, and warnings
• Quickfix, statusline, tabline, visual, whitespace, and spelling groups

Many standard groups link to a Neotheme-owned group; others combine foreground, background, and attributes from multiple semantic roles.

Tree-sitter coverage

Tree-sitter mappings include:

• Variables, parameters, members, constants, modules, labels, and attributes
• Strings, documentation strings, escapes, regular expressions, booleans, and numbers
• Functions, methods, constructors, operators, and types
• Keywords, directives, punctuation, comments, and comment diagnostics
• Markup headings, emphasis, quotes, math, links, raw content, and lists
• Diff captures and markup tags

LSP and diagnostic coverage

Neotheme maps standard LSP semantic token types to matching Tree-sitter captures. It also defines:

• Reference text, read, write, and target states
• Inlay hints, code lenses, and active signature parameters
• Deprecated and unnecessary diagnostics
• Common semantic modifiers such as readonly, static, declaration, and default library
• Readonly and default-library type modifier specializations

For each diagnostic severity (Error, Warn, Info, Hint, and Ok), Neotheme defines base, virtual text, virtual lines, underline, floating, and sign groups.

Terminal colors

Neotheme sets every ANSI terminal slot from semantic roles:

Index	Semantic role
0	surface.base
1	version_control.conflict
2	diagnostic.success
3	diagnostic.warning
4	syntax.property
5	diagnostic.hint
6	text.muted
7	text.primary
8	surface.base
9	diagnostic.error
10	diagnostic.success
11	diagnostic.warning
12	diagnostic.information
13	diagnostic.hint
14	text.muted
15	text.on_error

terminal_color_background uses surface.base; terminal_color_foreground uses text.primary.

Inspect active highlights

Use Neovim's built-in commands:

:highlight NeothemeKeyword
:highlight Normal
:highlight @function

From Lua:

print(vim.inspect(vim.api.nvim_get_hl(0, { name = "NeothemeKeyword", link = false })))

See Palette Customization to change the roles these groups consume.