tmux-auto-dark-mode

Automatically switch tmux to dark mode at night (for macOS).

Features

• Automatically switch tmux (status line) to a dark styling when macOS enables Dark Mode
• Optionally switch iTerm2 to a dark color preset simultaneously
• Switch back to light status line at day time

Installation

Tmux Plugin Manager (recommended)

Add these lines to your tmux.conf:

set-option -g @plugin 'victorkristof/tmux-auto-dark-mode'
set-option -g @adm-dark-status '/path/to/dark-status.conf'
set-option -g @adm-light-status '/path/to/light-status.conf'

Note for tmux-continuum users: Make sure to add the above line after set-option -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum'.

Hit prefixI to fetch the plugin and source it. The plugin will automatically start in the background. You can test it by turning on macOS Dark Mode (from System Preferences -> General -> Appearance -> Dark). There might be a slight delay, as tmux-auto-dark-mode relies on tmux update interval which defaults to 15 seconds (check tmux show-options -gqv "status-interval").

Manual Installation

Clone the repo:

git clone git@github.com:victorkristof/tmux-auto-dark-mode.git ~/to/path

Add this line to your tmux.conf:

run-shell ~/to/path/dark-mode.tmux
set-option -g @adm-dark-status '/path/to/dark-status.conf'
set-option -g @adm-light-status '/path/to/light-status.conf'

Source your tmux config by running:

tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf

The plugin will automatically start in the background. You can test it by turning on macOS Dark Mode (from System Preferences -> General -> Appearance -> Dark). There might be a slight delay, as tmux-auto-dark-mode relies on tmux update interval which defaults to 15 seconds (check tmux show-options -gqv "status-interval").

Automatically Switch iTerm2 Color Preset

Optionally, this plugin can switch iTerm2 to a dark or a light color preset. I didn't find an easy way to do that, so it's a bit hacky for now. (If you have a better idea, please open an issue or send a pull request!) It requires you to do the following steps:

1. Make sure that your profile has one dark color preset and one light color preset

In Preferences -> Profiles -> [Choose profile you would like to use] -> Color Presets -> [Check that you have two different color presets for dark and light].

2. Add two keyboard mappings to switch to the dark and the light presets

In Preferences -> Profiles -> Keys -> [Select the same profile as in (1)] -> [Click the + button] -> [Select "Load color preset" as Action] -> [Add Shift Control Command Option D for the dark color preset, do the same with L for the light color preset]

It has to be exactly these mappings, as I have hard-coded them in the plugin. I chose them in order to reduce the probability of conflict with general mappings.

3. Add this line your your tmux.conf

set-option -g @adm-iterm 'on'

Requirements

• macOS Catalina (10.15)
• tmux 3.1 or above (not tested on earlier versions)