github / github/copilot-cli

Allow pinning the GitHub theme to dark or light

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area:theming-accessibility
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Description

Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve

The  github  color mode follows the reported OS or terminal appearance, and there's no way to pin it. I want the GitHub palette in dark, permanently, while macOS stays in Light during the day. That combination isn't reachable today.

Proposed solution

Requested change: accept an explicit variant, such as  /theme github-dark  and  /theme github-light , with plain  github  keeping today's automatic behavior. A separate "follow OS appearance" toggle would work equally well.

Example prompts or workflows

No response

Additional context

What happens now: my terminal profile is black, but macOS switches to Light on its daytime schedule. Every running CLI session flips to a white background at once, usually noticed on wake from sleep. Restarting fixes it, because startup derives colors from the terminal's actual palette instead.

The relevant behavior, from  app.js  in 1.0.81-9:

if (n() === "github") {
let c = l === "light" ? { bg: cse, fg: Pq } // #ffffff
: { bg: lse, fg: Rq }; // #0D1117
t(d => d && { ...d, ...c }); return
}

 github  is the only mode that hard-follows the light/dark signal. Every other mode re-queries the terminal's real colors, so those stay dark. That makes the palette choice and the follow-the-OS behavior one setting when they're really two.

Worth noting the workaround isn't obvious. Setting a fixed theme in the terminal emulator can work, since the terminal's  DECSET 996/997  reply takes priority over macOS appearance, but that changes the emulator's own window chrome as a side effect. There's no fix available from within the CLI.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start in app.js by tracing how the github theme is parsed and how its light or dark palette is selected. Confirm the existing automatic github behavior, then verify explicit github-dark and github-light variants can remain fixed while plain github still follows the reported appearance.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
67/100

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