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Feb 21, 2026

36 Shades of Terminal: Why Random Kitty Themes Make Work Better

Every time I open a terminal, I get a surprise.

Maybe it’s the warm amber of Gruvbox. Maybe it’s the neon punch of Synthwave ‘84. Maybe it’s the deep ocean blues of Kanagawa.

I don’t choose. The system chooses for me.

Why Random?

Terminal work can be monotonous. Same commands, same workflows, same walls of text.

But when every session has a different aesthetic? Something shifts. The work feels fresh. You notice things differently. Your environment is alive.

It’s a tiny thing. It costs nothing. And it makes hours of terminal work just a little more pleasant.

The Setup (NixOS/Home Manager)

I maintain a curated list of 36 themes in my kitty.nix. All dark, all readable, all tested for contrast. No broken blues in ncurses apps.

The magic happens in three parts:

1. Theme definitions — each theme as a Nix attribute:

themes = {
  gruvbox-dark = ''
    background              #282828
    foreground              #ebdbb2
    # ... full color definitions
  '';
  tokyo-night = ''
    background              #1a1b26
    foreground              #c0caf5
    # ...
  '';
  # ... 34 more themes
};

2. A random selector script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
THEMES_DIR="$HOME/.config/kitty/themes"
THEME_FILES=("$THEMES_DIR"/*.conf)
RANDOM_THEME="${THEME_FILES[RANDOM % ${#THEME_FILES[@]}]}"
cp "$RANDOM_THEME" "$HOME/.config/kitty/current-theme.conf"

3. A wrapper that runs selection before launch:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
kitty-random-theme >/dev/null 2>&1
exec kitty --single-instance=no "$@"

Kitty’s config just includes the generated file:

include current-theme.conf

Home Manager handles installing themes to ~/.config/kitty/themes/ and ensuring the current-theme file stays writable between activations.

The Setup (Traditional Linux)

No Nix? No problem. Same principle, fewer abstractions.

1. Create a themes directory:

mkdir -p ~/.config/kitty/themes

2. Download themes (or create your own .conf files):

# Kitty has a built-in theme browser
kitty +kitten themes

# Or grab theme files from:
# https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty-themes

3. Create the selector script at ~/.local/bin/kitty-random-theme:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
THEMES_DIR="$HOME/.config/kitty/themes"
CURRENT="$HOME/.config/kitty/current-theme.conf"
THEME_FILES=("$THEMES_DIR"/*.conf)
cp "${THEME_FILES[RANDOM % ${#THEME_FILES[@]}]}" "$CURRENT"

4. Add to your kitty.conf:

include current-theme.conf

5. Create a launcher (or add to shell rc):

# Option A: wrapper script
alias kitty='kitty-random-theme && command kitty'

# Option B: add to .bashrc/.zshrc
kitty-random-theme 2>/dev/null

That’s it. Every new terminal, new vibes.

The Pleasure of Variety

I’ve been running this setup for months now. Some observations:

  • Certain themes trigger different moods. Matrix green for late-night hacking. Catppuccin for gentle morning work.
  • You develop favorites you never would have found. I didn’t know I liked Everforest until randomness handed it to me.
  • It breaks monotony. 8 hours of terminal work feels less same-y when the canvas keeps changing.
  • It’s just… nice. Not everything needs a productivity justification. Some things are just pleasant.

Curation Matters

I curate the theme pool. No light themes (eye strain). No low-contrast themes (readability). No broken color schemes that make ls output unreadable.

36 themes might sound like a lot, but each one is vetted. Every theme in the rotation brings something worth seeing.

Try It

If you spend significant time in a terminal, give random theming a shot for a week.

The variety is surprisingly refreshing.

And when Synthwave ‘84’s neon pink greets you on a gray Monday morning? That’s a tiny moment of joy.

Worth more than you’d expect.

The full Nix configuration lives in my nix-config repo if you want the complete setup.