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dylanaraps/pywal

★ 9,073PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

TLDR

Pywal generates a matching color palette from any image you choose and instantly applies it to your terminal, text editor, status bar, and other desktop apps so everything matches your wallpaper.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Pywal))
    What it does
      Generate palette
      Apply to desktop
      Real-time update
    Backends
      5 color generators
      250 built-in themes
    Use Cases
      Terminal theming
      Desktop consistency
    Setup
      pip install
      Distro packages
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Automatically theme your terminal and text editor to match any wallpaper you set, in real time.

USE CASE 2

Apply one of 250+ built-in color themes across your desktop without providing a wallpaper image.

USE CASE 3

Create and share custom JSON color theme files compatible with Pywal's theme format.

USE CASE 4

Integrate Pywal with your status bar or other Linux desktop tools to keep the entire UI visually consistent.

Tech stack

Python

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

In plain English

Pywal is a Python tool that looks at an image you choose and pulls out its most prominent colors, then applies those colors across your entire desktop environment at once. The idea is that if you set a wallpaper you like, your terminal, text editor, status bar, and other programs all shift to a matching color palette automatically. Color updates happen in real time. Terminal emulators and text-based interfaces (TTYs) get the new colors immediately when you run the tool, with no need to restart anything. The project is designed to stay out of your way: it does not overwrite your existing configuration files. Instead it generates separate color files that your other programs can read and apply on their own. The tool supports five different color-generation backends, each producing a slightly different palette from the same image, so you can pick whichever result you prefer. It also ships with more than 250 pre-built themes you can apply without needing an image at all, and you can write your own theme files in the same format to share with others. Pywal is available through pip, the standard Python package installer, and through most major Linux distribution package managers. The project wiki on GitHub contains guides for installation, getting started, and customization. The README is short and points to the wiki for details rather than reproducing them in full.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I use Pywal on Linux. Write a shell script that picks a random wallpaper from a folder and applies a matching Pywal color scheme automatically at login.
Prompt 2
Show me how to configure Neovim to pick up Pywal-generated colors from its cache file so my editor theme always matches my wallpaper.
Prompt 3
Help me write a custom Pywal-compatible JSON theme file using a dark blue and orange palette that I can share with others.
Prompt 4
Explain how to persist the Pywal color scheme across reboots so it is re-applied automatically every time the system starts up.
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