Switch iTerm2 color preset automatic base on macOS dark mode.

iterm2_switch_automatic.md

The latest beta (3.5) includes separate color settings for light & dark mode. Toggling dark mode automatically switches colors.

Vist iTerm2 homepage or use brew install iterm2-beta to download the beta. Thanks @stefanwascoding.

---

1. Add switch_automatic.py to ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/iTerm2/Scripts/AutoLaunch with:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import asyncio
import iterm2

async def main(connection):
    async with iterm2.VariableMonitor(connection, iterm2.VariableScopes.APP, "effectiveTheme", None) as mon:
        while True:
            # Block until theme changes
            theme = await mon.async_get()

            # Themes have space-delimited attributes, one of which will be light or dark.
            parts = theme.split(" ")
            if "dark" in parts:
                preset = await iterm2.ColorPreset.async_get(connection, "Dark Background")
            else:
                preset = await iterm2.ColorPreset.async_get(connection, "Light Background")

            # Update the list of all profiles and iterate over them.
            profiles=await iterm2.PartialProfile.async_query(connection)
            for partial in profiles:
                # Fetch the full profile and then set the color preset in it.
                profile = await partial.async_get_full_profile()
                await profile.async_set_color_preset(preset)

iterm2.run_forever(main)

Change Dark Background and Light Background to color presets you like.

2. Enabled switch_automatic.py from Scripts menu.

The latest beta (3.5) includes separate color settings for light & dark mode. Toggling dark mode automatically switches colors.

The latest beta (3.5) includes separate color settings for light & dark mode. Toggling dark mode automatically switches colors.

Great!

Hello everybody, this script is really helpful, but I find myself having to click on “Scripts > switch_automatic.py” when the system theme switches in order to make the iTerm theme change… shouldn’t it happen automatically as soon as the system theme changes? Am I doing something wrong?

@xplosionmind in ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/iTerm2/Scripts folder you can create a new folder AutoLaunch, then put the script into it, it will work always.
But the official solution is download latest beta (3.5) as @stefanwascoding said.

in ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/iTerm2/Scripts folder you can create a new folder AutoLaunch, then put the script into it, it will work always.

Thanks! It now works wonderfully.

But the official solution is download latest beta (3.5) as @stefanwascoding said.

Does this mean that since 3.5 there won’t be any necessity for this script to be used?

@xplosionmind Yes.

Hello folks - I was able to get the background switching from dark to light whenever the system settings toggle. But the text color seems to reset to white every time. Is there a command I can use to set the text to different rgb combinations?

The latest beta (3.5) includes separate color settings for light & dark mode. Toggling dark mode automatically switches colors.

Works like a charm. Hope this will be included in future stable versions.

the text color seems to reset to white every time.

Maybe this has been fixed since I don’t experience this 🤷‍♀️

Can anyone share why this feature (of "matching" macOS system light/dark theme/mode for foreground-and-background of terminal windows) is not already "built in" to iTerm2?

-Maybe- said feature has already been added since this discussion thread started?

@johnnyutahh It appears that it's still in beta. So please use the beta 😄

Working well Thanks!

Works well for me, too, just at it looks per @fauzan-n's above screenshot. Thank you @pdostal and iTerm2 team!

First of all, thanks for adding the feature!!

I can't install the beta version via brew...

Any advice? Thank you!

brew install iterm2-beta
Warning: No available formula with the name "iterm2-beta".
==> Searching for similarly named formulae and casks...
==> Casks
iterm2

To install iterm2, run:
  brew install --cask iterm2

@stevo-knievo it's available as homebrew/cask-versions/iterm2-beta