Stylix Global Theming (modules/desktop/niri/stylix)

Stylix is a NixOS module that provides system-wide colorschemes and typography management. In the nixri configuration, Stylix is heavily integrated to provide a unified, deeply customized aesthetic across all desktop environments, application toolkits, and terminal configurations natively.

Configuration Structure

The configuration lives in modules/desktop/niri/stylix/default.nix.

Theming Base & Palette

The configuration uses a base16 color scheme defined declaratively in Nix. - Polarity: Forced to "dark" globally to ensure applications default to dark-mode variants. - Base16 Scheme: A customized Catppuccin Macchiato/Mocha blend, defining all 16 distinct colors (backgrounds, foregrounds, and accents) explicitly within the base16Scheme block. - Wallpaper Engine Seed: The image property points to ${self}/modules/wallpapers/tree.jpg. While Stylix can use this image to auto-generate colors, nixri specifies the base16Scheme manually to guarantee exact hex values and prevent unexpected shifting.

Typography and Cursors

• Fonts:
  • Monospace: JetBrainsMono Nerd Font (via pkgs.nerd-fonts.jetbrains-mono)
  • Sans-Serif: DejaVu Sans (via pkgs.dejavu_fonts)
• Cursor: The catppuccin-mocha-mauve-cursors package is injected globally, locked firmly at size 24.

Dynamic Target Integrations

Stylix injects the defined Base16 colors, fonts, and cursors directly into supported applications via the targets block:

Auto-Themed Targets

• GTK (gtk): Enforces GTK themes and injects extra raw CSS. This custom CSS explicitly strips borders and drop-shadows from client-side window decorations (csd) to fit Niri’s flat aesthetic, and overrides Thunar’s right-click menu popup colors for better readability.
• Qt (qt): Hooks the Kvantum engine into qt5ct/qt6ct to force Qt-based programs (like VLC or OBS) to align with the global dark theme.
• Applications: btop, swaylock, firefox, and zen-browser have automatic CSS/config generation enabled, instantly inheriting the base16 scheme.

Manually Themed Targets (Disabled in Stylix)

• vscode, rofi, foot, neovim, waybar, dank-material-shell, spicetify, cava, feh.
• Why are they disabled? These applications are explicitly disabled in Stylix because they require highly specialized, custom configurations. Instead of using Stylix’s generic configuration templates, these apps pull the global colors manually via config.lib.stylix.colors.baseXX (as seen in the Rofi and Neovim docs) to construct highly complex, custom UI designs without conflicts.

Icon System

• Icons: Forces the Papirus icon theme across the desktop. It is explicitly overridden using pkgs.papirus-icon-theme.override { color = "violet"; } to perfectly harmonize with the global Catppuccin Mauve accent color.