Kitty

Mechanism

Kitty supports reloading configuration on the fly. It does not natively support “themes” in the sense of swapping files without restarting, EXCEPT via:

1. Live Reload: It monitors kitty.conf and included files for changes.
2. Socket: kitten @ set-colors (requires allow_remote_control).

2. Themis’s Approach

We use the Include Pattern combined with Live Reload. We generate a file containing only the color/font variables, which kitty.conf includes. When Themis updates this file, Kitty detects the file change and re-renders the terminal instantly. No signals needed.

3. User Setup

One-time: Add this line to ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf:

include .themis.conf

4. Equivalent Configuration

If this wasn’t built-in, a user would define it in themis.yaml like this:

enroll:
  kitty:
    type: template
    input: "~/.config/themis/templates/kitty.conf.j2"
    output: "~/.config/kitty/.themis.conf"
    # No reload command needed; Kitty watches the file.

5. Template Variables Used

• bg, fg
• color0..color15
• font_family (optional)
• opacity (optional)