DankMaterialShell/scripts/README-dynamic-theme.md

Dynamic Theme Setup

This setup adds wallpaper-aware "Auto" theme support to your Quickshell + Niri environment.

Prerequisites

Install the required tools:

# Required for Material-You palette generation
# Or paru -S matugen-bin on arch
cargo install matugen

# Required for JSON processing (usually pre-installed)
sudo pacman -S jq  # Arch Linux
# or: sudo apt install jq  # Ubuntu/Debian

# Background setters (choose one)
sudo pacman -S swaybg  # Simple and reliable

Setup

1. Initial wallpaper setup:

   # Set your initial wallpaper
   sudo cp ./set-wallpaper.sh /usr/local/bin
   sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/set-wallpaper.sh
   set-wallpaper.sh /path/to/your/wallpaper.jpg
   

2. Enable Niri color integration (optional): Niri doesn't have a good way to just set colors, you have to edit your main ~/.config/niri/config.kdl

   The script generates suggestions in ~/quickshell/generated_niri_colors.kdl you can manually configure in Niri.

3. Enable Auto theme: Open Control Center → Theme Picker → Click the gradient "Auto" button

4. Configure swaybg systemd unit

[Unit]
PartOf=graphical-session.target
After=graphical-session.target
Requisite=graphical-session.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/swaybg -m fill -i "%h/quickshell/current_wallpaper"
Restart=on-failure

systemctl enable --user --now swaybg