Run scripts when the system color scheme changes between light and dark.

For now, simply use Homebrew is the easiest option:

# 1. Install the binary
brew install NiclasvanEyk/dark-mode-daemon/dark-mode-daemon

# 2. (optional) Launch the daemon on system start
brew services start dark-mode-daemon

Note that if you don't run the second step, you can still manually watch for changes using dark-mode-daemon daemon.

Create a new directory for scripts that should be run when changing color modes:

mkdir $HOME/.config/dark-mode-daemon/scripts

Alternatively use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME instead of $HOME/.config if you configured it

Then create as many scripts there as you like, but don't forget to make them executable. They will be automatically be run when changing between dark and light mode. The DMD_COLOR_MODE environment variable will be either set to light or dark, depending on the new mode.

The original motivation for creating this program was to sync theming environment variables, such as difftastics DFT_BACKGROUND or bats BAT_THEME with the current operating system color scheme. But lets use a more impractical example.

MacOS includes say, a text-to-speech program available on the command line. We can use this to loudly announce our dark mode changes.

First we create the script

touch $HOME/.config/dark-mode-daemon/scripts/announce.sh

Then fill it with the following content

#!/usr/bin/env bash

say "Changed to $DMD_COLOR_MODE mode"

finally make it executable

chmod +x $HOME/.config/dark-mode-daemon/scripts/announce.sh

You can verify that it will be run using

dark-mode-daemon list

this should print something like the following:

📂 Using scripts in /Users/youruser/.config/dark-mode-daemon/scripts...

/Users/youruser/.config/dark-mode-daemon/scripts/announce.sh

Now turn your volume up, toggle dark mode, and be amazed at the result. Or create more useful scripts that adjust your terminal emulator, vim/emacs/editor theme, or something totally different.