terminal-auto-theme

Automatically switches your Terminal.app profile when macOS toggles between light and dark mode. Runs silently in the background with no dock icon.

Why

In macOS 26, Apple changed Terminal.app's default profile from Basic to Clear Dark. Basic adapted to the system appearance automatically, Clear Dark doesn't. If you switch to light mode, Terminal stays dark.

Apple ships a matching Clear Light profile but doesn't switch between them. This is a lightweight workaround that does.

Install

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/synistr/terminal-auto-theme/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

How it works

A lightweight background process listens for macOS appearance changes. When the system switches between light and dark mode, it updates Terminal.app's profile — both for new windows and any already-open tabs.

By default it switches between Clear Light and Clear Dark profiles. Edit ~/.config/terminal-auto-theme/switch-theme.sh to use your own profiles.

Uninstall

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/synistr/terminal-auto-theme/main/scripts/uninstall.sh | bash

Build from source

Requires Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

git clone https://github.com/synistr/terminal-auto-theme.git
cd terminal-auto-theme
make install

License

MIT