Theming

Using CSS variables and theme tokens.

Want to build a theme visually? Open the theme editor to try colors, radius and fonts on live components, then use Get code to copy the CSS into your project.

Another UI is themed with CSS variables. Components use semantic tokens like background, foreground and primary. Change a token in your CSS and every component that uses it follows.

<div className="bg-background text-foreground" />

Tailwind maps these tokens into utilities like bg-background, text-foreground, border-border, and ring-ring.

Dark mode works by overriding the same tokens inside a .dark selector. See the dark mode docs for adding a theme provider and toggling the .dark class.

Token Convention

Tokens come in background and foreground pairs. The base token controls the surface color and the -foreground token controls the text and icon color that sits on that surface.

The background suffix is omitted for the surface token. For example, primary pairs with primary-foreground.

Given the following CSS variables:

--primary: oklch(0.205 0 0);
--primary-foreground: oklch(0.985 0 0);

The background color of the following component will be var(--primary) and the foreground color will be var(--primary-foreground).

<div className="bg-primary text-primary-foreground">Hello</div>

Theme Tokens

These tokens live in your CSS file under :root and .dark.

Token	What it controls	Used by
`background` / `foreground`	The default app background and text color.	The page shell, page sections, and default text.
`card` / `card-foreground`	Elevated surfaces and the content inside them.	`Card`, dashboard panels, settings panels.
`popover` / `popover-foreground`	Floating surfaces and the content inside them.	`Popover`, `DropdownMenu`, `ContextMenu`, and other overlays.
`primary` / `primary-foreground`	High-emphasis actions and brand surfaces.	Default `Button`, selected states, badges, and active accents.
`secondary` / `secondary-foreground`	Lower-emphasis filled actions and supporting surfaces.	Secondary buttons, secondary badges, and supporting UI.
`muted` / `muted-foreground`	Subtle surfaces and lower-emphasis content.	Descriptions, placeholders, empty states, helper text, and subdued surfaces.
`accent` / `accent-foreground`	Interactive hover, focus, and active surfaces.	Ghost buttons, menu highlight states, hovered rows, and selected items.
`destructive`	Destructive actions and error emphasis.	Destructive buttons, invalid states, and destructive menu items.
`border`	Default borders and separators.	Cards, menus, tables, separators, and layout dividers.
`input`	Form control borders and input surface treatment.	`Input`, `Textarea`, `Select`, and outline-style controls.
`ring`	Focus rings and outlines.	Buttons, inputs, checkboxes, menus, and other focusable controls.
`chart-1` ... `chart-5`	The default chart palette.	Charts and chart-driven dashboard blocks.
`sidebar` / `sidebar-foreground`	The base sidebar surface and default sidebar text.	The `Sidebar` container and its default content.
`sidebar-primary` / `sidebar-primary-foreground`	High-emphasis actions inside the sidebar.	Active items, icon tiles, badges, and sidebar CTAs.
`sidebar-accent` / `sidebar-accent-foreground`	Hover and selected states inside the sidebar.	Sidebar menu hover states, open items, and interactive rows.
`sidebar-border`	Sidebar-specific borders and separators.	Sidebar headers, groups, and internal dividers.
`sidebar-ring`	Sidebar-specific focus rings.	Focused controls inside the sidebar.
`radius`	The base corner radius scale.	Cards, inputs, buttons, popovers, and the derived `radius-*` tokens.

The chart tokens are covered in more detail in the Chart theming docs.

Radius Scale

--radius is the base radius token for your theme.

A small radius scale is derived from it so components can use consistent corner sizes while still sharing a single source of truth.

app/globals.css

@theme inline {
  --radius-sm: calc(var(--radius) * 0.6);
  --radius-md: calc(var(--radius) * 0.8);
  --radius-lg: var(--radius);
  --radius-xl: calc(var(--radius) * 1.4);
  --radius-2xl: calc(var(--radius) * 1.8);
  --radius-3xl: calc(var(--radius) * 2.2);
  --radius-4xl: calc(var(--radius) * 2.6);
}

This means:

radius-lg is the base value.
Smaller radii scale down from --radius.
Larger radii scale up from --radius.
Changing --radius updates the entire radius scale.

Adding New Tokens

To add a new token, define it under :root and .dark, then expose it to Tailwind with @theme inline.

app/globals.css

:root {
  --warning: oklch(0.84 0.16 84);
  --warning-foreground: oklch(0.28 0.07 46);
}
 
.dark {
  --warning: oklch(0.41 0.11 46);
  --warning-foreground: oklch(0.99 0.02 95);
}
 
@theme inline {
  --color-warning: var(--warning);
  --color-warning-foreground: var(--warning-foreground);
}

You can now use bg-warning and text-warning-foreground in your components.

<div className="bg-warning text-warning-foreground" />

Default Theme CSS

This is the full default theme. Copy it into your global CSS file and adjust the tokens as needed.

app/globals.css

@import "tailwindcss";
@import "shadcn/tailwind.css";
 
@custom-variant dark (&:is(.dark *));
 
@theme inline {
  --color-background: var(--background);
  --color-foreground: var(--foreground);
  --color-card: var(--card);
  --color-card-foreground: var(--card-foreground);
  --color-popover: var(--popover);
  --color-popover-foreground: var(--popover-foreground);
  --color-primary: var(--primary);
  --color-primary-foreground: var(--primary-foreground);
  --color-secondary: var(--secondary);
  --color-secondary-foreground: var(--secondary-foreground);
  --color-muted: var(--muted);
  --color-muted-foreground: var(--muted-foreground);
  --color-accent: var(--accent);
  --color-accent-foreground: var(--accent-foreground);
  --color-destructive: var(--destructive);
  --color-border: var(--border);
  --color-input: var(--input);
  --color-ring: var(--ring);
  --color-chart-1: var(--chart-1);
  --color-chart-2: var(--chart-2);
  --color-chart-3: var(--chart-3);
  --color-chart-4: var(--chart-4);
  --color-chart-5: var(--chart-5);
  --color-sidebar: var(--sidebar);
  --color-sidebar-foreground: var(--sidebar-foreground);
  --color-sidebar-primary: var(--sidebar-primary);
  --color-sidebar-primary-foreground: var(--sidebar-primary-foreground);
  --color-sidebar-accent: var(--sidebar-accent);
  --color-sidebar-accent-foreground: var(--sidebar-accent-foreground);
  --color-sidebar-border: var(--sidebar-border);
  --color-sidebar-ring: var(--sidebar-ring);
  --radius-sm: calc(var(--radius) * 0.6);
  --radius-md: calc(var(--radius) * 0.8);
  --radius-lg: var(--radius);
  --radius-xl: calc(var(--radius) * 1.4);
  --radius-2xl: calc(var(--radius) * 1.8);
  --radius-3xl: calc(var(--radius) * 2.2);
  --radius-4xl: calc(var(--radius) * 2.6);
}
 
:root {
  --radius: 0.625rem;
  --background: oklch(1 0 0);
  --foreground: oklch(0.145 0 0);
  --card: oklch(1 0 0);
  --card-foreground: oklch(0.145 0 0);
  --popover: oklch(1 0 0);
  --popover-foreground: oklch(0.145 0 0);
  --primary: oklch(0.205 0 0);
  --primary-foreground: oklch(0.985 0 0);
  --secondary: oklch(0.97 0 0);
  --secondary-foreground: oklch(0.205 0 0);
  --muted: oklch(0.97 0 0);
  --muted-foreground: oklch(0.556 0 0);
  --accent: oklch(0.97 0 0);
  --accent-foreground: oklch(0.205 0 0);
  --destructive: oklch(0.577 0.245 27.325);
  --border: oklch(0.922 0 0);
  --input: oklch(0.922 0 0);
  --ring: oklch(0.708 0 0);
  --chart-1: oklch(0.646 0.222 41.116);
  --chart-2: oklch(0.6 0.118 184.704);
  --chart-3: oklch(0.398 0.07 227.392);
  --chart-4: oklch(0.828 0.189 84.429);
  --chart-5: oklch(0.769 0.188 70.08);
  --sidebar: oklch(0.985 0 0);
  --sidebar-foreground: oklch(0.145 0 0);
  --sidebar-primary: oklch(0.205 0 0);
  --sidebar-primary-foreground: oklch(0.985 0 0);
  --sidebar-accent: oklch(0.97 0 0);
  --sidebar-accent-foreground: oklch(0.205 0 0);
  --sidebar-border: oklch(0.922 0 0);
  --sidebar-ring: oklch(0.708 0 0);
}
 
.dark {
  --background: oklch(0.145 0 0);
  --foreground: oklch(0.985 0 0);
  --card: oklch(0.205 0 0);
  --card-foreground: oklch(0.985 0 0);
  --popover: oklch(0.205 0 0);
  --popover-foreground: oklch(0.985 0 0);
  --primary: oklch(0.922 0 0);
  --primary-foreground: oklch(0.205 0 0);
  --secondary: oklch(0.269 0 0);
  --secondary-foreground: oklch(0.985 0 0);
  --muted: oklch(0.269 0 0);
  --muted-foreground: oklch(0.708 0 0);
  --accent: oklch(0.269 0 0);
  --accent-foreground: oklch(0.985 0 0);
  --destructive: oklch(0.704 0.191 22.216);
  --border: oklch(1 0 0 / 10%);
  --input: oklch(1 0 0 / 15%);
  --ring: oklch(0.556 0 0);
  --chart-1: oklch(0.488 0.243 264.376);
  --chart-2: oklch(0.696 0.17 162.48);
  --chart-3: oklch(0.769 0.188 70.08);
  --chart-4: oklch(0.627 0.265 303.9);
  --chart-5: oklch(0.645 0.246 16.439);
  --sidebar: oklch(0.205 0 0);
  --sidebar-foreground: oklch(0.985 0 0);
  --sidebar-primary: oklch(0.488 0.243 264.376);
  --sidebar-primary-foreground: oklch(0.985 0 0);
  --sidebar-accent: oklch(0.269 0 0);
  --sidebar-accent-foreground: oklch(0.985 0 0);
  --sidebar-border: oklch(1 0 0 / 10%);
  --sidebar-ring: oklch(0.556 0 0);
}
 
@layer base {
  * {
    @apply border-border outline-ring/50;
  }
 
  body {
    @apply bg-background text-foreground;
  }
}

Installation Dark Mode

On This Page

Token Convention Theme Tokens Radius Scale Adding New Tokens Default Theme CSS