Ember Tide
A warm–cool dark theme for VS Code, Zed and your terminal: a night-blue canvas, ember coral and amber for the things you
write, tide blue and teal for the things you call. Both editors are generated from a single palette, so they look the same.
Highlights
- Readable first — every syntax color reaches at least 7:1 contrast on the editor background (comments ≥ 4.5:1, even on the highlighted line),
and primary UI text passes WCAG AA.
- Consistent roles across languages — checked against 35+ grammars: TypeScript/TSX, JavaScript, Python, Go, Rust,
C/C++, C#, Java, PHP, Ruby, Lua, Swift, Dart, R, Shell, PowerShell, SQL, HTML, CSS/SCSS, Markdown, JSON, YAML, TOML,
INI,
.env, Dockerfile, Makefile, Prisma, Protobuf and more.
- Semantic highlighting tuned to match the TextMate colors, so nothing jumps when the language server loads.
- Subtle UI — an ember line marks the active tab, quiet tide-blue borders everywhere else.
Palette
| Role |
Color |
|
| Keyword |
#D29BFF |
violet |
| Function / method |
#70C7FF |
sky blue |
| Property / field |
#72D4C9 |
teal |
| Type / class |
#F2CC78 |
gold |
Built-in type (string, int…) |
#B3B1FF |
lavender |
| Namespace / module |
#BDAA67 |
olive gold |
| Number / constant / boolean |
#FF9F5E |
orange |
| Decorator / attribute |
#8EE0B5 |
mint |
| String |
#ACE08F |
green |
| Variable |
#EDA898 |
coral |
| Parameter |
#FF8689 italic |
coral red |
this / self |
#8AB3FF italic |
periwinkle |
| Comment |
#8694AC italic |
slate |
Install
VS Code (and VSCodium, Cursor, Windsurf…)
Search “Ember Tide” in the Extensions view, then pick it with
Ctrl/Cmd+K Ctrl/Cmd+T.
Zed
Open the command palette → zed: extensions → search “Ember Tide” → Install, then select it with theme selector: toggle.
Optional: matching semantic colors in Zed
Zed applies language-server colors through settings rather than themes. To get the same semantic colors as in VS Code,
add the rules from zed/semantic_token_rules.json to your settings.json:
{
"semantic_tokens": "combined",
"global_lsp_settings": {
"semantic_token_rules": [ /* paste the rules here */ ]
}
}
Terminal
Matching palettes for Ptyxis, GNOME Terminal, Konsole, Windows Terminal, iTerm2, Ghostty, Kitty, Alacritty and WezTerm
live in terminals/ — see terminals/README.md for per-terminal install steps.
Recommended settings
The screenshots use JetBrains Mono at 15px with a 1.55 line height:
// VS Code
"editor.fontFamily": "'JetBrains Mono', monospace",
"editor.fontSize": 15,
"editor.lineHeight": 1.55,
"editor.fontLigatures": true,
"editor.semanticHighlighting.enabled": true
Build from source
Requires Node.js 18+. Works on Linux, macOS and Windows.
npm run build # generate themes/ (VS Code), zed/ (Zed) and terminals/ from palette.mjs
npm run install:vscode # package the .vsix and install it into VS Code / VSCodium / Cursor / Windsurf
npm run build:zed # copy the theme into Zed's themes folder
npm run install:all # VS Code + Zed + Ptyxis palette (Linux)
All colors live in palette.mjs; the editor-specific mappings are in src/.
License
MIT
