Wox Theme Creator

Create a deliberately designed theme with a coherent palette, readable states, and a valid authored JSON document. Prefer schema v2 for new themes. Preserve the requested output location and existing theme identity when editing; generate a fresh UUID for a new theme.

Embedded theme editor

When invoked by Wox's theme editor, work on the supplied current draft and editable property list. These are the authoritative available fields. Apply the design guidance below; return only the requested JSON patch of changed properties, preserving unrelated values and theme identity. Do not require repository access, filesystem tools, or a new theme file. The editor validates the patch and handles preview, undo, and saving. A normal AI Chat or repository authoring session continues to use the document workflow below.

Source of truth

Paths below are relative to the Wox repository root. Read the current implementation before choosing fields; do not invent theme tokens or copy resolved runtime values into a new theme.

• wox.core/common/theme_schema_v2.go: complete v2 document, accepted fields, color/geometry defaults, validation, and platform resolution.
• wox.core/resource/themes/: built-in themes as working examples.
• wox.core/common/theme_surfaces.go and theme_package.go: image surface declarations, resource validation, and package parsing.
• wox.core/common/theme_schema_v1.go: legacy wire format and behavior, needed when converting an old theme.
• wox.core/common/theme_runtime.go and theme.go: independent runtime representation, schema dispatch, and Wox version checks. These are not the authored JSON schema.

Each schema owns its complete document and parser. Missing SchemaVersion or historical zero means v1. Loading must not rewrite old files. Changing v2 default semantics would change sparse themes; a new format belongs in a separately registered schema, not a retrofit of v1 or v2.

Image-backed themes

Wox 2.4.4 adds optional image surfaces to schema 2. Existing v1/v2 JSON files, color defaults, window materials, and Action Panel placement are unchanged. Use MinWoxVersion: "2.4.4" when publishing a theme using these fields.

Package layout

A .wox-theme file is a ZIP archive with theme.json at its root, not inside an enclosing folder:

ming.wox-theme
  theme.json
  assets/lacquer.png
  assets/palace-frame.png
  assets/crest.png

Open the package with Wox, or select the file and invoke Wox's selection query. The installer shows its name and an Install action. Installation validates all entries before replacing <theme-directory>/<ThemeId>/; failed staging leaves the previous package intact. Plain <ThemeId>.json themes remain supported. Resource-backed themes are excluded from Cloud Sync. Theme editor color changes and Save As retain the image declarations and assets.

The package accepts PNG and JPEG images. Paths are case-sensitive, slash-separated, relative to the package root. Absolute paths, traversal, symlinks, Windows device names, and case-colliding archive entries are rejected. Limits are 128 archive entries, 32 MiB uncompressed data, and 16 megapixels across all images. Nine-slice source cuts must leave a nonempty center. Assets for inactive platforms must also be included. No network image URLs or executable theme code are supported.

Example theme.json

{
  "SchemaVersion": 2,
  "MinWoxVersion": "2.4.5",
  "ThemeId": "6cf090bd-ef04-44e9-aa61-cbe0e1dc2275",
  "ThemeName": "明",
  "BaseBackgroundColor": "#721D16",
  "BaseTextColor": "#FFF0CA",
  "BaseAccentColor": "#F4C453",
  "AppBackgroundColor": "transparent",
  "OverlayBackgroundColor": "#721D16",
  "OverlayFontColor": "#FFF0CA",
  "Surfaces": {
    "App": {
      "ContentInsets": {"Top": 110, "Right": 48, "Bottom": 32, "Left": 48},
      "Background": {
        "Source": "assets/lacquer.png",
        "Mode": "tile",
        "Size": {"Width": 128, "Height": 128}
      },
      "Frame": {
        "Source": "assets/palace-frame.png",
        "Mode": "nineSlice",
        "Slice": {"Top": 160, "Right": 96, "Bottom": 96, "Left": 96},
        "Insets": {"Top": 80, "Right": 48, "Bottom": 48, "Left": 48}
      },
      "Decorations": [{
        "Source": "assets/crest.png",
        "Anchor": "topCenter",
        "Offset": {"X": 0, "Y": 0},
        "Size": {"Width": 120, "Height": 110}
      }]
    },
    "ActionContainer": {
      "Background": {"Source": "assets/lacquer.png", "Mode": "tile"}
    }
  }
}

Surface contract

InnerShadow optionally shades inward over child fills to make a panel appear recessed into its frame. It accepts Color, Width (0..64 logical units), Radius and Insets (each 0..4096). Insets locate the inner panel relative to the surface; match App ContentInsets and AppContentBorderRadius for an inset launcher. For example: "InnerShadow": {"Color":"rgba(25,42,55,0.25)", "Width":7,"Radius":10,"Insets":{"Top":29,"Right":29,"Bottom":29,"Left":29}}. The shadow fades to transparent inward, follows display density, and allocates no image cache. Keep its width within the content padding so text stays clear. It paints after children, unlike image layers; omit it to preserve existing appearance. This optional schema 2 extension requires Wox 2.4.5.

The supported regions are App, QueryBox, ResultItemActive, ActionContainer, Preview, and Toolbar. Each accepts the same optional Background, Frame, and Decorations declarations. The generic preview shell is supported; embedded web/native content and specialized previews still own their inner rendering.

Layers draw in this order: existing color/material, Background, Frame, Decorations, existing borders, interactive contents. Images do not introduce hit targets. Transparent image pixels reveal the underlying fill; they do not erase it. Author a transparent App background and custom chrome explicitly when needed. AppBorder fields still disable the OS material as before. Native arbitrary-shape input regions are not part of this extension.

Background and Frame accept these modes:

Mode	Geometry
stretch	Scale the image to the surface bounds.
tile	Repeat at Size logical units; if absent, use the image's pixel dimensions as logical units.
nineSlice	Cut at Slice source pixels, draw borders at Insets logical units, stretch the remaining regions.

Stretch and tiled images follow the surface corner radius. Nine-slice images retain their authored alpha silhouette; put rounded corners in the asset. Four corners retain their destination size unless the surface is too small, in which case opposing borders shrink proportionally. A frame's center is also drawn, so use a transparent center when only an outline is wanted. Tiled backgrounds retain only their latest raster size, at the active display's physical pixel density, capped by the asset's authored density. Moving between displays rebuilds this cache; Size remains in logical units. The limit is 16 megapixels per background; larger requests use the existing color fallback. Nine-slice textures are likewise derived at display density from the shared decoded source: borders and repeated tiles are downsampled to their logical size times the display scale (never upsampled), while an axis that stretches to the surface keeps its source pixels. Only the latest display scale is cached per surface. Reuse the same Source for shared textures: decoded pixels are shared across surfaces, while each surface keeps its own size cache. PNG file size is not its memory cost: decoded RGBA uses roughly width × height × 4 bytes, plus raster and native renderer caches. Use reasonably sized texture tiles.

Decorations require Source, Anchor, and a positive logical Size; Offset defaults to zero. Anchors are topLeft, topCenter, topRight, centerLeft, center, centerRight, bottomLeft, bottomCenter, and bottomRight. Offsets are in logical units and decorations stay clipped to their owner. Decorations are static and do not change control layout.

Only App accepts ContentInsets. These add to the existing uniform AppContentInset, outside the inner content panel and existing AppPadding. They reserve space for the entire launcher body, including the Toolbar and Action Panel. Frame insets do not implicitly add layout padding.

Platform and variant Surfaces objects merge by region. A supplied region replaces that region's whole declaration; omitted regions inherit. Set a region to null to remove it, or Surfaces: null to remove every inherited surface. Existing scalar platform override semantics are unchanged.

{
  "windows": {"Surfaces": {"Toolbar": null}},
  "linux": {"Surfaces": null}
}

There is no separate package format version; the schema version belongs to theme.json.

Floating overlays (text notifications, tooltips, image preview, timer, dictation, and permission prompts) are not the launcher window. When Surfaces uses an image, set OverlayBackgroundColor and OverlayFontColor explicitly. Image-backed themes usually leave AppBackgroundColor transparent so the frame asset is the window; overlays have no frame, so that transparent color lets the desktop show through and the text becomes unreadable. Use an opaque fill that matches the readable content surface, and a text color that contrasts with it. Do not copy the transparent window color. Omitted overlay colors follow the effective AppBackgroundColor and ActionItemFontColor, which is correct only for themes whose window fill is already a readable wash. These fields do not recolor the launcher, Notes, or WebView windows. Authoring them requires Wox 2.4.5.

Author the document

Localized name and description

Schema v2 supports optional inline I18n, using the same locale-to-key map as plugin.json. Set ThemeName and Description to i18n: keys:

{
  "ThemeName": "i18n:theme_name",
  "Description": "i18n:theme_description",
  "I18n": {
    "en_US": {"theme_name": "Ming", "theme_description": "An imperial red and gold theme."},
    "zh_CN": {"theme_name": "明", "theme_description": "朱红与金黄的皇家主题。"}
  }
}

Provide en_US as fallback, plus the intended languages (zh_CN, ru_RU, pt_BR, ko_KR, ja_JP). Missing translations fall back to English, then Wox's built-in translations, then the original key. Literal text stays literal. Translations are resolved for display and search; saved JSON retains the keys and translation map. I18n belongs at the root, not in platform overrides. This extension uses schema 2 and requires Wox 2.4.4. Theme translations currently use inline I18n; separate lang/ files are not loaded.

A minimal v2 document looks like this; replace the sample ID and name:

{
  "SchemaVersion": 2,
  "MinWoxVersion": "2.4.3",
  "ThemeId": "66288aad-d3fa-493b-bc46-7e8e7280c40d",
  "ThemeName": "Jade",
  "BaseBackgroundColor": "rgba(28, 35, 37, 0.72)",
  "BaseTextColor": "#E5ECE9",
  "BaseAccentColor": "#70D6A6"
}

The three base colors, ID, and name are required. Explicitly declare schema 2. Set MinWoxVersion to the release supporting the features used; check current built-ins rather than lowering the floor to make installation succeed. Version is the theme's own version, separate from schema and minimum Wox versions. Include truthful author, description, and URL metadata when available. Do not mark a custom theme as system-installed. Automatic appearance themes use IsAutoAppearance, DarkThemeId, and LightThemeId; their required base colors still provide a fallback.

Group overrides by surface: window, query/Glance/Attention, result container/items, Action Panel/items/query, preview/tags, toolbar/keycaps. Keep the document sparse; add overrides for intentional design differences.

Authored value	Meaning
Missing optional style	Inherit parent, or schema default at the root
null at the root	Same as omitted: schema default
null on a platform or variant	Clear the inherited value and restore the schema default
Integer 0	Explicit zero; never substitute a default
transparent or alpha zero	Explicit transparency
Empty color, negative/fractional geometry	Invalid

Colors accept #RRGGBB, #RRGGBBAA (alpha last), rgb(r,g,b), rgba(r,g,b,a), and transparent. RGB channels are 0–255; alpha is 0–1. Geometry uses logical units, not physical screen pixels.

Font sizes are controlled by the application Interface size setting; do not add theme font-size overrides.

Default window shape and transparency

Unless the user explicitly requests a custom app outline or window corners, omit AppBorderColor, AppBorderWidth, and AppBorderRadius at the root and all platform/variant levels. Do not infer a custom window outline or radius from a reference screenshot or a general request for a rounded visual style. Keep the system/default window shape and use a slightly translucent AppBackgroundColor by default (for example, alpha 0.90).

If the user explicitly requests a custom app outline or window corners, author the requested AppBorder* fields and default AppBackgroundColor to fully opaque (alpha 1). An explicit request for transparency or opacity overrides that default. QueryBox, result, preview, and Action Panel corner settings do not count as a request for custom window chrome. Toolbar and Action Panel may retain modest in-app translucency in either case.

These are theme-authoring defaults, not changes to schema parsing. Apply them when creating themes or when the user asks to restyle an existing theme; do not silently rewrite other existing themes. Keep BaseBackgroundColor independent when an explicit app background override is sufficient, so changing window alpha does not unintentionally change every derived surface.

Design the surfaces together

Start with background, text, and accent roles. Optional colors derive independently from these roles; changing one optional token does not change another. Base alpha also affects derived colors. Consult the resolver for exact defaults instead of duplicating its entire catalog here.

• For translucent themes, consider app, query, Action Panel, action query, preview, and toolbar backgrounds together. An opaque surface can hide translucency beneath it; layered alpha and native materials affect the final appearance.
• V2 AppContentInset reserves a uniform logical inset around the entire launcher content, including the toolbar, previews, and floating panels. AppContentBackgroundColor paints the inner panel and AppContentBorderRadius rounds its background. Defaults are 0, transparent, and 0, preserving existing themes. These fields do not select custom window chrome: use a translucent AppBackgroundColor and omit AppBorder* to expose a native-material rim. Existing AppPadding* remains spacing inside the content panel. Child surfaces retain their own corner styles; the toolbar follows the panel's bottom corners.
• Floating overlays use OverlayBackgroundColor and OverlayFontColor. Omitted values follow the effective AppBackgroundColor and ActionItemFontColor. They do not change the launcher, Notes, or WebView windows. Image-backed themes must set both explicitly; see Image-backed themes.
• Set ResultContainerPaddingTop and ResultContainerPaddingBottom to the same value, normally 8, so the result list matches the built-in themes. The schema default is top 8 and bottom 0, so write both fields explicitly; omitting the bottom padding does not produce a matching gutter. Keep left and right at 0 unless a side inset is part of the design. Leave an existing theme's values unchanged unless that spacing is being authored.
• V2 uses ResultItemActiveIndicatorColor, ResultItemActiveIndicatorWidth, ResultItemActiveIndicatorInsetLeft, ResultItemActiveIndicatorInsetTop, ResultItemActiveIndicatorInsetBottom, and ResultItemActiveIndicatorBorderRadius for the selected-result marker. Width defaults to 0, color to the base accent, and insets/radius to 0. Zero insets/radius reproduce the edge strip; use positive insets and radius for a short rounded marker. Reserve icon space with result-item padding; marker geometry does not shift content. The unreleased v2 ResultItemActiveBorderLeftWidth/Color fields were removed; v1 keeps its original fields. Check normal, selected, and hovered rows separately; ResultItemHoverBackgroundColor controls hover.
• QueryBoxBorderBottomColor and QueryBoxBorderBottomWidth draw an inside bottom edge without changing query layout. Width defaults to 0; color defaults to the base accent. Zero disables it and explicit transparency is preserved.
• Action Panel border fields are ActionContainerBorderColor, ActionContainerBorderWidth, and ActionContainerBorderRadius. ActionContainerDividerColor controls internal separators independently of PreviewSplitLineColor.
• Toolbar primary actions (default/bare Enter) support ToolbarPrimaryFontColor and ToolbarPrimaryHotkey{Font,Background,Border}Color. Omitted values inherit the corresponding effective toolbar colors; explicit transparency is preserved. Configure emphasis here rather than relying on automatic dimming of other actions.
• Keycaps have three independent v2 groups: ToolbarHotkey{Font,Background,Border}Color, ActionItemHotkey{Font,Background,Border}Color, and ActionItemActiveHotkey{Font,Background,Border}Color. All accept explicit transparency. Omitted values derive from base colors, not another surface's overrides: normal text uses secondary text and border uses divider; active text/border use base text; backgrounds default transparent. Set active colors explicitly for contrasting selection backgrounds (for example, white keycaps on blue). The unreleased shared Hotkey* fields were removed. Keep keycaps readable without competing with labels.
• PreviewBorderRadius and PreviewTagBorderRadius control generic preview and metadata-tag corners in logical units. Omitted values retain 8; zero is square.
• Preview has PreviewBackgroundColor, PreviewBorderColor, existing text/property/selection colors, and PreviewTagFontColor, PreviewTagBackgroundColor, PreviewTagBorderColor. Generic preview tokens do not necessarily control specialized chat, terminal, media, or native/web surfaces.
• Glance has GlanceFontColor, GlanceIconColor, GlanceBackgroundColor, and GlanceHoverBackgroundColor. Raster images retain their own colors.
• Attention has AttentionFontColor, AttentionIconColor, AttentionBackgroundColor, AttentionBorderColor, AttentionHoverBackgroundColor, and AttentionHoverBorderColor. Omitted values match Glance: transparent idle fill/border and a query-text hover wash. Raster images retain their own colors.
• Shared scrollbars expose ScrollbarThumbColor, ScrollbarThumbHoverColor, ScrollbarThumbActiveColor, ScrollbarWidth, ScrollbarHoverWidth, and ScrollbarBorderRadius. Widths default to 3/7 logical units; omitted radius follows half the animated thickness. Zero width/radius and transparent colors are explicit. Horizontal bars use width as thickness. Native/web-owned scrollbars remain outside this contract.
• Filters use RefinementButton{Font,Icon,Background,Border,HoverBackground}Color and their RefinementButtonActive...Color counterparts. Active means expanded or a non-default filter is applied. The expanded strip uses Refinement{Background,Border,Title,Divider,Hotkey}Color; options use RefinementItem{Font,Background,HoverBackground}Color and RefinementItemActive...Color. These are JSON overrides; preserve explicit alpha for every state, including selected-hovered options. Control dimensions remain launcher-density geometry.
• AppBorderColor, AppBorderWidth, and AppBorderRadius control launcher outer chrome. Width and radius use logical units. Zero width disables the outline. Zero radius is an explicit square corner for the painted outline. Omitted fields keep the previous platform behavior. Set width explicitly when designing an outline. If any one of these three fields is authored, every platform disables system window material (Windows Acrylic, macOS Liquid Glass/vibrancy, Linux compositor blur) so Go UI can paint the outline. Windows applies a DPI-scaled region plus DirectComposition clip only when a radius is authored, including 0; color or width alone leaves DWM's default corners. macOS detaches the glass/vibrancy wrapper and clips the renderer layer to the authored radius, but the launcher stays a titled window, so AppKit still masks the window and its shadow to the system corner radius. AppBorderRadius: 0 therefore cannot produce fully square corners on macOS. Linux turns compositor blur off and paints the authored radius, including 0. Result, query, preview, and Action Panel radii are in-app geometry and can be square. Theme-color alpha still controls ordinary window transparency. Verify shadow and transparency on each target OS before promising identical results.

Explain the custom-chrome tradeoff

When creating, editing, or recommending a theme that authors any of AppBorderColor, AppBorderWidth, or AppBorderRadius, explicitly tell the user that this disables system window material on every platform (Acrylic, Liquid Glass, Linux compositor blur). The native window switches to transparent composition; theme-color alpha controls ordinary window transparency. This does not disable Wox's own in-app frosted-glass surfaces. Include this limitation in the delivery message, not only in JSON or internal notes.

Toolbar and Action Panel retain their application-rendered frosted-glass transparency independently of the native window material. When designing custom-chrome themes, consider modest transparency in ToolbarBackgroundColor and ActionContainerBackgroundColor (for example, alpha around 0.88–0.90), while keeping text readable. Do not make these surfaces opaque merely because custom window chrome is enabled. An opaque AppBackgroundColor can remain intentional: these panels reveal or blur underlying app content, not the desktop through that opaque background.

An explicit zero (AppBorderWidth: 0 or AppBorderRadius: 0) also selects this path. To restore system material, omit all three fields. A child platform or variant can restore material after a parent outline by setting those fields to null; that clears the inherited chrome instead of painting a square window. Assigning a default-looking number does not restore the material. Background colors still need alpha below 1 to reveal anything underneath.

Suggested user-facing wording: “主题只要设置了 AppBorderColor、AppBorderWidth 或 AppBorderRadius 中的任意一项，所有平台都不会再使用系统窗口材质（Windows Acrylic、macOS Liquid Glass、Linux 合成器模糊）。窗口改用普通透明合成，透明程度由主题颜色的 Alpha 决定。Toolbar 和 Action Panel 的应用内磨玻璃效果仍保留，可以适度保留透明度。若要恢复系统材质，需要移除这三项配置。子级平台或变体可以把这三项设为 null，用来取消父级圆角/描边并重新打开系统材质。”

When AppBorderRadius is 0 at the root or on macos, including an explicit request for square window corners, also tell the user about the macOS window-shape limit in that same delivery message. Do not attach this warning to a positive radius, or to square result, query, preview, or Action Panel corners.