@theme-kit/cli

The theme-kit command-line toolkit for Theme Kit — generate, validate, migrate, inspect, and export themes from any shell, for any framework.

It wraps the @theme-kit/core design system into plain shell commands. It reads and writes the same JSON theme files that every @theme-kit/* framework package consumes.

Requirements

• Node.js 22+ (any modern release). No browser package is needed.

Install

Global (any directory)

# npm — `-g` is npm's global-install flag
npm install -g @theme-kit/cli

# pnpm uses the long `--global` form
pnpm add --global @theme-kit/cli

# yarn says it differently
yarn global add @theme-kit/cli

After a global install, theme-kit is on your PATH. The packager writes a small shim for every platform, so it works from Windows cmd, PowerShell, macOS Terminal, and Linux bash.

Zero install (npx)

npm, pnpm, yarn, and bun all resolve the same package:

npx --yes @theme-kit/cli generate --seed "#6366f1"

One project (best for teams)

{
  "scripts": {
    "theme:generate": "theme-kit generate --seed \"#6366f1\" --family indigo --output theme.json"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@theme-kit/cli": "^0.0.1"
  }
}

npm run theme:generate

Usage

theme-kit <command> [options]

Commands:
  generate   Generate a theme from a seed color (--seed, --family, --mode, --output)
  validate   Validate a theme JSON file
  migrate    Migrate a theme to the latest format
  inspect    Inspect a theme's details
  export     Export a theme to CSS or JSON (--format css|json)

Run theme-kit <command> --help for command-specific options.

A theme file is either a pair ({ "light": …, "dark": … }, generated by default) or a single theme ({ "name", "meta", "tokens" }, from --mode light|dark). Every command accepts either shape.

The full workflow

theme-kit generate --seed "#0ea5e9" --family sky --output theme.json
theme-kit validate theme.json
theme-kit inspect theme.json
theme-kit export theme.json --format css --output theme.css
theme-kit migrate theme.json

Exit codes

| Code | Meaning | | --- | --- | | 0 | Success | | 1 | Runtime or command error | | 2 | Invalid arguments / usage error | | 3 | Validation failed (validate) |

Development

# Build dist/cli + dist/index (ESM + CJS)
pnpm build

# Watch-mode rebuild while developing src/
pnpm dev

The package ships dist/ (the built theme-kit binary and library), README.md, and LICENSE.

License

MIT

Documentation

Full API reference and guides: Theme Kit docs. All packages: npm.