Lucent Blur for Zed

Note

Blur is rendered by Zed and the operating system. Its appearance may differ between macOS, Linux, Windows, and individual window compositors.

Three focused color palettes for Zed, each available in Light, Blur, and Heavy transparency levels. They preserve familiar syntax and terminal colors while providing an independently tuned translucent UI. Tabs, selections, icons, active lines, and focus states stay readable over unpredictable wallpapers.

Previews

Lucent Blur Mix

Lucent Blur Flat

Lucent Blur Light

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/callqh/lucent-blur.git

Then install it as a local Zed extension:

1. Open Zed.
2. Open the Extensions page.
3. Select Install Dev Extension.
4. Choose the cloned lucent-blur directory.
5. Open the theme selector and select a theme beginning with Lucent Blur.

You can also run zed: install dev extension from the command palette.

After changing theme files locally, run zed: rebuild dev extension to reload the installed development extension.

Recommended settings

Disable project-panel sticky scroll to prevent its overlay from interrupting the transparent panel surface:

{
  "project_panel": {
    "sticky_scroll": false
  }
}

You can select the recommended dark theme directly in Zed settings:

{
  "theme": "Lucent Blur Mix [Heavy]"
}

Compatibility

The theme controls color and transparency, but Zed and the operating system provide the final blur effect. Systems without supported window composition may show transparency without blur or render an opaque fallback.

If the theme loads but does not blur, verify your OS transparency settings and check the Zed issue tracker.

Development

The canonical theme file is themes/lucent-blur.json. It contains Mix and Flat for dark appearance, plus Light for bright environments. Each palette has Light, Blur, and Heavy transparency levels.

When tuning the themes, keep source syntax and terminal colors intact and focus Lucent-specific changes on translucent surfaces, tabs, selections, icons, focus borders, and editor-line hierarchy.

Validate changes against Zed's official theme schema:

python -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
python scripts/validate_theme.py

Automated releases

GitHub Actions validate every change, create versioned GitHub Releases, and open Zed extension store update pull requests.

See Releasing Lucent Blur for repository settings, the required COMMITTER_TOKEN, initial store publication, and release steps.

License

This project retains the Apache License 2.0 used by One Dark Pro Enhanced. Quiet Light is used under the MIT License. See LICENSE, NOTICE, and LICENSES for terms, attribution, and a summary of modifications.

Credits

• One Dark Pro by Binaryify for the original One Dark Pro theme.
• One Dark Pro Enhanced by Hadez for the Zed color themes used as this project's foundation.
• Quiet Light for Zed by blaqat for the Quiet Light palette and syntax colors.
• Zed for native transparent and blurred theme support.

Special thanks to Jens Lystad and Catppuccin Blur for Zed. Its thoughtful approach to blurred Zed surfaces, recommended settings, and upstream-driven generation directly inspired this project.

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Built with appreciation for the One Dark Pro, Quiet Light, Catppuccin, and Zed communities.