HellionChat/docs/THEME-AUTHORING.md

Theme Authoring Guide

Built by Hellion Forge — the plugin workshop arm of Hellion Online Media. HellionChat ships with nine built-in themes; this guide walks you through writing your own.

TL;DR

1. Open Settings → Appearance → Open themes folder
2. Copy example-theme.json to <your-name>.json in the same folder
3. Edit the file with any text editor
4. Reload the plugin (toggle off/on in /xlplugins)
5. Your theme appears in the Custom-Themes section in Settings → Appearance

That's the whole loop. The rest of this document is reference.

File location

%APPDATA%\XIVLauncher\pluginConfigs\HellionChat\themes\

(or the equivalent path on Linux/macOS — Settings → Appearance → "Open themes folder" opens it directly).

Each *.json file in this folder is loaded as one theme. The example-theme.json that HellionChat seeds on first launch is your starting template.

File format

Theme JSON has four blocks:

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "slug": "your-slug",
  "name": "Your Theme Name",
  "author": "You",
  "description": "One-line description shown under the theme name.",
  "colors":   { ... 21 color slots ... },
  "layout":   { ...  9 layout values ... },
  "chatChannels": { ... optional, channel-name → hex ... }
}

Top-level fields

Field	Type	Required	Notes
schemaVersion	int	yes	Always 1 for HellionChat 1.1.0. The plugin warns and skips themes with a different number.
slug	string	yes	Lowercase, hyphenated. Must be unique across all themes (built-in slugs are reserved).
name	string	yes	Display name in the picker.
author	string	yes	Shown small under the theme name.
description	string	yes	One short sentence.
colors	object	yes	All 21 slots required (see below).
layout	object	yes	All 9 slots required (see below).
chatChannels	object	no	Optional channel-name → hex map (see below).

Color slots

All values are 6-digit #RRGGBB or 8-digit #RRGGBBAA hex strings. Six-digit values get an implicit FF alpha.

Slot	Role
primary	Brand color — used on buttons, sliders, check marks, highlighted separators.
primaryDark	Pressed-button stage.
primaryLight	Hovered-button / link-text stage.
primaryGlow	Glow / subtle accent (typically primary with ~60% alpha).
accent	Counter-accent — scrollbar grab on hover/active, resize grip, optional CTA.
accentDark / accentLight	Dark/light siblings of accent.
identity	Title-bar active color and active-tab color. Often equals primaryDark.
windowBg	Outermost window background.
childBg	Inner panel / popup background.
frameBg	Input fields, sliders, combos.
surface	Card surfaces, headers, selectables.
surfaceHover	Hovered card / header step.
border	Panel borders. Typically primary with ~40% alpha for a brand-tinted edge.
textPrimary	Body text. Soft off-white reads better than pure #FFFFFF on dark backgrounds.
textMuted	Captions, secondary lines.
textDim	Disabled / hint text, separators.
statusSuccess	Green-ish for success notifications.
statusDanger	Red for errors.
statusWarning	Amber for warnings.
statusInfo	Cyan-ish info. Often equals primary.

Layout slots

All values are floats in pixels. BorderSize is 0 or 1 (no thicker borders look right with ImGui's edge anti-aliasing).

Slot	Typical range	Notes
windowRounding	0–8	0 = sharp upstream look; 4–6 = softer "app" feel.
childRounding	0–6	Usually 1 less than windowRounding.
popupRounding	0–6	Same as childRounding.
frameRounding	0–4	For inputs, sliders.
grabRounding	0–4	Slider grab dot.
tabRounding	0–4	Tab corners.
scrollbarRounding	0–4	Scrollbar grab.
windowBorderSize	0 or 1	1 reads better in dark themes.
frameBorderSize	0 or 1	Usually matches windowBorderSize.

Optional chatChannels

If present, your theme proposes its own chat-channel colors. Property names are ChatType enum values (case-insensitive). Unknown names are skipped silently — safe for forward-compat.

"chatChannels": {
  "Say":             "#FFFFFF",
  "Yell":            "#FFE066",
  "Shout":           "#FFA040",
  "TellIncoming":    "#FF99CC",
  "TellOutgoing":    "#FF99CC",
  "Party":           "#80C0E8",
  "FreeCompany":     "#4DD9E8",
  "NoviceNetwork":   "#A8E060",
  "Linkshell1":      "#A8E060"
}

The user is asked once per theme switch whether to apply these colors — never auto-overwriting existing picks. The banner shows up only if your suggested colors differ from the user's current Configuration.ChatColours.

Channel-identity rule

Don't break FFXIV channel identity. Players have used these conventions for over a decade:

Channel	Convention	Why
Say	white / off-white	Default-readable speech.
Yell	yellow	Urgent broadcast.
Shout	orange	Local urgent.
Tell	pink-magenta	Whisper, must stand out.
Party	light blue	Group ops.
FreeCompany	cyan-teal	Guild ops.
NoviceNetwork	lime-green	Mentor channel.

A theme can tint these toward its brand family (e.g., a purple theme can shift Tell from #FF99CC to #E090FF), but don't flip them (Tell suddenly green, Yell suddenly cyan). RP groups and combat-spec setups depend on the visual hierarchy.

The eight colored built-in themes (Hellion Arctic, Hellion Spectrum, Event Horizon, Crystal Nocturne, Mint Grove, Night Blue, Indigo Violet, Forge Merchantman) all follow this rule — read their source for reference. Chat 2 Klassik intentionally ships without chatChannels so the user keeps their existing picks.

Theme families

Naming convention <color>-<modifier> is recommended for theme families. The first member of a family is the lightest/brightest:

• mint-grove (current built-in, light mint)
• forest-grove (planned, dark emerald)
• moss-grove (planned, mid muted)

Code-wise families have no special handling — only the slug naming hints at the relationship. The picker may group families later, but that's not required.

Validation and errors

When HellionChat loads your theme:

• Schema mismatch (schemaVersion != 1): theme is skipped, warning written to /xllog.
• Missing required field (e.g., no slug): theme is skipped, warning written.
• Invalid hex (e.g., #GGHHII): theme is skipped, warning written.
• Unknown channel name in chatChannels: that one channel is skipped silently, the rest of the theme loads normally.

Check /xllog after a plugin reload to see what loaded and what didn't.

Testing your theme

1. Edit the JSON, save the file.
2. Reload the plugin: /xlplugins → toggle HellionChat off, then on.
3. Settings → Appearance → click your theme card.
4. Watch every plugin window (chat, settings, pop-out) and pick something to fix.
5. Tweak. Reload. Repeat.

Tip: the Settings → Appearance picker shows a mini-mockup per theme — your colors are visible before you switch.

Sharing themes

Themes are JSON, so sharing is just a file. Drop it into someone's pluginConfigs/HellionChat/themes/ folder and their plugin picks it up on next reload.

A community theme repository is on the Hellion Forge roadmap. Until then: share via Discord or any pastebin.

Reference

• docs/example-theme.json (seeded automatically on first launch into pluginConfigs/HellionChat/themes/) — minimal valid theme.
• The five built-in themes live in source under HellionChat/Themes/Builtin/. They are a good reference for Color choices that work.
• Hellion Online Media branding — the Arctic Cyan + Ember Glow palette that drives the default Hellion Arctic theme.

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_{HellionChat is a privacy-focused fork of Chat 2, distributed under the EUPL-1.2.
Theme engine and authoring guide are part of Hellion Forge.}