jetbrains-theme-investigation

name	jetbrains-theme-investigation
description	Investigates JetBrains IntelliJ Platform theme properties by searching source code. Use when user asks about UI theming, icon colors, tab spacing, component styling, or needs to find what properties are themeable vs hardcoded in IntelliJ-based IDEs.

JetBrains Theme Investigation

Investigate theme properties in the IntelliJ Platform source code to determine what is themeable via JSON vs hardcoded in source.

Prerequisites

IntelliJ Platform source code must be available at:

../../JetBrains/intellij-community

(Relative to current project directory)

If not cloned yet:

cd ~/Projects/github.com/JetBrains
git clone https://github.com/JetBrains/intellij-community

Quick Investigation Workflow

1. Search theme metadata first (what properties exist):

   grep -i "PropertyName" ../../JetBrains/intellij-community/platform/platform-resources/src/themes/metadata/*.json
   

2. Check reference themes (how properties are used):

   grep -r "PropertyName" ../../JetBrains/intellij-community/platform/platform-resources/src/themes/ --include="*.json"
   

3. Search JBUI.java for programmatic color access:

   grep -A3 "namedColor.*PropertyName" ../../JetBrains/intellij-community/platform/util/ui/src/com/intellij/util/ui/JBUI.java
   

4. Search source for hardcoded values if not found above:

   grep -rn "propertyName\|PROPERTY_NAME" ../../JetBrains/intellij-community/platform/platform-*/src --include="*.kt" --include="*.java"
   

Key Directories

Path	Content
platform/platform-resources/src/themes/metadata/	Available theme properties (IntelliJPlatform.themeMetadata.json, JDK.themeMetadata.json)
platform/platform-resources/src/themes/	Reference themes (expUI, islands, darcula, HighContrast)
platform/util/ui/src/com/intellij/util/ui/JBUI.java	CurrentTheme methods mapping to JSON keys
platform/icons/src/	SVG icons (check colors used)

Detailed References

For specific subsystems, see:

• Icon colors: icon-colors.md - ColorPalette, stroke colors, named keys
• Tab system: tab-system.md - Tab gaps, insets, layouts
• Islands theme: islands-theme.md - Islands-specific properties
• Known limitations: limitations.md - What is NOT themeable
• Theme testing panel: theme-testing-panel.md - Dev-mode UI testing panel

Determining if Themeable

Found In	Result
Theme metadata JSON	Themeable via JSON
JBUI.java with namedColor/getInt	Themeable via JSON
Source code with hardcoded values	NOT themeable (requires code change)