Lauds is a paper-light color theme for prose and code. It is based on the Vesper Light aesthetic, built on the Flexoki paper palette. Lauds features a warm off-white paper background (#FFFCF0), charcoal foreground (#101010), warm terracotta orange accents (#B45A20), and deep mint strings (#16866F). This is a light-only theme.

Lauds ships as a VS Code extension, a Neovim colorscheme, and a pywal variant.

1. Preview

2. Colors

2.1. Base

Color	Hex	RGB	Swatch
Paper	#FFFCF0	255, 252, 240
Bg alt	#F7F3E8	247, 243, 232
Raised	#EDE8DC	237, 232, 220
Border	#D6D0C4	214, 208, 196
Muted	#5F6166	95, 97, 102
Comment	#6E7075	110, 112, 117
Foreground	#101010	16, 16, 16

2.2. Accents

Color	Hex	RGB	Swatch
Orange	#B45A20	180, 90, 32
Mint	#147A65	20, 122, 101
Red	#C1503F	193, 80, 63
Pink	#B34A72	179, 74, 114
Purple	#7264A8	114, 100, 168

2.3. Soft variants

Color	Hex	RGB	Swatch
Orange soft	#F3D2B8	243, 210, 184
Mint soft	#BFE9DE	191, 233, 222
Red soft	#F6C8BF	246, 200, 191

3. Syntax highlighting

Token	Color	Style
Comment	#6E7075	italic
Keyword/Operator	#5F6166	—
String	#147A65	—
Number/Boolean	#B45A20	—
Function/Method	#B45A20	—
Type/Class	#B45A20	—
Variable	#101010	—
Property	#101010	—
Error/Invalid	#C1503F	—
Markup heading	#B45A20	bold
Markup link	#B45A20	underline
Diff inserted	#147A65	—
Diff deleted	#C1503F	—

4. Project structure

.
├── colors/lauds.lua              # Neovim colorscheme loader
├── lua/lauds/
│   ├── init.lua                  # Plugin entry: setup(), colorscheme(), lualine()
│   ├── palette.lua               # Color palette definitions
│   └── theme.lua                 # Highlight groups + plugin integrations
├── themes/
│   └── lauds-light-color-theme.json  # VS Code theme (TextMate + semantic tokens)
├── variants/pywal/lauds.json     # pywal colorscheme variant
├── scripts/validate.js           # CI validation suite
├── docs/superpowers/             # Design plans & specs
├── package.json                  # VS Code extension manifest
└── .vscodeignore                 # VSIX packaging ignore rules

5. VS Code

Install the extension locally or package it with vsce, then select Lauds from the color theme picker.

The VS Code theme includes:

• 85+ workbench colors: editor, sidebar, activity bar, title bar, tabs, status bar, panels, list, buttons, inputs, scrollbar, terminal ANSI colors, bracket matching, inlay hints, diff editor
• 30+ TextMate token scopes: comments, keywords, strings, numbers, functions, classes, variables, CSS properties, JSON keys, Markdown (headings, bold/italic, links, raw blocks, tables), regex, diff markers
• Semantic token colors: function, method, string, number, comment, keyword, variable, property, type

6. Neovim

With a plugin manager, point to this repository and load:

require("lauds").setup({
  transparent = false,       -- Use terminal background
  italics = {
    comments = true,         -- Italic comments
    keywords = false,        -- Italic keywords
    functions = false,       -- Italic functions
    strings = false,         -- Italic strings
    variables = false,       -- Italic variables
  },
  overrides = {},            -- Override highlight groups
  palette_overrides = {},    -- Override palette colors
})

vim.cmd.colorscheme("lauds")

The colorscheme can also be loaded directly:

colorscheme lauds

6.1. Neovim highlight groups

Core editor groups (70+ groups): Normal, Cursor, LineNr, CursorLine, Search, Visual, Pmenu, TabLine, StatusLine, WinSeparator, SpellBad/Cap/Local/Rare, Folded, MatchParen, etc.

Syntax groups: Comment, String, Number, Function, Keyword, Type, Operator, Identifier, PreProc, Special, Todo, Error, Underlined, etc.

Treesitter (nvim-treesitter): Full @... highlight group coverage:

• Variables (@variable, @variable.builtin, @variable.parameter, @variable.member)
• Constants, strings, numbers, booleans, floats
• Functions, methods, constructors, macros
• Keywords, conditionals, repeats, operators
• Types, properties, fields
• Punctuation (delimiters, brackets, special)
• Comments and documentation comments
• Tags, tag attributes
• Markup (headings, bold, italic, links, raw)
• Diff (@diff.plus, @diff.minus, @diff.delta)
• Error, modules, labels

Diagnostics (vim.diagnostics): DiagnosticError, DiagnosticWarn, DiagnosticInfo, DiagnosticHint, DiagnosticOk, DiagnosticVirtualText*, DiagnosticUnderline*, LspReferenceText/Read/Write

6.2. Plugin integrations

The Neovim theme includes highlight groups for these plugins:

Plugin	Highlight groups
Telescope	TelescopeNormal, TelescopeBorder, TelescopePrompt*, TelescopePreviewTitle, TelescopeResultsTitle, TelescopeSelection, TelescopeMatching
NvimTree	NvimTreeNormal, NvimTreeFolderName, NvimTreeOpenedFolderName, NvimTreeRootFolder, NvimTreeGitDirty/New/Deleted
NeoTree	NeoTreeNormal, NeoTreeDirectoryName, NeoTreeGitAdded/Modified/Deleted
nvim-cmp	CmpItemAbbr, CmpItemAbbrDeprecated, CmpItemAbbrMatch, CmpItemKind, CmpItemMenu
which-key.nvim	WhichKey, WhichKeyGroup, WhichKeyDesc, WhichKeySeparator, WhichKeyValue
lazy.nvim	LazyNormal, LazyButton, LazyButtonActive, LazyH1, LazyH2
bufferline.nvim	BufferLineFill, BufferLineBackground, BufferLineBufferSelected, BufferLineIndicatorSelected, BufferLineModified, BufferLineModifiedSelected
gitsigns.nvim	GitSignsAdd, GitSignsChange, GitSignsDelete

6.3. lualine.nvim

The colorscheme provides a built-in lualine theme:

require("lualine").setup({
  options = { theme = require("lauds").lualine() },
})

Mode indicators: normal (orange), insert (mint), visual (muted), replace (red), command (orange).

7. pywal

A pywal colorscheme variant is available at variants/pywal/lauds.json. Copy it to ~/.config/wal/colorschemes/light/ to use it with wal --theme lauds.

8. Validation

npm test

The validation script (scripts/validate.js) verifies:

1. Package manifest — correct name, display name, theme contribution
2. VS Code theme — all required colors and token scopes present
3. Neovim source files — palette keys (bg, fg, orange, mint, etc.), module exports (setup, colorscheme), Treesitter/diagnostic ligatures
4. Palette usage — all key colors (#FFFCF0, #101010, #B45A20, #16866F, #C1503F) appear in the VS Code theme
5. pywal scheme — correct references, hex color validity, key color values
6. Neovim runtime — headless Neovim loads and applies the colorscheme without errors

9. License

MIT — see LICENSE.