Tailwind Dark Theme Toggle

CSS custom properties for dark/light theme switching that plays nice with Tailwind. Light mode lives in :root, dark mode overrides live under .dark. The gold accent (43 33% 51%) only shows up in dark mode because the brand is dark-first. Light mode gets a standard blue primary instead.

When to Use

• Building a site that supports both light and dark themes with Tailwind
• You want your design tokens in one place instead of scattered across utility classes
• Dark-mode-first projects where the dark palette is the primary brand identity

The Code

/* Light mode defaults */
:root {
  --background: 0 0% 100%;
  --foreground: 240 10% 3.9%;
  --primary: 221 83% 53%;
  --primary-foreground: 0 0% 98%;
  --secondary: 240 4.8% 95.9%;
  --muted: 240 4.8% 95.9%;
  --muted-foreground: 240 3.8% 46.1%;
  --border: 240 5.9% 90%;
  --ring: 221 83% 53%;
  --radius: 0.5rem;
}

/* Dark mode overrides */
.dark {
  --background: 240 10% 3.9%;     /* Zinc-950 */
  --foreground: 0 0% 98%;
  --primary: 43 33% 51%;           /* Gold #ae9558 */
  --primary-foreground: 0 0% 100%;
  --secondary: 240 3.7% 15.9%;    /* Zinc-800 */
  --muted: 240 3.7% 15.9%;
  --muted-foreground: 240 5% 64.9%;
  --border: 240 3.7% 15.9%;
  --ring: 43 33% 51%;
}

/* Usage in Tailwind: bg-background, text-foreground, etc. */
/* tailwind.config.ts maps these to hsl(var(--token)) */

Notes

The HSL values are stored without the hsl() wrapper so Tailwind can compose them with opacity modifiers. Your tailwind.config.ts maps each token as hsl(var(--token)), which lets you write bg-primary/80 for 80% opacity without any extra config.