(can no longer) add variables to default theme

[Mariusthvdb]

somehow an 'undocumented feature' has recently stopped working:
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/can-we-change-add-variables-to-default-theme/214507/2?u=mariusthvdb

we could do things like:

default:
  background-color-on: var(--card-background-color)
  background-color-off: var(--primary-color)

  text-color-on: var(--primary-color)
  text-color-off: var(--card-background-color)

  icon-color-on: var(--accent-color)
  icon-color-off: var(--card-background-color)

  active-color: var(--accent-color)

  accent_color: var(--state-icon-active-color)

  ha-card-border-radius: '0px'
  ha-card-box-shadow: '0 4px 8px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), 0 6px 20px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.19)'
  restriction-lock-row-margin-left: 95%

which worked wonders, and made it very easy to use these variables throughout the frontend configuration.

Ludeeus suggested this might have to do with the recent themes change 'to allow for dark/light modes to allways inherit default' on Discord.

Please have a look if we can get this back, and if so, make it a documented feature ;-)
(purposely writing this as a FR, and not a bug.... since it was undocumented and maybe considered a lucky hack)

thanks for considering

EDIT
since the big change was dark and light modes, I thought that could be the issue in the extra variables, so I also tried

default:
  modes:
    dark: &extra_options
      background-color-on: var(--primary-color)
      background-color-off: var(--card-background-color)

      background-opacity-on: rgba(var(--primary),0.8)
      background-opacity-off: rgba(var(--card-background),0.8)

      text-color-on: var(--card-background-color)
      text-color-off: var(--primary-color)

      icon-color-on: var(--accent-color)
      icon-color-off: var(--primary-color)

      active-color: var(--accent-color)

      accent_color: var(--state-icon-active-color)

      ha-card-border-radius: 0px
      ha-card-box-shadow: 0 4px 8px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.2), 0 6px 20px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.19)
      restriction-lock-row-margin-left: calc(100% - 25px) #95%

      primary: 3,168,243
      card-background: 255,255,255

    light: *extra_options

but that doesnt bring anything back from what was used before the move to dark/light mode.

So, FR stands ;-)

[wassy92x]

I saw that another template called "default" is added to the theme-dropdown on the profile-page.
Unfortunately this is not selectable nor is default and default merged.
You have my voice, it would be good if it would be possible to define additional variables to the default theme, without defining a complete new theme.

[smiller171]

Sad to see this hasn't gone anywhere. Are discussions used much here or is opening an issue a better approach?

[Mariusthvdb]

Nope, an issue is for bugs, and this isn’t a bug.

I no longer feel the need for what I suggested above. Simply creating a new theme and only set a few custom variables will also load all other settings from default theme. Which is what I was after.

second to that, it is nice to be able to load the true Ha default theme, in case of debugging / filing an issue, so you can be positive the issue you see has nothing to do with your customized default theme…

[smiller171]

Is that Home Assistant's position on the matter? Most projects do not consider an issue to automatically be a bug, and use labels to describe whether it's a bug, feature request, etc. I'd generally open a Feature Request issue for something like this.

I found a solution that works well enough for me as well though.

[emufan]

it is nice to be able to load the true Ha default theme, in case of debugging / filing an issue

Is this possible? I'm looking for this long, but I'm still not able to do this in a card. In a card there are only the custom themes selectable, but not the standard HA theme, aren't they?

[smiller171]

it is nice to be able to load the true Ha default theme, in case of debugging / filing an issue

Is this possible? I'm looking for this long, but I'm still not able to do this in a card. In a card there are only the custom themes selectable, but not the standard HA theme, aren't they?

Yeah, I think he was referring to changing the system theme

[travisterrell]

Just here to say that it's insane that this was basically ignored. The custom theme suggestion doesn't exactly accomplish what I want, but at least it's something. The issue for me is that selecting a custom one will remove my ability to use the UI to easily set variables for Primary/Secondary colors. I mean, it's doable, but frustrating.

Edit: Sorry, the below turned into a bit of a generic rant, ha.
Sometimes Home Assistant feels like a very directionless project. Or, perhaps more accurately, an "every direction" project? (I swear, if I have to resolve one more undisclosed breaking change... Or read yet another forum post where a mod or high-level contributor talks in circles to explain how some user is wrong and that expected behavior broken by a recent update to an unrelated feature isn't a regression. I really expected that Home Assistant would've gotten out of that habit after they got to V1, but little changed! haha. And it's not like there's an alternative to jump to that's even close to as complete as it. Okay, I'll end this rant now! :)