szymonwilczek / arete.nvim

What is arete.nvim?

arete.nvim brings the carefully crafted color themes from GNU Emacs to Neovim. Built in Lua, it ports the complete theme collections created by Protesilaos Stavrou, including the highly-regarded Modus, Ef, and Tempus families. The plugin compiles themes to bytecode and caches them, so switching between the 130+ included themes stays fast. You get transparent backgrounds, style overrides for comments and keywords, and automatic handling of UI elements like popups and status lines.

Why is it gaining traction?

The Emacs themes from Protesilaos have a reputation for exceptional readability and accessibility. They include variants for color blindness (deuteranopia and tritanopia), something most Neovim themes skip entirely. The plugin also handles the tedious work of making floating windows, diagnostic popups, and status line modes look consistent across themes. If you have been waiting for proper ports of these themes instead of half-finished approximations, this fills that gap.

Who should use this?

Developers who miss Protesilaos themes after moving from Emacs to Neovim. Accessibility-conscious users who need color blindness support. Anyone tired of theme collections that cover basics but ignore popup menus, diagnostics, and status line styling.

Verdict

The 19 stars and 1.0% credibility score reflect a brand-new project with limited community testing. Documentation is present but thin on troubleshooting. Use it if you specifically want Protesilaos themes in Neovim, but expect to encounter rough edges. Watch the repository for updates before committing to a production config.