Out of scope rfcs/out-of-scope/rfc-patties-ui-theme-editor.md

Live theme editor / shareable preset codes

Moved deferred → out-of-scope. Re-surveyed the shadcn ecosystem: the visual

Out-of-scope (2026-05-31)

Moved deferred → out-of-scope. Re-surveyed the shadcn ecosystem: the visual theme editors with shareable codes are all community/app-level tools (tweakcn, themecn, shadcn/studio), not part of shadcn-core or its CLI. shadcn-core ships only base-color presets + @theme inline — which patties already encoded ([[rfc-patties-ui-theming]] → ui/62-theming-presets). Those tools distribute themes via the registry mechanism, for which patties already has an analog ([[rfc-patties-ui-registries]]). So the editor is permanently app-level, and the only CLI-shaped sliver (installing a shared theme) is already covered. If shareable preset codes ever get real demand, that is a fresh, tiny registry-adjacent RFC — not a revival of this visual-editor one. Original deferral verdict preserved below.

Review verdict (2026-05-28)

Reject for v1; keep as future-work RFC. A live visual theme editor that round-trips shareable preset URLs is an app-level tool, not a scaffolder feature. patties' theming contribution stops at stamping token sets the user then edits ([[rfc-patties-ui-theming]] covers base-color presets via --theme <name>). The overview already scopes the theme editor as a "userland concern."

Re-evaluation trigger: a community asks for shareable preset codes across patties projects. At that point a patties ui theme <code> could decode a preset into a tokens.css merge — a CLI-shaped slice of the idea, without shipping a visual editor. If no such demand appears, this moves to out-of-scope on the next refresh.

No spec changes. File preserved as status: deferred.

Summary

shadcn's theme editor lets users tweak colors visually and export preset decode/url/open codes to share themes. This RFC records why patties does not ship it.

Motivation

Included for parity completeness. patties stamps token sets and lets users edit tokens.css directly; a visual editor is orthogonal to a Bun-native scaffolder.

Trade-offs

  • A CLI can decode a preset code into a token merge cheaply; the editor (UI to produce the code) is the expensive, out-of-scope part.

Open questions

  • If revisited: decode-only (patties ui theme <code>) vs a full local editor? The decode-only slice is the only part with a plausible CLI home.