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Color Mode

Chakra UI comes with built-in support for managing color mode in your apps.

By default, most of Chakra's components are dark mode compatible. In some scenarios, you might need to make your component respond to color mode.

Tip: Chakra stores the color mode in localStorage and appends a className to the body to ensure the color mode is persistent.

Setup​

To get dark mode working correctly, you need to do two things:

  1. Update your theme config to determine how Chakra should manage color mode updates.

  2. Add the ColorModeScript to your application, and set the initial color mode your application should start with to either light, dark or system. It is light by default.

Note: When using system as initial color mode, the theme will change with the system preference. However, if another theme is manually selected by the user then that theme will be used on the next page load. To reset it to system preference, simply remove the chakra-ui-color-mode entry from localStorage.

Updating the theme config​

The theme config for color mode has 2 options:

  • initialColorMode: The initial mode you'd like your app to start with
  • useSystemColorMode: If true, your app will change color mode based on the user's system preferences.
// theme.js

// 1. import `extendTheme` function
import { extendTheme } from "@chakra-ui/react";

// 2. Add your color mode config
const config = {
  initialColorMode: "light",
  useSystemColorMode: false,
};

// 3. extend the theme
const theme = extendTheme({ config });

export default theme;

For typescript, you need to explicitly describe the theme config type as ThemeConfig object.

// theme.ts

// 1. import `extendTheme` function
import { extendTheme, type ThemeConfig } from "@chakra-ui/react";

// 2. Add your color mode config
const config: ThemeConfig = {
  initialColorMode: "light",
  useSystemColorMode: false,
};

// 3. extend the theme
const theme = extendTheme({ config });

export default theme;

Remember to pass your custom theme to the ChakraProvider, otherwise your color mode config won't be taken into consideration.

Behavior of ColorMode​

The current hierarchy of how the color mode is defined is as follows:

  • if useSystemColorMode is true system-color will be used as default - initialColorMode is the fallback if system color mode can't be resolved

  • if data-theme prop is defined through e.g. ColorModeScript / after modification/initial load of the colorMode this value will be used

  • if colorModeManager = localStorage and a value is defined for chakra-ui-color-mode this will be used

  • if initialColorMode = system system-color will be used as default - initialColorMode is the fallback if system color mode isn't resolved

  • if initialColorMode = 'light'|'dark' the corresponding value will be used

We currently accept 3 different values for initialColorMode: light,dark,system

Difference between initialColorMode='system' and useSystemColorMode​

if useSystemColorMode=true we will always try to match the users system-color and fallback to initialColorMode. With this behavior, the colorMode toggle won't have any effect.

if initialColorMode='system' we will as well always try to match the users system-color and fallback to light. After the user has toggled the value, this value will be used.

Adding the ColorModeScript​

The color mode script needs to be added before the content inside the body tag for local storage syncing to work correctly.

When setting the initial color mode, we recommend adding it as a config to your theme and reference that in the ColorModeScript.

To use ColorModeScript on a site with strict Content-Security-Policy, you can use the nonce prop that will be passed to the <script> tag.

For Next.js​

For Next.js, you need to add the ColorModeScript to the _document.js file.

// pages/_document.js

import { ColorModeScript } from "@chakra-ui/react";
import NextDocument, { Html, Head, Main, NextScript } from "next/document";
import theme from "./theme";

export default class Document extends NextDocument {
  render() {
    return (
      <Html lang="en">
        <Head />
        <body>
          {/* 👇 Here's the script */}
          <ColorModeScript initialColorMode={theme.config.initialColorMode} />
          <Main />
          <NextScript />
        </body>
      </Html>
    );
  }
}

For Create React App​

For Create React App, you need to add the ColorModeScript to the index.js file.

// index.js

import { ColorModeScript } from "@chakra-ui/react";
import * as ReactDOM from "react-dom/client";
import App from "./App";
import theme from "./theme";

const rootElement = document.getElementById("root");
ReactDOM.createRoot(rootElement).render(
  <>
    {/* 👇 Here's the script */}
    <ColorModeScript initialColorMode={theme.config.initialColorMode} />
    <App />
  </>
);

For Gatsby​

Install @chakra-ui/gatsby-plugin in your project. You can read more in the Chakra UI + Gatsby guide.

Changing Color Mode​

To manage color mode in your application, chakra exposes the useColorMode or useColorModeValue hooks.

useColorMode​

useColorMode is a React hook that gives you access to the current color mode, and a function to toggle the color mode.

function Example() {
  const { colorMode, toggleColorMode } = useColorMode();
  return (
    <header>
      <Button onClick={toggleColorMode}>
        Toggle {colorMode === "light" ? "Dark" : "Light"}
      </Button>
    </header>
  );
}

Calling toggleColorMode anywhere in your app tree toggles the color mode from light or dark and vice versa.

useColorModeValue​

useColorModeValue is a React hook used to change any value or style based on the color mode. It takes 2 arguments: the value in light mode, and the value in dark mode.

// Here's the signature
const value = useColorModeValue(lightModeValue, darkModeValue);

Here's an example that changes the background-color and color using the useColorModeValue hook.

Click the Toggle Mode button to see it in action.

function StyleColorMode() {
  const { toggleColorMode } = useColorMode();

  const bg = useColorModeValue("red.500", "red.200");
  const color = useColorModeValue("white", "gray.800");

  return (
    <>
      <Box mb={4} bg={bg} color={color}>
        This box's style will change based on the color mode.
      </Box>
      <Button size="sm" onClick={toggleColorMode}>
        Toggle Mode
      </Button>
    </>
  );
}

Forcing a specific mode​

In some occasions, you might want Chakra components to look the same in both light and dark modes. To achieve this, wrap the component in a LightMode or DarkMode component. Doing this will override the global colorMode.

Click the "Toggle Mode" button to see it in action.

function Example() {
  const { colorMode, toggleColorMode } = useColorMode();

  return (
    <HStack>
      <LightMode>
        <Button size="sm" colorScheme="blue">
          Light Mode Always
        </Button>
      </LightMode>

      <DarkMode>
        <Button size="sm" colorScheme="blue">
          Dark Mode Always
        </Button>
      </DarkMode>

      <Button size="sm" colorScheme="blue" onClick={toggleColorMode}>
        Toggle Mode
      </Button>
    </HStack>
  );
}

Add colorModeManager (Optional, for SSR)​

For server-side rendered sites, e.g. in Next.js, you may want to know the color preference of a user upfront so you can avoid rendering the initial color mode and then changing it during hydration (so-called flashing).

If you don't use SSR or don't care about this, you don't need to pass anything. Chakra will use localStorageManager by default.

Here's how to do this in Next.js 9.3 or newer:

  1. Create a reusable wrapper as demonstrated in the examples:
// e.g. src/Chakra.js
// a) import `ChakraProvider` component as well as the storageManagers
import {
  ChakraProvider,
  cookieStorageManagerSSR,
  localStorageManager,
} from "@chakra-ui/react";

export function Chakra({ cookies, children }) {
  // b) Pass `colorModeManager` prop
  const colorModeManager =
    typeof cookies === "string"
      ? cookieStorageManagerSSR(cookies)
      : localStorageManager;

  return (
    <ChakraProvider colorModeManager={colorModeManager}>
      {children}
    </ChakraProvider>
  );
}

// also export a reusable function getServerSideProps
export function getServerSideProps({ req }) {
  return {
    props: {
      // first time users will not have any cookies and you may not return
      // undefined here, hence ?? is necessary
      cookies: req.headers.cookie ?? "",
    },
  };
}
  1. Import your wrapper component setting up Chakra:
// setup your wrapper in the _app file (e.g: pages/_app.js)
import { Chakra } from "../src/Chakra";

export default function App({ Component, pageProps }) {
  return (
    <Chakra cookies={pageProps.cookies}>
      <Component {...pageProps} />
    </Chakra>
  );
}

// e.g pages/index.js
export default function Index() {
  return <h1>Example</h1>;
}

// re-export the reusable `getServerSideProps` function
export { getServerSideProps } from "./Chakra";

If you need to know the name of the Chakra cookie for specific reasons, it's chakra-ui-color-mode. Also, if you use colorModeManager, you can avoid adding the <ColorModeScript /> to _document.js.

Important: if you're using Next.js 9.3 or newer, the Next.js team recommends avoiding getInitialProps. The following example is for Next 9.2 or older!

// pages/_app.js
import {
  ChakraProvider,
  cookieStorageManagerSSR,
  localStorageManager,
} from "@chakra-ui/react";

export default function App({ cookies }) {
  // 2. Pass `colorModeManager` prop - it finds the relevant cookie on its own
  return (
    <ChakraProvider
      colorModeManager={
        typeof cookies === "string"
          ? cookieStorageManagerSSR(cookies)
          : localStorageManager
      }
    >
      <h1>Example</h1>
    </ChakraProvider>
  );
}

App.getInitialProps = ({ req }) => {
  return {
    // first time users will not have any cookies and you may not return
    // undefined here, hence ?? is necessary
    cookies: req.headers.cookie ?? "",
  };
};

Color Mode Flash Issue​

In some cases, when you switch to dark mode and refresh the page, you might experience a quick flash of light mode before it switches correctly.

This is a known issue and we're looking to fix it. If you have some ideas, feel free to share with us on Discord or Github.

Last updated on by Lazar Nikolov

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