Catppuccin for JetBrains, four pastel flavours split across two settings panels

A JetBrains plugin, published under a different name than the repository

catppuccin/jetbrains is a JetBrains IDE plugin listed on the JetBrains Plugin Marketplace as the Catppuccin Theme, and the repository description calls it a soothing pastel theme for JetBrains IDEs. The homepage is the marketplace listing at plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/18682.

The naming difference matters more than it sounds. The repository is catppuccin/jetbrains, the marketplace entry is Catppuccin Theme with the identifier 18682, and the icon pack that completes the look lives in yet another repository. Three names for what a user experiences as one idea, and the README is careful to spell out which is which.

The palette comes from the wider Catppuccin project, and the four flavours are the ones that project defines: Latte, Frappé, Macchiato and Mocha. Each has its own preview image in the repository, and the README presents them as four lovely flavours to choose from.

What is worth understanding before you install is that a JetBrains theme is applied in two separate places, and the plugin covers both. The User Interface is set under Settings, then Appearance and Behaviour, then Appearance, where you pick your favourite flavour. The Code Editor is set under Settings, then Editor, then Color Scheme, where you pick the same flavour again. In both cases a restart is optional.

So the answer to how much of your IDE changes depends on how much you change. Many developers set only the code editor and leave the chrome in the default scheme, because the plugin is built so that either half is a valid configuration on its own. The plugin repository also carries an icon pack, called Catppuccin Icons, which is a separate repository, catppuccin/jetbrains-icons, with its own installation instructions.

The theme is published under the MIT licence, and the copyright notice in the README reads Copyright 2022-present to the Catppuccin Org.

Applying the flavour to the interface, the editor, and the icons

The usage section is where a user actually touches the plugin, and it is worth reading carefully because the sequence has two independent halves.

For the user interface, you head to Settings, then Appearance and Behaviour, then Appearance, pick your favourite flavour, and optionally restart the IDE. For the code editor, you head to Settings, then Editor, then Color Scheme, pick the same flavour, and again optionally restart.

Both steps are marked optional in the sense of the restart, but the settings change itself is the actual installation of the theme into that half of the IDE. A user who sets only the code editor ends up with pastel syntax highlighting inside a default-coloured window, and a user who sets only the interface gets a pastel window with default syntax colours.

Then there is the third piece, the icon pack. The README says the Catppuccin Icons pack was created to compliment the theme, and points to the catppuccin/jetbrains-icons repository for the instructions to install it. The theme cannot change the icon set itself, so this is a separate download and a separate step.

That is the whole workflow: pick a flavour of four, apply it to as much of the IDE as you want, and add the icon pack if you want the toolbar to match.

Two installation routes, and the update difference between them

The README documents installing the plugin two ways, and the choice matters more than it first appears.

The first is the Plugin Marketplace. You head to the Plugin Marketplace through Settings, then Plugins, then Marketplace, search for Catppuccin Theme, and install it. The search term matters, since the marketplace name is not the repository name, and installing the wrong search result is an easy mistake here.

The second is manual. You download the latest release from the repository's releases page and import it by going to Settings, then Plugins, then the gear icon, then Install plugin from disk.

The practical difference is who updates the theme afterwards. A marketplace install is updated by the IDE, in the same way as any other plugin, and the marketplace keeps a version badge, which the README links to. A manual install is a file on your disk, and updating it means downloading a new release and importing it again. For a theme that has shipped regularly, that is a small chore, but it is a chore, and if your IDE is configured to update plugins on startup, the marketplace route is the one that stays quiet.

There is also a versions detail worth noting. The listed releases are v3.5.3 in February 2026, v3.6.0 in April 2026 and v3.6.1 in July 2026, so the plugin is on a 3.x line and still being cut.

A Gradle project with templates, so the theme is built rather than hand-edited

The repository layout is what you would expect from a plugin that is built rather than hand-edited, and it is worth a look if you plan to contribute.

There is a build.gradle.kts, a settings.gradle.kts, a gradle.properties, a gradle/ directory and the Gradle wrapper with gradlew and gradlew.bat, so the build is a standard Gradle project that does not need a local Gradle installation. There is a src/ directory for the plugin sources and a templates/ directory, which is where a colour scheme for a new IDE version or a new flavour variant would be kept.

Two other entries tell you how the project is worked on. There is a .run/ directory, which is the JetBrains convention for shared run configurations, so contributors get the same launch configuration as everyone else. And there is a renovate.json, which configures Renovate to keep the build's dependencies up to date automatically rather than leaving them to a maintainer.

A CHANGELOG.md, a CONTRIBUTING.md and a .editorconfig sit alongside those, and the README simply points at CONTRIBUTING.md for the contribution process, which is a thin pointer but a real one, since the file exists in the repository.

For a theme, this is the honest answer to how the design gets distributed: the four flavours are defined in the Catppuccin palette project, and the templates in this repository carry them into the IDE's own colour scheme format. That is why adding a new IDE means a new template rather than a new codebase.

What a theme plugin cannot fix, and what to check before switching

It is worth being clear about the boundaries of a theme, because expectations set by a preview image are usually about the whole IDE and a plugin can only cover parts of it.

A JetBrains colour scheme controls syntax colouring and the widget colours the scheme defines. It does not change the fonts, the editor behaviour, the layout, or the icons, and the plugin's own note that the icon pack is a separate repository is a reminder of that. The Catppuccin Icons pack exists precisely because the theme cannot change the icon set on its own.

The README's own instructions are the best guide to the actual scope. Two separate settings paths, each with an optional restart, means the plugin is designed to be applied partially. A developer who only wants the pastel syntax colours sets the code editor scheme and stops. A developer who wants the whole window sets both.

Second, check the IDE versions you actually use against the plugin's supported range, since the marketplace listing at plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/18682 is where that compatibility is stated, and the repository does not restate it. A colour scheme built for one IDE generation does not always apply cleanly to the next, which is what the templates directory is for.

Third, if you use a custom colour scheme already, remember which one is active before you switch, because the plugin adds four more choices to the same list and it is easy to lose track of which scheme is yours. The plugin does not remove or modify existing schemes, but it does change what the default selection means if you had set the default to something specific.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt catppuccin/jetbrains if you already use Catppuccin elsewhere and want your IDE to match, since the four flavours are the same ones used across the rest of the project and the theme covers both the code editor and the surrounding interface. Do not adopt it expecting a single switch to restyle everything, because the user interface and the code editor are set in two different panels and both steps are optional restarts. Before you install, decide between the marketplace and the manual route, since the manual route pins you to a release file you update yourself, and note that the icon pack lives in a separate repository, so a complete look needs two installations.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. catppuccin/jetbrains on GitHub
2. License: MIT
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases