Official website: cc-theme.app
CC Theme is an open-source macOS app for installing ready-made custom themes in ChatGPT Desktop and supported AI desktop clients. It provides reproducible, versioned .cctheme packages and a verified Codex pet path for compatible Mac clients. Import a package, apply it through a verified host Adapter, and restore the native appearance—without asking an AI model to generate the theme, rewriting prompts, or spending generation tokens.
It is an independent, unofficial, open-source project—not a prompt library, concept gallery, or general-purpose AI theme generator. This repository contains the CC Theme app, host-specific Adapters, shared contracts, and release metadata. Production theme packages are maintained in the separate CC Theme Themes registry and published as Release assets; theme media does not enter this Git source tree.
- Browse custom themes for ChatGPT Desktop on Mac
- Fix unreadable text in Codex dark mode
- Add an image or video background to ChatGPT Desktop
Xiaogou is available through the signed CC Theme pet catalog for compatible mac-codex releases. CC Theme verifies and installs the pet without modifying the Codex app bundle; you choose it manually in Codex Appearance settings. Usagi and Tiko are authorized preview profiles only. They are not downloadable .ccpet packages and cannot be presented as installable pets.
cc-theme-mac-codex-en.mp4
Some theme products provide a concept image and a prompt, leaving the user to ask Codex, WorkBuddy, or another AI to generate the actual result. That workflow is model-dependent: it can consume additional tokens, require repeated prompt changes and regeneration, and produce different results from the same starting idea.
CC Theme distributes the actual declarative package—prepared assets, semantic theme data, integrity metadata, and tested host mappings. Within a documented Adapter and client-version boundary, the same package follows the same validated application path. This makes a published theme ready to use, deterministic at the package level, and reproducible without a “prompt lottery.” It does not promise identical rendering on untested client versions or unsupported platforms.
| Prompt-based theme generation | CC Theme | |
|---|---|---|
| What you receive | A concept image and instructions for an AI | A versioned .cctheme package |
| Final output | Generated at use time and dependent on the model and context | Prepared assets and declared settings applied by a host Adapter |
| AI usage | May require generation tokens and repeated prompt iterations | Theme application does not invoke AI generation or consume generation tokens |
| Reproducibility | Output can vary between runs | The same package and supported Adapter use the same validated inputs |
| Compatibility | Depends on what the generated result happens to change | Recorded and tested per Adapter and supported client version |
- Download a versioned
.ccthemepackage from an official Release. - Import it into CC Theme. The Manager validates the manifest, declared digests, allowlisted contents, and bounded local media before installation.
- Choose a detected, supported client. CC Theme uses that client's verified Adapter to apply the selected theme and, when requested, launch the client.
- Pause the theme or restore the client's native appearance from the same Manager.
“Apply directly” is deliberately narrow: it means applying a validated package through a compatible CC Theme Adapter. It does not mean unconditional injection into arbitrary third-party applications.
- Download the current CC Theme release for Apple Silicon Mac.
- Choose a ready-made custom theme from the guide above, then import its versioned
.ccthemepackage in CC Theme. - If your supported
mac-codexrelease offers Xiaogou in the signed catalog, inspect its motion states in the Codex pets section above, download and verify it in CC Theme, then select it manually in Codex Appearance settings.
Themes and pets have separate compatibility and release boundaries. A pet profile or a theme preview never implies that every client version is supported; check the linked page and the in-app compatibility result before applying it.
CC Theme 0.2.1 currently supports Apple Silicon only.
- macOS 13.5 or later
- M1, M2, M3, M4, or a later Apple chip
- Intel / x86_64 Macs are not supported
- Windows is not supported
The current public application release is CC Theme 0.2.1.
The formal build uses CC Theme.app; GitHub exposes the notarized Apple Silicon DMG as
CC.Theme_0.2.1_aarch64.dmg after normalizing the local filename's space to a period.
CC Theme 0.2.1 is a transition baseline for validating signed online Adapter updates. Its bundled
CodeX Adapter remains the previously published 26.715.31925-r1; the application discovers,
verifies, and installs newer official Adapter releases through the signed stable Catalog. Bundled
Adapters are a last-known-good fallback and are not a claim that every bundled Engine is latest.
| Adapter | Current boundary |
|---|---|
mac-codex |
CC Theme apply and restore verified on the documented Codex build |
mac-doubao |
CC Theme apply and restore supported on the documented Doubao build |
mac-workbuddy |
CC Theme apply and restore verified on WorkBuddy 5.2.6 |
win-* |
paused-by-user; excluded from active CI, packaging, and Releases |
Claude is not a current CC Theme integration. adapters/mac-claude
is retained as preserved-source / manager-registration-paused, but is absent from client discovery,
the active Registry, compilation, packaging, UI, and CC Theme runtime resources. It may be registered
again only after a production, machine-callable Seam is formally accepted.
Exact evidence and capability limits are recorded in COMPATIBILITY.md. A client update can invalidate an Adapter until it is verified again.
Compatibility is evaluated across the theme package, Adapter, client, and client version. In the current preset release, EVA media is verified on WorkBuddy but is not yet visually verified on CodeX; the package remains downloadable, but that combination must not be presented as tested compatibility.
Themes use the declarative .cctheme format. A theme may contain allowlisted JSON and bounded local media, but never JavaScript, CSS, HTML, shaders, selectors, commands, remote URLs, absolute paths, or traversal paths.
Current preset packages and their first-frame preview images are available from CC Theme Preset Themes v1.0.0. The machine-readable catalog records the immutable asset name, byte size, and SHA-256 for every package. Packages are published as GitHub Release assets and remain outside both repositories' Git source trees.
A .cctheme file is a ZIP-compatible container with exactly family.json,
unified-theme.json, and assets/ at its root. family.json owns localized
Chinese/English display metadata, licensing, asset roles, byte sizes, and
SHA-256 digests; unified-theme.json owns stable semantic theme data. Maintainers may use a local
themes/ directory for authoring and validation. Only its neutral example/, tools/, tests/,
and README are published; real theme sources, previews, media, generated archives, and release
staging remain local and are ignored by Git.
CC Theme may consume separately published download metadata that pins immutable theme assets by filename, byte size, SHA-256, minimum application/contract version, and required Adapter capabilities. The local catalog/ workspace, production .cctheme packages, previews, and media are intentionally excluded from this source repository.
Network failure may prevent browsing or downloading a new theme, but it must not block an already installed theme, native client launch, or last-known-good recovery.
app/ CC Theme application, shared packages, Registry, and scripts
adapters/mac-codex/ active Codex Adapter source
adapters/mac-workbuddy/ active WorkBuddy Adapter source
adapters/mac-claude/ preserved source; CC Theme registration paused
adapters/win-*/ preserved Windows work, paused-by-user
themes/ public example, authoring tool, and package tests only
docs/ tests/ public ownership notes and repository gates
See the repository ownership rules.
Applying an existing CC Theme package does not send a generation prompt to an AI model. CC Theme does not include a feature intended to collect or upload credentials, conversations, code, user media, or private local data. Adapters still need local access to perform their documented work and can affect startup, rendering, performance, or usability. Back up important data, use trusted Releases, and restore the native appearance if anything behaves unexpectedly.
The project does not redistribute official client applications, modify their signed application bundles, or imply affiliation with their vendors. The MIT License warranty and liability limitations apply.
Some community theme media may originate from public Internet sources. Public availability does not itself grant a redistribution license, and CC Theme does not claim ownership of third-party material. Rights holders can open an Issue identifying the exact theme, asset, or Release and provide sufficient ownership/contact information; maintainers will review and remove or replace the material when appropriate. See GitHub's copyright removal guide.
npm testThe root command runs repository gates, shared Interface tests, Manager tests, and all active macOS Adapter suites. Windows projects are intentionally excluded while paused.
Contributions are welcome under CONTRIBUTING.md. Security reports must follow SECURITY.md. Unless a file says otherwise, this repository is licensed under the MIT License.