CLI Commands

Global options

These flags work with any subcommand:

Flag	Short	Description
--verbose	-v	Show extra output: downloads, cache hits, parser paths
--data-dir <path>	-d	Override the data directory (also LUMIS_DATA_DIR env var)
--help		Print help for any command

Commands

Command	What it does
lumis highlight	Highlight a file or stdin
lumis languages list	List supported languages and file patterns
lumis themes list	List built-in and local themes
lumis themes generate	Generate a theme from a Neovim colorscheme repo
lumis parsers fetch	Pre-download parser WASM files
lumis parsers update	Refresh cached parser WASM files

lumis highlight

Terminal output (default formatter)

lumis highlight main.rs --theme dracula

Pipe from stdin

cat main.rs | lumis highlight -l rust
echo 'const x = 1' | lumis highlight -l javascript --formatter html-inline --theme dracula

Options

Flag	Short	Description
--language <lang>	-l	Language id (e.g., rust, javascript). Auto-detects from file if omitted.
--formatter <fmt>	-f	Output format: terminal (default), html-inline, html-linked, html-multi-themes, bbcode-scoped
--theme <name>	-t	Theme name (e.g., dracula, github_dark)
--themes <key:theme>		Theme pair for multi-themes (repeatable, e.g., --themes light:github_light --themes dark:github_dark)
--default-theme <id>		Which --themes entry gets inline styles
--css-variable-prefix <prefix>		Prefix for CSS custom properties (default: --lumis)
--highlight-lines <lines>	-h	Lines to highlight (e.g., 1,3-5,10)

Examples

HTML inline

lumis highlight main.rs -f html-inline -t github_dark

HTML linked

lumis highlight main.rs -f html-linked

HTML multi-themes

lumis highlight main.rs \
  -f html-multi-themes \
  --themes light:github_light \
  --themes dark:github_dark \
  --default-theme light

BBCode Scoped

lumis highlight main.rs -f bbcode-scoped

Verbose mode — see cache hits and parser paths

lumis highlight main.rs -v

lumis languages list

lumis languages list

Prints all supported languages with their file extensions and patterns.

lumis themes list

lumis themes list

Lists built-in themes and any custom themes found in the data directory.

lumis themes generate

Extract a theme from a Neovim colorscheme Git repository.

Flag	Short	Description
--url <url>	-u	Git repository URL
--colorscheme <name>	-c	Colorscheme name to activate (e.g., catppuccin-mocha)
--output <path>	-o	Write JSON to this path (prints to stdout if omitted)
--setup <lua>	-s	Lua code to run before loading the colorscheme
--appearance <mode>	-a	light or dark (default: dark)

lumis themes generate \
  -u https://github.com/folke/tokyonight.nvim \
  -c tokyonight-night \
  -o tokyonight.json

Light theme

lumis themes generate \
  -u https://github.com/projekt0n/github-nvim-theme \
  -c github_light \
  -a light \
  -o github-light.json

lumis parsers fetch

Pre-download parser WASM files so highlighting doesn't trigger downloads at runtime.

Selected parsers

lumis parsers fetch rust javascript elixir

All parsers

lumis parsers fetch --all

lumis parsers update

Re-download parsers to get the latest versions.

lumis parsers update rust javascript
lumis parsers update --all

Data directory

Lumis stores parser WASM files and custom theme JSON in a local data directory.

OS	Default path
macOS / Linux	~/.local/share/lumis/
Windows	%APPDATA%/lumis/

Override with --data-dir or LUMIS_DATA_DIR.

Contents:

• parsers/ — cached Tree-sitter WASM files
• themes/ — custom theme JSON files (visible in lumis themes list)