[BUG] Auto theme's light/dark palettes don't match the standalone Light Mode / Dark Mode themes
Summary
With theme: auto, the ambient light/dark switching works, but the palettes it renders do not identically match the standalone light and dark themes. When I pick Light mode or Dark mode explicitly, the colors are exactly what I want and blend well with my macOS Terminal profile — but Auto's light state and dark state each render noticeably different colors from those two themes.
Expected
auto should be purely a switcher: in a light environment it should render pixel-identical to the light theme, and in a dark environment pixel-identical to the dark theme. There should be no third/fourth palette that only exists inside Auto.
Actual
Auto's light and dark states use palettes that differ from the standalone Light Mode and Dark Mode themes, so choosing Auto means giving up the exact colors those themes provide.
Environment
- Claude Code 2.1.204
- macOS (Darwin 25.5.0), built-in Terminal.app
- Shell: zsh
Workaround
A shell wrapper that reads defaults read -g AppleInterfaceStyle at launch and writes theme: light|dark into ~/.claude.json before starting Claude Code — gives the exact palettes, but only syncs at launch, not live.
Related
- #56848 (closed) — Auto detected light but the syntax highlighter rendered a dark palette; same family of "Auto ≠ the real theme" mismatches
- #50179 (closed) — Auto can't compose with the daltonized palette variants; same root design issue: Auto is a sibling palette rather than a switcher over the user's chosen palettes