[Bug] pake-youtube doesn't respect dark mode on i3wm (nor in GNOME?)!

[Yaman-Harfoush]

Search before asking

• I searched in the issues and found nothing similar.

Pake version

3.17.1

Rust version

1.89.0

Package Manager

pnpm

System version

Arch Linux

Node.js version

26.8.2

Build Command

pake https://www.youtube.com --name youtube --targets zst

Minimal reproduce step

build pake-youtube with the above command.
I apply dark mode on i3wm with this command
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme 'prefer-dark'
and light theme with this command:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme 'prefer-light'

I don't know the dependencies that allow this to work on i3wm, but surprisingly pretty much all apps follow this command which is so convenient.

I will say this. I'm not sure if previous builds of pake-youtube on my system followed the theme (They obviously didn't work). But if I log into GNOME and run the app, it changes the theme immediately!
Edit: even in GNOME it's tricky

What did you expect to see?

full on app dark theme

What did you see instead?

only light theme

Anything else?

Thank you!

Are you willing to submit a PR?

• I'm willing to submit a PR!

[tw93]

@Yaman-Harfoush Thanks for reporting this. I haven’t confirmed whether the mismatch comes from the desktop theme signal or YouTube’s own appearance setting, so I’m keeping this open.

When you switch themes, does the window title bar change while the YouTube page stays light, or do both stay light? Please also check whether YouTube is set to follow the device theme, and whether restarting the app after changing the system theme makes a difference. Those results will help separate theme detection from live updates.

[Yaman-Harfoush]

@tw93 I can report now. But The app is stuck on loading on my Linux system.
Update: I have deleted the cache file at: ~/.config/youtube/WebKitCache and it seems to work at the moment

[Yaman-Harfoush]

@tw93 First of all on Windows it's fine. So you don't have to change that. The issue appears to be Linux-specific.

Yes, YouTube is set to Device theme.
As you can see, the app uses the old GNONE window title bar and it doesn't change color.
(I suggest using the new header bar as you've described, Maybe in a separate issue😉)
On GNOME, The app is always dark. On i3, it's always light . Closing the app and reopening it doesn't change the theme.