# Source: https://tamagui.dev/docs/core/use-theme.md

---
title: useTheme
description: Creating and using theme values
---

Access the current theme in context with `useTheme`. Tamagui themes operate much
the same as
[CSS variables](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Using_CSS_custom_properties)
do, and so
[they can nest and override each other contextually](/docs/intro/themes).

Note that the object that useTheme returns is the current theme, proxied upwards
to every parent theme, finally proxying back to your tokens. This means it
behaves just like CSS variables at well, at runtime.

A short example:

```tsx
import { YStack, useTheme } from 'tamagui'

const App = () => {
  const theme = useTheme()

  return <YStack backgroundColor={theme.color1.val} />
}
```

The `useTheme` hook returns your Theme turned into a `ThemeParsed`, which means
it turns all values into a `Variable`:

```tsx
{
  background: {
    val: '#000',
    variable: 'var(--background)',
    name: 'background',
    isVar: true,
  },
  color: {
    val: '#fff',
    variable: 'var(--color)',
    name: 'color',
    isVar: true,
  },
}
```

The `useTheme` hook further adds a `.get()` helper function on each Variable for
extra performance. On the web, this will return the `.variable` property and
avoid re-rendering if values change, as it assumes you are using the CSS
variables it generates to update styles. Meanwhile on native it will return
`.val` and re-render always. But - if you enable the
[`fastSchemeChange` setting on createTamagui](/docs/core/configuration#settings)
then `get()` will return a
[DynamicColorIOS](https://reactnative.dev/docs/dynamiccolorios) on iOS and avoid
re-rendering there too - unless you do `get('web')` in which case it will only
optimize for web.

```tsx
import { Stack, useTheme } from '@tamagui/core'
import { SomeExternalComponent } from 'some-external-component'

const App = () => {
  const theme = useTheme()

  // on the web this is something like var(--background) and will avoid re-renders
  // on native it will be something like #fff and will re-render
  const background = theme.background.get()

  // if you needed to access it in a way that always returns the raw value
  const backgroundValue = theme.background.val

  return (
    <SomeExternalComponent
      style={{
        backgroundColor: background,
      }}
    />
  )
}
```

You can mix and match `useMedia` and `useTheme`, and the compiler understands
most basic usages, even with nested logic or constants within the file or
imports [white-listed in your build setup](/docs/compiler/install):

```tsx
import { YStack, useMedia, useTheme } from 'tamagui'

const App = () => {
  const theme = useTheme()
  const media = useMedia()

  return (
    <YStack
      y={media.sm ? 10 : 0}
      backgroundColor={media.lg ? theme.red : theme.blue}
      {...(media.xl && {
        y: theme.space2,
      })}
    />
  )
}
```

This will compile on the web to:

```tsx
const _cn =
  ' _alignItems-1oszu61 _boxSizing-deolkf _display-6koalj _flexBasis-1mlwlqe _flexDirection-eqz5dr _flexShrink-1q142lx _transform-_sm_1exagq _transform-_sm0_1wpzndr _backgroundColor-_lg_no4z4g _backgroundColor-_lg0_1qoifqd _transform-_xl_gqa6p0'

import { YStack, useMedia, useTheme } from 'tamagui'

const App = () => {
  return <div className={_cn} />
}
```

And the following CSS:

```css
._alignItems-1oszu61 {
  -ms-flex-align: stretch;
  -webkit-align-items: stretch;
  -webkit-box-align: stretch;
  align-items: stretch;
}
._boxSizing-deolkf {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}
._display-6koalj {
  display: -webkit-box;
  display: -moz-box;
  display: -ms-flexbox;
  display: -webkit-flex;
  display: flex;
}
._flexBasis-1mlwlqe {
  -ms-flex-preferred-size: auto;
  -webkit-flex-basis: auto;
  flex-basis: auto;
}
._flexDirection-eqz5dr {
  -ms-flex-direction: column;
  -webkit-box-direction: normal;
  -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
  -webkit-flex-direction: column;
  flex-direction: column;
}
._flexShrink-1q142lx {
  -ms-flex-negative: 0;
  -webkit-flex-shrink: 0;
  flex-shrink: 0;
}
@media (max-width: 860px) {
  :root:root ._transform-_sm_1exagq {
    -webkit-transform: translateY(10px);
    transform: translateY(10px);
  }
}
@media not all and (max-width: 860px) {
  :root:root ._transform-_sm0_1wpzndr {
    -webkit-transform: translateY(0px);
    transform: translateY(0px);
  }
}
@media (min-width: 1120px) {
  :root:root:root ._backgroundColor-_lg_no4z4g {
    background-color: var(--red);
  }
}
@media not all and (min-width: 1120px) {
  :root:root:root ._backgroundColor-_lg0_1qoifqd {
    background-color: var(--blue);
  }
}
@media (min-width: 1280px) {
  :root:root:root:root ._transform-_xl_gqa6p0 {
    -webkit-transform: translateY(var(--space2));
    transform: translateY(var(--space2));
  }
}
```

## Using outside of styling

You can `useTheme()` (and `useMedia()`) at runtime. Like useMedia, useTheme will
only re-render when it has to, and often you can skip re-renders altogether by
either passing the values to a Tamagui styled component, or by using the helper
`getVariable`:

### getVariable

If you access `theme.bg.val` in your render function, the component will only
re-render when theme.bg changes.

```tsx
import { theme, View } from '@tamagui/core'

export default () => {
  const theme = useTheme()

  // access the value
  console.log(theme.bg.val)

  return (
    <View backgroundColor={theme.color1} />
  )
}
```

## Changing the theme at the hook level

This is a more advanced use for building custom hooks or components, but you can
pass in a theme name and a component theme name (as
[discussed here](/docs/intro/themes#component-subset-themes)) to grab the right
subset theme:

```tsx
function MyComponent(props) {
  const theme = useTheme(props.theme, 'MyComponent')
}
```

For example, if you have the following themes:

- `dark`
- `dark_green`
- `dark_green_MyComponent`

And this code:

```tsx
<Theme name="dark">
  <MyComponent theme="green" />
</Theme>
```

The above `useTheme` hook would return the `dark_green_MyComponent` theme.