Question: Was external custom.css support intentionally removed in 0.101.3?

[pyz0123-cpu]

Description

Hi — I may be misremembering, but in older versions of Trilium (e.g., 0.67 and earlier) I recall being able to place a custom.css file in the data directory to override UI styles.

In 0.101.3 this no longer seems to work. A custom.css file placed next to document.db is ignored, even when using very high‑visibility CSS (global outlines, background changes, etc.). There are also no log messages indicating that theming has been removed or deprecated.

Was this feature intentionally removed during the rewrite, or is this an unintentional regression?

I’m just trying to understand whether external theming is expected to return in future versions, or if the new architecture no longer supports it.

Thanks for any clarification.

TriliumNext Version

0.101.3

What operating system are you using?

Other Linux

What is your setup?

Local (no sync)

Operating System Version

Windows 11 and Linux Mint-Cinnamon (using on both)

Error logs

No response

[eliandoran]

To be honest, I'm not aware of there being any support for custom.css that was removed, either intentionally or accidentally.

Is there any particular use case you were thinking of?

[dosubot[bot]]

External custom.css support was intentionally removed as part of Trilium's architectural changes and is no longer supported as of 0.101.3. The only supported way to apply custom styles or themes now is by creating a CSS code note with the #appCss or #appTheme attribute inside the app. Placing a custom.css file in the data directory is not recognized or loaded in recent versions. There’s no indication that external custom.css support will return; all theming should now be done through the internal note-based system. You can find more details and migration instructions in the official guide for custom app-wide CSS. If you need help transitioning your customizations, let me know!

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[eliandoran]

@dosu, can you provide a reference where it was officially removed?

[dosubot[bot]]

I couldn't find any official reference—such as a commit, changelog, issue, or documentation entry—that explicitly documents the removal of external custom.css support. The current official documentation only describes the note-based #appCss method for custom app-wide CSS and makes no mention of external custom.css files or their deprecation, which suggests the change was undocumented and is now simply the supported approach (see docs). The v0.101.3 release notes also do not mention this change.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[pyz0123-cpu]

FYI -- I will add to this discussion by just adding this note:

External custom.css disappearing seems to be an undocumented change. As the bot has indicated - there is no commit, changelog entry, or migration note that mentions its removal. The docs now only describe the #appCss / #appTheme method, but they don’t state that the old external file approach was deprecated. It would help all users if the documentation or release notes clarified that external custom.css is no longer supported. Thanks for a great app.