Dark Mode for Jira and Confluence Without Losing Syntax Highlighting

Jira and Confluence Cloud have their own dark theme, and it's the best option: Atlassian designed it, so code blocks, status colors and charts stay readable. A browser extension is the fallback for older versions and for the pages around them.

Turn on Atlassian's dark theme

1. In Jira or Confluence Cloud, click your profile picture.
2. Choose Theme.
3. Pick Dark, or Match browser to follow your system's light or dark setting.

The setting applies across Atlassian Cloud products for your account. Code blocks get syntax colors designed for dark backgrounds, and status lozenges, labels and charts are adjusted too.

Self-hosted Jira and Confluence

Recent Data Center versions also have a dark theme in your profile's settings. Older self-hosted versions don't, and that's where an extension helps. Ask your admin which version you're on.

Using a dark mode extension instead

Modern Dark Mode darkens any site, including older Jira and Confluence pages, and keeps images, attachments and embedded content in their real colors. Because it inverts brightness while rotating colors back, syntax colors in code blocks keep roughly their original hues, so keywords, strings and comments still look different from each other, though light and dark shades swap. Tips:

• Adjust the contrast slider if code looks too faint or too harsh.
• If you use Atlassian's own dark theme, add your Atlassian address (for example yourcompany.atlassian.net) to the extension's excluded sites, so the two don't fight.
• Check color-coded fields, such as priority colors or custom labels, after switching. Shades can shift.

Keeping code readable in dark mode

• Use Confluence's code block macro (or Jira's code formatting) rather than pasting colored text, so the theme can style it.
• Pick a code block theme with good contrast, if your version offers a choice.
• Avoid hard-coded text colors in pages; they may be unreadable in one of the themes.

Other Atlassian-adjacent tools

Bitbucket Cloud and Trello have their own theme settings too. For other work tools without a dark theme, an extension covers them. See Dark Reader vs Modern Dark Mode for choosing one. Whichever you use, try it on a busy board and a long page with code before relying on it all day.