felixse/FluentTerminal · error · ParseThemeException

Red node value was not a real number

Error message

Red node value was not a real number

What it means

Thrown by GetColorString when the "Red Component" child of a color dictionary cannot be cast to a RealNode. iTerm stores each channel as a floating-point value in [0,1] (a plist <real>). If the value was serialized as an <integer>, <string>, or <data> node, `as RealNode` returns null and ParseThemeException fires.

Source

Thrown at FluentTerminal.App.Services/Implementation/ITermThemeParser.cs:112

                Magenta = GetColorString(themeDictionary[ITermThemeKeys.Ansi5Color]),
                Cyan = GetColorString(themeDictionary[ITermThemeKeys.Ansi6Color]),
                White = GetColorString(themeDictionary[ITermThemeKeys.Ansi7Color]),
                BrightBlack = GetColorString(themeDictionary[ITermThemeKeys.Ansi8Color]),
                BrightRed = GetColorString(themeDictionary[ITermThemeKeys.Ansi9Color]),
                BrightGreen = GetColorString(themeDictionary[ITermThemeKeys.Ansi10Color]),
                BrightYellow = GetColorString(themeDictionary[ITermThemeKeys.Ansi11Color]),
                BrightBlue = GetColorString(themeDictionary[ITermThemeKeys.Ansi12Color]),
                BrightMagenta = GetColorString(themeDictionary[ITermThemeKeys.Ansi13Color]),
                BrightCyan = GetColorString(themeDictionary[ITermThemeKeys.Ansi14Color]),
                BrightWhite = GetColorString(themeDictionary[ITermThemeKeys.Ansi15Color]),
            };
        }

        private string GetColorString(PNode colorNode, byte alpha = Byte.MaxValue)
        {
            var dictionaryNode = colorNode as DictionaryNode ?? throw new ParseThemeException("Color node was not a dictionary");

            var red = dictionaryNode[ITermThemeColorKeys.RedComponent] as RealNode ?? throw new ParseThemeException("Red node value was not a real number");
            var green = dictionaryNode[ITermThemeColorKeys.GreenComponent] as RealNode ?? throw new ParseThemeException("Green node value was not a real number");
            var blue = dictionaryNode[ITermThemeColorKeys.BlueComponent] as RealNode ?? throw new ParseThemeException("Blue node value was not a real number");

            if (alpha == byte.MaxValue)
            {
                return $"#{GetByteValue(red):X2}{GetByteValue(green):X2}{GetByteValue(blue):X2}";
            }
            else
            {
                return $"rgba({GetByteValue(red):G}, {GetByteValue(green):G}, {GetByteValue(blue):G}, {ToDoubleString(alpha)})";
            }
        }

        private byte GetByteValue(RealNode node)
        {
            var doubleValue = node.Value * Byte.MaxValue;

            return Convert.ToByte(doubleValue);

View on GitHub (pinned to ba83ec485e)

Solutions

1. Open the theme and confirm each "Red/Green/Blue Component" is a <real> in the 0.0-1.0 range (e.g. <real>0.5019607843137255</real>).
2. Convert integer 0-255 values to reals by dividing by 255.0 if you must patch the file.
3. Re-export the theme from a genuine iTerm2 install.

Example fix

// before
var red = dictionaryNode[ITermThemeColorKeys.RedComponent] as RealNode ?? throw new ParseThemeException("Red node value was not a real number");

// after - accept integer or real nodes
var redNode = dictionaryNode[ITermThemeColorKeys.RedComponent];
double redValue = redNode is RealNode r ? r.Value
    : redNode is IntegerNode i ? i.Value / 255.0
    : throw new ParseThemeException("Red node value was not a real number");

bool IsRealComponent(PNode n) => n is PListNet.Nodes.RealNode;
// Guard before casting:
if (!(dictionaryNode["Red Component"] is PListNet.Nodes.RealNode))
    throw new ParseThemeException("Red Component must be a <real> in [0,1]");

static double? AsReal(PNode n) => n is PListNet.Nodes.RealNode r ? (double?)r.Value : null;

try { await parser.Import(name, stream); }
catch (ParseThemeException ex) when (ex.Message.Contains("Red node"))
{ notifyUser("Theme color channels must be real numbers (0.0-1.0)."); }

When it happens

Trigger: A color dict's "Red Component" entry is present but typed as integer (e.g. 255 instead of 1.0), as a string ("1.0"), or as a Boolean. The lookup dictionaryNode[ITermThemeColorKeys.RedComponent] succeeds but the cast to RealNode fails.

Common situations: A plist editor or converter wrote color components as integers (0-255) instead of reals (0.0-1.0); the theme was authored for a tool that uses integer RGB; a hand-edit changed a <real>1.0</real> to <integer>255</integer>.

Related errors

• Green node value was not a real number
• Color node was not a dictionary
• Root node was not a dictionary.

AI-assisted analysis of felixse/FluentTerminal@ba83ec485e (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d25e1496ba6ab86b. Report an issue: GitHub.