How do I build a theme?

Last updated: June 4, 2026

Build a theme in Account Settings → Themes, then assign it as your account default, to individual employers, or as a one-off override when generating a specific link.

Before you start

  • You need Account Settings access to create and manage themes.

  • Read 📄 Understanding themes if you want to understand how themes cascade before diving in.

Create the theme

  1. Go to Account Settings → Themes and click New Theme.

  2. Enter a Name. Use something recognizable — the employer name or brand name works well.

  3. Select the Light Theme or Dark Theme tab. Configure each mode independently — settings on one tab don't carry over to the other.

Configure header settings

  1. Toggle Show Header on to display a branded header bar at the top of every form. Turn it off and no header appears — candidates go straight to form content.

  2. Upload a Logo by clicking the upload icon next to the logo field. See Logo guidance below for file type and size recommendations.

  3. Set Header Background Color and Header Text Color using the color pickers or by typing a hex value directly.

Configure form settings

  1. Toggle Show Form Name to show or hide the form's name at the top of the candidate view.

  2. Toggle Show # of updates to show or hide the running count of fields the candidate has completed.

Configure button settings

  1. Set Primary Button Text — the label on the forward/save button. Defaults to Save & Next.

  2. Set Primary Button Background Color and Primary Button Text Color.

  3. Set Back Button Text — defaults to Previous.

  4. Set Back Button Background Color and Back Button Text Color.

Configure CSS settings

  1. Set Progress Bar Color to match your brand.

  2. Set Border Color for input field borders.

  3. Set Radius using CSS units — e.g., 0.5rem for rounded corners, 0 for square.

  4. Click Create theme. You'll land on the edit view where you can keep adjusting.

Logo guidance

The logo renders at 32px height in the candidate header. A few things to keep in mind:

  • File type: PNG with a transparent background is the best default. SVG also works well and scales perfectly at any size. JPEG works but won't have a transparent background, which can look awkward against colored header backgrounds.

  • Dimensions: Upload at 2× resolution — at least 64px tall for PNG — so it renders sharply on high-density screens. Horizontal wordmarks or combined logo+wordmark fit the header better than a square icon.

  • File size: The uploader accepts files up to 25 MB. In practice, a well-optimized PNG logo is well under 1 MB — large file sizes slow the header load for candidates.

Using AI to generate brand colors

The theme editor has an AI tool that can pull brand colors directly from your company website. Click the AI button next to the Light/Dark tabs, paste in your company URL, and click Generate. The tool populates the color fields with values extracted from your site. You can keep the suggestions as-is or tweak individual values.

Assign the theme

A theme does nothing until it's assigned. There are three places you can assign one, each at a different level of the cascade.

Account default — applies whenever no employer theme or per-link override is set:

  1. Go to Account Settings → Edit Account.

  2. In the Theme dropdown, select your theme and save.

Employer default — overrides the account default for all links associated with that employer:

  1. Open the employer record: Employers → [employer name] → Edit.

  2. In the Theme dropdown, select the theme and save. You can also create a new theme directly from this dropdown without leaving the employer form.

Per-link override — overrides the employer and account defaults for a single generated link only:

  1. Open an employee record and click Create Link.

  2. In the Theme dropdown in the link generation sheet, select the theme.

  3. Generate the link — only that specific link uses the override theme. Other links for the same employer are unaffected.

You can also set a per-link theme via the Create Onboarding Link automation action using the active_theme_id parameter.

Verify

Open the link in a new browser tab (or incognito window). The header should show your logo and colors. If it shows the default Onboarded styling, check which level of the cascade applies: confirm the employer record has the theme saved, or that the per-link override was selected before generating the link.

Changes to a theme take effect immediately for all future sessions. Candidates mid-session may see mixed styling until they advance to the next step.

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