diff --git a/src/config/Config.zig b/src/config/Config.zig
index 38880f76a..8901c1500 100644
--- a/src/config/Config.zig
+++ b/src/config/Config.zig
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ const cli = @import("../cli.zig");
 const Command = @import("../Command.zig");
 
 const formatterpkg = @import("formatter.zig");
+const themepkg = @import("theme.zig");
 const url = @import("url.zig");
 const Key = @import("key.zig").Key;
 const KeyValue = @import("key.zig").Value;
@@ -2205,88 +2206,12 @@ pub fn themeDir(alloc: std.mem.Allocator, type_: ThemeDirType) ?[]const u8 {
 fn loadTheme(self: *Config, theme: []const u8) !void {
     const alloc = self._arena.?.allocator();
 
-    const file = file: {
-        if (std.fs.path.isAbsolute(theme)) {
-            // Theme is an absolute path, open that file or fail
-            break :file std.fs.openFileAbsolute(theme, .{}) catch |err| switch (err) {
-                error.FileNotFound => {
-                    try self._errors.add(alloc, .{
-                        .message = try std.fmt.allocPrintZ(
-                            alloc,
-                            "failed to load theme from the path \"{s}\"",
-                            .{theme},
-                        ),
-                    });
-                    return;
-                },
-                else => {
-                    try self._errors.add(alloc, .{
-                        .message = try std.fmt.allocPrintZ(
-                            alloc,
-                            "failed to load theme from the path \"{s}\": {}",
-                            .{ theme, err },
-                        ),
-                    });
-                    return;
-                },
-            };
-        }
-
-        // The theme is not an absolute path, search the user and system theme
-        // directories
-
-        const dirs: []const struct {
-            type: ThemeDirType,
-            dir: ?[]const u8,
-        } = &.{
-            .{ .type = .user, .dir = themeDir(alloc, .user) },
-            .{ .type = .system, .dir = themeDir(alloc, .system) },
-        };
-
-        const cwd = std.fs.cwd();
-        for (dirs) |dir| {
-            if (dir.dir) |d| {
-                const path = try std.fs.path.join(alloc, &.{
-                    d,
-                    theme,
-                });
-                if (cwd.openFile(path, .{})) |file| {
-                    break :file file;
-                } else |err| switch (err) {
-                    error.FileNotFound => {},
-                    else => {
-                        try self._errors.add(alloc, .{
-                            .message = try std.fmt.allocPrintZ(
-                                alloc,
-                                "failed to load theme \"{s}\" from the file \"{s}\": {}",
-                                .{ theme, path, err },
-                            ),
-                        });
-                    },
-                }
-            }
-        }
-
-        // If we get here, no file was found with the theme. Log some errors
-        // and bail.
-        for (dirs) |dir| {
-            if (dir.dir) |d| {
-                try self._errors.add(alloc, .{
-                    .message = try std.fmt.allocPrintZ(
-                        alloc,
-                        "theme \"{s}\" not found, tried {s} path \"{s}\"",
-                        .{
-                            theme,
-                            @tagName(dir.type),
-                            d,
-                        },
-                    ),
-                });
-            }
-        }
-
-        return;
-    };
+    // Find our theme file and open it. See the open function for details.
+    const file: std.fs.File = (try themepkg.open(
+        alloc,
+        theme,
+        &self._errors,
+    )) orelse return;
     defer file.close();
 
     // From this point onwards, we load the theme and do a bit of a dance
diff --git a/src/config/theme.zig b/src/config/theme.zig
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..16aa244fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/config/theme.zig
@@ -0,0 +1,181 @@
+const std = @import("std");
+const builtin = @import("builtin");
+const assert = std.debug.assert;
+const Allocator = std.mem.Allocator;
+const global_state = &@import("../main.zig").state;
+const internal_os = @import("../os/main.zig");
+const ErrorList = @import("ErrorList.zig");
+
+/// Location of possible themes. The order of this enum matters because
+/// it defines the priority of theme search (from top to bottom).
+pub const Location = enum {
+    user, // xdg config dir
+    resources, // Ghostty resources dir
+
+    /// Returns the directory for the given theme based on this location type.
+    ///
+    /// This will return null with no error if the directory type doesn't
+    /// exist or is invalid for any reason. For example, it is perfectly
+    /// valid to install and run Ghostty without the resources directory.
+    ///
+    /// This may allocate memory but it isn't guaranteed so the allocator
+    /// should be something like an arena. It isn't safe to always free the
+    /// resulting pointer.
+    pub fn dir(
+        self: Location,
+        alloc_arena: Allocator,
+        theme: []const u8,
+    ) error{OutOfMemory}!?[]const u8 {
+        if (comptime std.debug.runtime_safety) {
+            assert(!std.fs.path.isAbsolute(theme));
+        }
+
+        return switch (self) {
+            .user => user: {
+                var buf: [std.fs.max_path_bytes]u8 = undefined;
+                const subdir = std.fmt.bufPrint(
+                    &buf,
+                    "ghostty/themes/{s}",
+                    .{theme},
+                ) catch |err| switch (err) {
+                    error.NoSpaceLeft => return error.OutOfMemory,
+                };
+
+                break :user internal_os.xdg.config(
+                    alloc_arena,
+                    .{ .subdir = subdir },
+                ) catch |err| switch (err) {
+                    error.OutOfMemory => return error.OutOfMemory,
+                    error.BufferTooSmall => return error.OutOfMemory,
+
+                    // No home dir means we don't have an XDG config dir
+                    // so we can just return null.
+                    error.NoHomeDir => return null,
+                };
+            },
+
+            .resources => try std.fs.path.join(alloc_arena, &.{
+                global_state.resources_dir orelse return null,
+                "themes",
+                theme,
+            }),
+        };
+    }
+};
+
+/// An iterator that returns all possible locations for a theme in order
+/// of priority.
+pub const LocationIterator = struct {
+    alloc_arena: Allocator,
+    theme: []const u8,
+    i: usize = 0,
+
+    pub fn next(self: *LocationIterator) !?[]const u8 {
+        const max = @typeInfo(Location).Enum.fields.len;
+        while (true) {
+            if (self.i >= max) return null;
+            const loc: Location = @enumFromInt(self.i);
+            self.i += 1;
+            const dir_ = try loc.dir(self.alloc_arena, self.theme);
+            const dir = dir_ orelse continue;
+            return dir;
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn reset(self: *LocationIterator) void {
+        self.i = 0;
+    }
+};
+
+/// Open the given named theme. If there are any errors then messages
+/// will be appended to the given error list and null is returned. If
+/// a non-null return value is returned, there are never any errors added.
+///
+/// One error that is not recoverable and may be returned is OOM. This is
+/// always a critical error for configuration loading so it is returned.
+pub fn open(
+    alloc_arena: Allocator,
+    theme: []const u8,
+    errors: *ErrorList,
+) error{OutOfMemory}!?std.fs.File {
+    // Absolute themes are loaded a different path.
+    if (std.fs.path.isAbsolute(theme)) return try openAbsolute(
+        alloc_arena,
+        theme,
+        errors,
+    );
+
+    // Iterate over the possible locations to try to find the
+    // one that exists.
+    var it: LocationIterator = .{ .alloc_arena = alloc_arena, .theme = theme };
+    const cwd = std.fs.cwd();
+    while (try it.next()) |path| {
+        if (cwd.openFile(path, .{})) |file| {
+            return file;
+        } else |err| switch (err) {
+            // Not an error, just continue to the next location.
+            error.FileNotFound => {},
+
+            // Anything else is an error we log and give up on.
+            else => {
+                try errors.add(alloc_arena, .{
+                    .message = try std.fmt.allocPrintZ(
+                        alloc_arena,
+                        "failed to load theme \"{s}\" from the file \"{s}\": {}",
+                        .{ theme, path, err },
+                    ),
+                });
+
+                return null;
+            },
+        }
+    }
+
+    // Unlikely scenario: the theme doesn't exist. In this case, we reset
+    // our iterator, reiterate over in order to build a better error message.
+    // This does double allocate some memory but for errors I think thats
+    // fine.
+    it.reset();
+    while (try it.next()) |path| {
+        try errors.add(alloc_arena, .{
+            .message = try std.fmt.allocPrintZ(
+                alloc_arena,
+                "theme \"{s}\" not found, tried path \"{s}\"",
+                .{ theme, path },
+            ),
+        });
+    }
+
+    return null;
+}
+
+/// Open the given theme from an absolute path. If there are any errors
+/// then messages will be appended to the given error list and null is
+/// returned. If a non-null return value is returned, there are never any
+/// errors added.
+pub fn openAbsolute(
+    alloc_arena: Allocator,
+    theme: []const u8,
+    errors: *ErrorList,
+) error{OutOfMemory}!?std.fs.File {
+    return std.fs.openFileAbsolute(theme, .{}) catch |err| {
+        switch (err) {
+            error.FileNotFound => try errors.add(alloc_arena, .{
+                .message = try std.fmt.allocPrintZ(
+                    alloc_arena,
+                    "failed to load theme from the path \"{s}\"",
+                    .{theme},
+                ),
+            }),
+            else => try errors.add(alloc_arena, .{
+                .message = try std.fmt.allocPrintZ(
+                    alloc_arena,
+                    "failed to load theme from the path \"{s}\": {}",
+                    .{ theme, err },
+                ),
+            }),
+        }
+
+        return null;
+    };
+}