Apple Theme for Pterodactyl (Admin)
An iOS-grade matte glass theme for the Pterodactyl admin area, built on the Blueprint framework. Apple replaces the stock AdminLTE chrome with a frosted sidebar and floating top bar, reskins every panel component in Catppuccin Mocha (dark) and Latte (light), and ships a custom bento dashboard — with zero core-file replacement and zero external assets.
🍎 Built for PingLess Studiosstudio.pingless.org · Single .blueprint package, standalone variant included
Architecture
Apple never edits a Pterodactyl core file to work. Blueprint renders Apple's wrapper at the end of every admin page; it emits server-rendered design tokens (so the first paint is already themed and in the right mode), then loads Apple's CSS and JS. The JavaScript harvests the panel's own sidebar menu at runtime — every link, icon and active state, including links injected by any other extension — and rebuilds it as the Apple navigation. Install another extension tomorrow and its pages simply appear.
Key Features
- 🌗 Catppuccin in both modes. Full Mocha (dark) and Latte (light) token sets, 12 official Catppuccin accents (blue, sapphire, sky, teal, green, yellow, peach, red, pink, mauve, lavender, flamingo), and a top-bar toggle that persists per browser. Admins pick the default: system, dark or light.
- 🧊 Matte glass, not glassmorphism-for-show. Frosted sidebar, floating top bar and cards whose blur and opacity are settings (
0–30pxblur,50–95%opacity). Surfaces stay neutral — only the accent carries color, and on the sidebar only the icon does. - 🧭 A sidebar that adapts to everything. Section headers, links, icons and active states are read from the panel's own menu DOM, so any extension that registers an admin link — now or later — shows up automatically. Filter field, icon-rail collapse (persisted), and an off-canvas drawer with blurred backdrop on mobile.
- 🍱 Bento dashboard. Greeting with real update status, live counts (servers, users, nodes, locations), a 14-day signup sparkline rendered as inline SVG (no chart CDN), quick actions, and a system tile. Toggleable — the stock dashboard ships inside the same file as a runtime fallback.
- 🚀 Branded boot loader. A splash with your panel name, the Apple glyph and an accent progress ring while the chrome builds — with a CSS-only failsafe and a static reduced-motion variant.
- 🧩 Every component reskinned globally. Boxes, buttons, forms, tables, tabs (as iOS segmented controls), alerts, callouts, modals, labels, pagination, dropdowns, select2, SweetAlert, stat widgets — extension pages look native without a line of per-extension work.
- ♿ Accessibility as a contract. Body text ≥ 4.5:1 in both modes, visible focus rings,
prefers-reduced-motionhonored everywhere, status never carried by color alone. - 📦 Blueprint + standalone. One codebase ships as a
.blueprintpackage (with settings hub) and as a standalone variant for panels without Blueprint.
Quick Install
# place apple-v1.0.0.blueprint in /var/www/pterodactyl, then:
blueprint -i apple-v1.0.0Open Admin → Apple Theme — defaults apply on first load, so the admin area looks right before you change a thing. See Installation for the standalone variant, verification and troubleshooting.
Why Apple instead of…
| Apple | Stock admin | Legacy admin themes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sidebar navigation | ✅ floating glass rail + drawer | ❌ fixed AdminLTE rail | ⚠️ hover-expand hacks |
| Dark and light modes | ✅ Catppuccin Mocha + Latte, instant toggle | ❌ single skin | ⚠️ two diverging CSS forks |
| Other extensions in the sidebar | ✅ automatic, runtime-harvested | ✅ (stock list) | ❌ hardcoded, links vanish |
| Extension pages themed | ✅ global component reskin | — | ⚠️ per-page rewrites |
| Dashboard | ✅ bento grid, live stats, sparkline | ❌ one info box | ⚠️ raw SQL in the view |
| Core files replaced | ✅ none¹ | — | ❌ layout + views overwritten |
| External assets loaded | ✅ none | ⚠️ FA/Ionicons CDN | ⚠️ fonts/charts CDN |
¹ The dashboard view is swapped by an idempotent, marker-verified patch with the original backed up next to it and restored on uninstall — it is the one deliberate exception, and it can be switched off from the settings hub without removing the theme.
Bottom line: legacy admin themes overwrite
layouts/admin.blade.phpand hardcode the menu — every other extension's link silently disappears, and uninstalling wipes the panel. Apple reads the menu the panel already built and styles what extensions already render.
VERIFIED LIVE
Every surface was verified on a real Pterodactyl 1.12 panel during development: dashboard, servers, users, settings, nests, extensions and the settings hub in both modes, the mobile drawer at phone width, settings save/reset, and a full uninstall → reinstall cycle — via automated browser screenshots with zero console errors.
Next Steps
- Installation → — Blueprint and standalone, verify, troubleshoot, uninstall.
- Configuration Reference → — every setting, every default, every token.
- Using the Theme → — toggle, rail, filter, drawer, loader.
- Extension Compatibility → — how other extensions adapt automatically.