Documentation Packages

Packages in Sublime Merge are zip files with the extension .sublime-package or folders in user loose packages directory. Sublime Merge comes with a number of packages to provide themes, key bindings, menus and syntax definitions for highlighting code. Sublime Merge will also load syntax definitions from packages installed for Sublime Text.

Package Directories

Sublime Merge will load packages from three locations, each which vary by the operating system.

Zipped packages are loaded from the Packages/ folder that is a sibling to the sublime_merge executable. The location of this will depend on where Sublime Merge is installed. The most common location is listed below.

Zipped packages are also loaded from the Installed Packages/ folder in the data directory. The data directory for each platform is listed below.

Unzipped, or loose, package folders are loaded from the Packages/ folder in the data directory.

Windows

Data directory
%APPDATA%\Sublime Merge\
Default packages
C:\Program Files\Sublime Merge\Packages\
User zipped packages
%APPDATA%\Sublime Merge\Installed Packages\
User loose packages
%APPDATA%\Sublime Merge\Packages\

Mac

Data directory
~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Merge/
Default packages
/Applications/Sublime Merge.app/Contents/MacOS/Packages/
User zipped packages
~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Merge/Installed Packages/
User loose packages
~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Merge/Packages/

Linux

Data directory
~/.config/sublime_merge/
Default packages
/opt/sublime_merge/Packages/
User zipped packages
%~/.config/sublime_merge/Installed Packages/
User loose packages
~/.config/sublime_merge/Packages/

Zipped Package Files

Sometimes it is useful to look at the contents of the various packages that are shipped with Sublime Merge to understand how certain theme effects are accomplished, or the commands run by a key binding or menu entry.

To do this, use the package directories section to find the Default packages directory for your operating system. If Sublime Merge was installed to a non-standard location, the directory will be different. Copy the desired package to a suitable location, such as the desktop, and use a zip program to extract the contents into a new folder. Depending on the platform, it may need to change the file extension from .sublime-package to .zip.

Most of the packages primarily provide syntax definitions, but the Default.sublime-package, Default - Merge.sublime-package, Color Scheme - Default.sublime-package and Theme - Merge.sublime-package provide all of the key bindings, menus, command palette definitions and themes. The contents of the other packages are open source, and can be more easily viewed online at https://github.com/sublimehq/packages.

Installing Packages

Currently, Sublime Merge does not have a plugin API, nor a built-in package manager. Sublime Merge will, however, automatically load syntax definitions from Sublime Text, if installed. Thus for some users, the simplest option will be to use Package Control with Sublime Text to install packages that provide syntax definitions.

If Sublime Text is not installed, it is possible to manually install packages or package files into Sublime Merge. If using the list of packages available via Package Control, it may be desirable to copy only the syntax definitions instead of installed entire packages. This is because the preferences and themes from Sublime Text will be incompatible with Sublime Merge in the majority of cases.

To install individual package files, find the package homepage via the Package Control website. In the majority of cases this will be the GitHub or BitBucket repository, and when not the homepage often includes a link to the source. Then download individual files into a new folder in the User loose packages directory.