Building a theme system with Next.js 15 and Tailwind CSS v4 without the dark: prefix allows for a more flexible and user-friendly experience. The approach leverages CSS variables, which can be updated at runtime, offering a dynamic way to switch between multiple editor themes like Dracula, VS Code Dark, and GitHub. This method ensures type safety with TypeScript, making it easy to define and manage themes.

By using Tailwind's @theme directive, developers can seamlessly integrate these themes into their projects, providing an instant and smooth user experience. This solution also persists user preferences using localStorage, ensuring a personalized experience across sessions. The system is designed to be easily extensible, allowing for the addition of new themes or colors with minimal effort.

This approach eliminates the need for build-time variants and ensures that theme switching is both efficient and user-friendly.