diff --git a/settings/quickshell.nix b/settings/quickshell.nix
index bf03f3a..e6ecabb 100644
--- a/settings/quickshell.nix
+++ b/settings/quickshell.nix
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ let
   wallsJson = builtins.toJSON config.fred.theming.walls;
   defaultWall = config.fred.theming.defaultWall;
   themeApply = config.fred.theming.apply;
+  monoIcons = config.fred.theming.monoIcons;
 in
 {
   config = lib.mkIf (lib.elem config.networking.hostName [ "FredOS-Gaming" "FredOS-Macbook" ]) {
@@ -1312,6 +1313,10 @@ in
                 readonly property string wxFetch: "${wxFetchScript}"
                 readonly property string xdgOpen: "${pkgs.xdg-utils}/bin/xdg-open"
                 readonly property string themeApply: "${themeApply}"
+                // Prefix of the monochrome app-icon tree. AppIcon tests a
+                // resolved icon path against this to decide whether it may
+                // be tinted — see the component for why that is not blanket.
+                readonly property string monoIconDir: "${monoIcons}"
             }
           '';
         };
@@ -1730,6 +1735,53 @@ in
                     // act on. Stroke weight is fixed by the design.
                 }
 
+                // ── AppIcon: an application icon in a square slot, tinted to
+                // the wallpaper's text colour when — and only when — it came
+                // from the monochrome set.
+                //
+                // YAMIS declares FollowsColorScheme=true, which is a KDE key:
+                // only Plasma rewrites the <style> block inside each SVG, so
+                // here every icon would otherwise render at the fixed #d8dee9
+                // baked into the file and sit dead against a themed bar.
+                // Overlaying at draw time follows the palette live and costs
+                // no disk copy (the same hidden-Image trick as the tray).
+                //
+                // The test is deliberately narrow rather than tinting every
+                // icon. A few apps have no YAMIS icon and fall through to
+                // Papirus, whose artwork encodes its detail as colour
+                // separation — Spotify's waves are white-on-green, not cut
+                // out of the shape. Flatten one of those and you get a
+                // featureless blob, so full-colour fallbacks are left alone.
+                component AppIcon: Item {
+                    id: _ai
+                    property string path: ""
+                    property int size: 32
+                    readonly property bool mono:
+                        _ai.path !== "" && _ai.path.indexOf(Commands.monoIconDir) !== -1
+
+                    width: size
+                    height: size
+
+                    Image {
+                        id: _aiImg
+                        anchors.fill: parent
+                        source: _ai.path
+                        sourceSize.width: _ai.size
+                        sourceSize.height: _ai.size
+                        smooth: true
+                        mipmap: true
+                        // Hidden only when the overlay is drawing in its
+                        // place; ColorOverlay reads it as a texture either way.
+                        visible: _ai.path !== "" && !_ai.mono
+                    }
+                    ColorOverlay {
+                        anchors.fill: _aiImg
+                        source: _aiImg
+                        visible: _ai.mono
+                        color: Theme.base05
+                    }
+                }
+
                 // ── BarSep: extra whitespace between widget groups. Groups are
                 // separated by air, not by lines — a drawn rule read as clutter
                 // in a 46px column.
@@ -1981,14 +2033,13 @@ in
                     Row {
                         width: parent.width
                         spacing: 4
-                        visible: _nc.notif && (_nc.notif.appName !== "" || _appIcon.source != "")
-                        Image {
+                        visible: _nc.notif && (_nc.notif.appName !== "" || _appIcon.path != "")
+                        AppIcon {
                             id: _appIcon
-                            width: 14; height: 14
-                            sourceSize.width: 14; sourceSize.height: 14
+                            size: 14
                             anchors.verticalCenter: parent.verticalCenter
-                            source: _nc.notif && _nc.notif.appIcon ? Quickshell.iconPath(_nc.notif.appIcon, true) : ""
-                            visible: source != ""
+                            path: _nc.notif && _nc.notif.appIcon ? Quickshell.iconPath(_nc.notif.appIcon, true) : ""
+                            visible: path != ""
                         }
                         SText {
                             anchors.verticalCenter: parent.verticalCenter
@@ -3320,14 +3371,10 @@ in
                                                     anchors.centerIn: parent
                                                     spacing: 4
 
-                                                    Image {
+                                                    AppIcon {
                                                         anchors.horizontalCenter: parent.horizontalCenter
-                                                        visible: source != ""
-                                                        width: 28
-                                                        height: 28
-                                                        sourceSize.width: 28
-                                                        sourceSize.height: 28
-                                                        source: pinCell.icon
+                                                        path: pinCell.icon
+                                                        size: 28
                                                     }
                                                     SText {
                                                         width: pinCell.width - 12
@@ -3490,12 +3537,10 @@ in
                                                 width: 32
                                                 height: 32
 
-                                                Image {
+                                                AppIcon {
                                                     anchors.fill: parent
-                                                    visible: source != ""
-                                                    sourceSize.width: 32
-                                                    sourceSize.height: 32
-                                                    source: icon
+                                                    path: icon
+                                                    size: 32
                                                 }
                                                 SIcon {
                                                     anchors.centerIn: parent
diff --git a/settings/theming.nix b/settings/theming.nix
index ed278d7..ad9bd83 100644
--- a/settings/theming.nix
+++ b/settings/theming.nix
@@ -304,11 +304,19 @@ let
   # so the "build" is a copy into the directory name the spec resolves by.
   #
   # FollowsColorScheme=true is a KDE key: only Plasma rewrites the embedded
-  # <style id="current-color-scheme"> block. Anywhere else — quickshell and
-  # GTK here — the icons render at that block's literal fallback, #d8dee9,
-  # a cool light grey that reads on every wallpaper's dark bar. Tinting per
-  # wallpaper would mean a sed over all 6101 files per theme, so the app
-  # icons deliberately stay one fixed colour while the folders track.
+  # <style id="current-color-scheme"> block. Anywhere else the icons render
+  # at that block's literal fallback, #d8dee9, and never track the wallpaper.
+  #
+  # Rewriting that string on disk would mean a copy of all 6101 files per
+  # wallpaper — 75MB across the set, and a 15MB rm -rf + cp inside
+  # theme-apply on every switch, which is the one path that has to stay
+  # quick. quickshell tints these at draw time instead (ColorOverlay against
+  # base05, the same trick the tray uses), so the launcher follows the
+  # palette live and nothing is copied. monoIcons below hands it the prefix
+  # that identifies a YAMIS icon.
+  #
+  # Consequence: GTK apps still see #d8dee9. That is fine on these dark
+  # themes, and it is the only consumer that reads these files directly.
   yamisIcons = pkgs.runCommand "yamis-icon-theme" { } ''
     mkdir -p $out/share/icons
     cp -r ${pkgs.fetchgit {
@@ -569,6 +577,10 @@ in
     };
     defaultWall = lib.mkOption { internal = true; type = lib.types.str; };
     apply = lib.mkOption { internal = true; type = lib.types.path; };
+    # The installed YAMIS tree. quickshell needs the prefix to tell a
+    # monochrome icon from a Papirus fallback at draw time — see the tint
+    # note on yamisIcons above.
+    monoIcons = lib.mkOption { internal = true; type = lib.types.str; };
   };
 
   config = lib.mkMerge [{
@@ -603,6 +615,7 @@ in
     fred.theming = {
       inherit walls defaultWall;
       apply = themeApply;
+      monoIcons = "${yamisIcons}/share/icons/yet-another-monochrome-icon-set";
     };
 
     # Papirus-Fred inherits this by name, so it has to be on the icon search