way too lazy to sort this out, adding kitchen sink

colors/mellow.ext.lua

@@ -11,6 +11,17 @@ local highlight = function(group, opts, space)
   end
 end
 
+local function cpyhl(hlgroup)
+  local ok, hl = pcall(vim.api.nvim_get_hl_by_name, hlgroup, true)
+  if not ok then return end
+  for _, key in pairs({"foreground", "background", "special"}) do
+    if hl[key] then
+      hl[key] = string.format("#%06x", hl[key])
+    end
+  end
+  return hl
+end
+
 local function getcolor(index, fallback)
   return vim.g['terminal_color_' .. index] or fallback
 end
@@ -36,31 +47,15 @@ local colors = {
 
 if pcall(require, "mellow") then c = require('mellow.colors').dark end
 
--- vim highlights -------------------------------------------------------------
-highlight('CursorLineNr', { bold = true })
-
 -- remove tildas
 highlight('EndOfBuffer', { fg = vim.g.terminal_color_background })
 
+-- make all backgrounds the same color
+highlight('NormalNC', cpyhl('Normal'))
+
 -- plugin highlights ----------------------------------------------------------
 -- telescope
-highlight('TelescopeMatching', { bg = c.gray01, fg = c.blue })
-
-highlight('TelescopePreviewBorder', { bg = c.bg_dark })
-highlight('TelescopePreviewNormal', { bg = c.bg_dark })
-highlight('TelescopePreviewTitle', { bg = c.bg_dark, fg = c.bg_dark })
-
-highlight('TelescopePromptBorder', { bg = c.gray01 })
-highlight('TelescopePromptNormal', { bg = c.gray01 })
-highlight('TelescopePromptPrefix', { bg = c.gray01 })
-highlight('TelescopePromptTitle', { bg = c.gray01 })
-
-highlight('TelescopeResultsBorder', { bg = c.bg_dark })
-highlight('TelescopeResultsNormal', { bg = c.bg_dark })
-highlight('TelescopeResultsTitle', { bg = c.bg_dark, fg = c.bg_dark })
-
-highlight('TelescopeSelection', { bg = vim.g.terminal_color_background })
-highlight('TelescopeSelectionCaret', { bg = vim.g.terminal_color_background, fg = c.cyan, bold = true })
+highlight('TelescopeMatching', { fg = c.yellow })
 
 -- alpha
 highlight('AlphaHeader', { fg = colors.blue })