diff --git a/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/src/App.jsx b/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/src/App.jsx
index 820540e4..40640e7d 100644
--- a/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/src/App.jsx
+++ b/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/src/App.jsx
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ function App() {
   const [code, setCode] = useState(defaultTune);
   const [view, setView] = useState();
   // const [code, setCode] = useState(`"c3".note().slow(2)`);
-  const { scheduler, evaluate, schedulerError, evalError, isDirty, activeCode, pattern } = useStrudel({
+  const { scheduler, evaluate, schedulerError, evalError, isDirty, activeCode, pattern, started } = useStrudel({
     code,
     defaultOutput: webaudioOutput,
     getTime,
@@ -75,8 +75,8 @@ function App() {
   useHighlighting({
     view,
     pattern,
-    active: !activeCode?.includes('strudel disable-highlighting'),
-    getTime: () => scheduler.getPhase(),
+    active: started && !activeCode?.includes('strudel disable-highlighting'),
+    getTime: () => scheduler.now(),
   });
 
   const error = evalError || schedulerError;
diff --git a/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/src/style.css b/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/src/style.css
index d0d3940e..e01c06ef 100644
--- a/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/src/style.css
+++ b/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/src/style.css
@@ -2,6 +2,18 @@
 @tailwind components;
 @tailwind utilities;
 
+:root {
+  --background: #222;
+  --lineBackground: #22222250;
+  --foreground: #fff;
+  --caret: #ffcc00;
+  --selection: rgba(128, 203, 196, 0.5);
+  --selectionMatch: #036dd626;
+  --lineHighlight: #00000050;
+  --gutterBackground: transparent;
+  --gutterForeground: #8a919966;
+}
+
 body {
   background: #123;
 }
diff --git a/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/tailwind.config.cjs b/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/tailwind.config.cjs
index 5888138a..b2a25c69 100644
--- a/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/tailwind.config.cjs
+++ b/packages/react/examples/nano-repl/tailwind.config.cjs
@@ -6,9 +6,23 @@ This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under th
 
 module.exports = {
   // TODO: find out if leaving out tutorial path works now
-  content: ['./src/**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}'],
+  content: ['./src/**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}', '../../src/**/*.{html,js,jsx,md,mdx,ts,tsx}'],
   theme: {
-    extend: {},
+    extend: {
+      colors: {
+        // codemirror-theme settings
+        background: 'var(--background)',
+        lineBackground: 'var(--lineBackground)',
+        foreground: 'var(--foreground)',
+        caret: 'var(--caret)',
+        selection: 'var(--selection)',
+        selectionMatch: 'var(--selectionMatch)',
+        gutterBackground: 'var(--gutterBackground)',
+        gutterForeground: 'var(--gutterForeground)',
+        gutterBorder: 'var(--gutterBorder)',
+        lineHighlight: 'var(--lineHighlight)',
+      },
+    },
   },
   plugins: [],
 };