diff --git a/modules/interact/print.go b/modules/interact/print.go
index 56fc6e2f..7e06dc2d 100644
--- a/modules/interact/print.go
+++ b/modules/interact/print.go
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ package interact
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
-	"os"
 
 	"gitea.dev/tea/modules/theme"
 
@@ -14,7 +13,7 @@ import (
 
 // printTitleAndContent prints a title and content with the gitea theme
 func printTitleAndContent(title, content string) {
-	hasDarkBG := lipgloss.HasDarkBackground(os.Stdin, os.Stdout)
+	hasDarkBG := theme.HasDarkBackground()
 	style := lipgloss.NewStyle().
 		Foreground(theme.GetTheme().Theme(hasDarkBG).Blurred.Title.GetForeground()).Bold(true).
 		Padding(0, 1)
diff --git a/modules/theme/background.go b/modules/theme/background.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b6b2ac43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/theme/background.go
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+// Copyright 2026 The Gitea Authors. All rights reserved.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+
+package theme
+
+import (
+	"os"
+
+	"charm.land/lipgloss/v2"
+	"golang.org/x/term"
+)
+
+// defaultDarkBackground is the background to assume when we cannot detect one. It
+// matches the default lipgloss falls back to.
+const defaultDarkBackground = true
+
+// HasDarkBackground reports whether the terminal has a dark background.
+//
+// It only asks the terminal when stdin and stdout are both terminals. Detection
+// works by writing an escape sequence to the output and waiting for the terminal
+// to answer on the input, and nothing answers when stdio is redirected, so asking
+// means waiting on a reply that never comes. On Windows that wait is unbounded:
+// lipgloss opens the console directly rather than giving up, which is why tea used
+// to hang at start-up under a service or a CI runner.
+func HasDarkBackground() bool {
+	if !term.IsTerminal(int(os.Stdin.Fd())) || !term.IsTerminal(int(os.Stdout.Fd())) {
+		return defaultDarkBackground
+	}
+
+	return lipgloss.HasDarkBackground(os.Stdin, os.Stdout)
+}
diff --git a/modules/theme/theme.go b/modules/theme/theme.go
index 68198354..b25ac543 100644
--- a/modules/theme/theme.go
+++ b/modules/theme/theme.go
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ package theme
 import (
 	"charm.land/huh/v2"
 	"charm.land/lipgloss/v2"
-	"charm.land/lipgloss/v2/compat"
 )
 
 // TeaTheme implements the huh.Theme interface with tea-cli styling.
@@ -16,7 +15,8 @@ type TeaTheme struct{}
 func (t TeaTheme) Theme(isDark bool) *huh.Styles {
 	theme := huh.ThemeCharm(isDark)
 
-	title := compat.AdaptiveColor{Light: lipgloss.Color("#02BA84"), Dark: lipgloss.Color("#02BF87")}
+	lightDark := lipgloss.LightDark(isDark)
+	title := lightDark(lipgloss.Color("#02BA84"), lipgloss.Color("#02BF87"))
 	theme.Focused.Title = theme.Focused.Title.Foreground(title).Bold(true)
 	theme.Blurred = theme.Focused
 	return theme
diff --git a/modules/theme/theme_test.go b/modules/theme/theme_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..25c994d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/theme/theme_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+// Copyright 2026 The Gitea Authors. All rights reserved.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+
+package theme
+
+import (
+	"os/exec"
+	"slices"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+)
+
+// compatPkg detects the terminal background from package-level vars, so importing
+// it anywhere makes tea query the terminal before main() runs. On Windows that
+// query can block forever when stdio is redirected, which hung every tea command,
+// including tea --version.
+//
+// lipgloss.LightDark covers what we need without the package-level detection, so
+// nothing in tea should depend on compat again.
+const compatPkg = "charm.land/lipgloss/v2/compat"
+
+func TestBinaryDoesNotImportLipglossCompat(t *testing.T) {
+	if _, err := exec.LookPath("go"); err != nil {
+		t.Skip("go is not on PATH")
+	}
+
+	out, err := exec.Command("go", "list", "-deps", "gitea.dev/tea").Output()
+	require.NoError(t, err, "go list -deps")
+
+	imported := slices.Contains(strings.Fields(string(out)), compatPkg)
+	assert.False(t, imported,
+		"%s is back in tea's import graph. It detects the terminal background from "+
+			"package-level vars, so tea queries the terminal before main() runs, and on "+
+			"Windows that hangs at start-up when stdio is redirected.", compatPkg)
+}
+
+// Under go test neither stdin nor stdout is a terminal, so HasDarkBackground must
+// take the default and return, rather than querying and waiting for an answer.
+func TestHasDarkBackgroundDoesNotBlockWithoutTTY(t *testing.T) {
+	done := make(chan bool, 1)
+	go func() {
+		done <- HasDarkBackground()
+	}()
+
+	select {
+	case got := <-done:
+		assert.Equal(t, defaultDarkBackground, got)
+	case <-time.After(5 * time.Second):
+		t.Fatal("HasDarkBackground blocked when stdio is not a terminal")
+	}
+}
+
+// The title color has to come from the isDark we are handed. It used to come from
+// a process-wide value that compat detected at init, which ignored this argument.
+func TestThemeHonorsIsDark(t *testing.T) {
+	dark := GetTheme().Theme(true).Focused.Title.GetForeground()
+	light := GetTheme().Theme(false).Focused.Title.GetForeground()
+
+	assert.NotEqual(t, dark, light, "Theme ignored isDark when picking the title color")
+}