diff --git a/doc/development/theming.rst b/doc/development/theming.rst
index a57b8b7dd..0aaaaa248 100644
--- a/doc/development/theming.rst
+++ b/doc/development/theming.rst
@@ -30,11 +30,82 @@ Creating themes
 Themes take the form of either a directory or a zipfile (whose name is the
 theme name), containing the following:
 
-* A :file:`theme.conf` file.
+* Either a :file:`theme.toml` file (preferred) or a :file:`theme.conf` file.
 * HTML templates, if needed.
 * A ``static/`` directory containing any static files that will be copied to the
   output static directory on build.  These can be images, styles, script files.
 
+Theme configuration (``theme.toml``)
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The :file:`theme.toml` file is a TOML_ document,
+containing two tables: ``[theme]`` and ``[options]``.
+
+The ``[theme]`` table defines the theme's settings:
+
+* **inherit** (string): The name of the base theme from which to inherit
+  settings, options, templates, and static files.
+  All static files from theme 'ancestors' will be used.
+  The theme will use all options defined in inherited themes.
+  Finally, inherited themes will be used to locate missing templates
+  (for example, if ``"basic"`` is used as the base theme, most templates will
+  already be defined).
+
+  If set to ``"none"``, the theme will not inherit from any other theme.
+  Inheritance is recursive, forming a chain of inherited themes
+  (e.g. ``default`` -> ``classic`` -> ``basic`` -> ``none``).
+
+* **stylesheets** (list of strings): A list of CSS filenames which will be
+  included in generated HTML header.
+  Setting the   :confval:`html_style` config value will override this setting.
+
+  Other mechanisms for including multiple stylesheets include ``@import`` in CSS
+  or using a custom HTML template with appropriate ``<link rel="stylesheet">`` tags.
+
+* **sidebars** (list of strings): A list of sidebar templates.
+  This can be overridden by the user via the :confval:`html_sidebars` config value.
+
+* **pygments_style** (table): A TOML table defining the names of Pygments styles
+  to use for highlighting syntax.
+  The table has two recognised keys: ``default`` and ``dark``.
+  The style defined in the ``dark`` key will be used when
+  the CSS media query ``(prefers-color-scheme: dark)`` evaluates to true.
+
+  ``[theme.pygments_style.default]`` can be overridden by the user via the
+  :confval:`pygments_style` config value.
+
+The ``[options]`` table defines the options for the theme.
+It is structured such that each key-value pair corresponds to a variable name
+and the corresponding default value.
+These options can be overridden by the user in :confval:`html_theme_options`
+and are accessible from all templates as ``theme_<name>``.
+
+.. versionadded:: 7.3
+   ``theme.toml`` support.
+
+.. _TOML: https://toml.io/en/
+
+Exemplar :file:`theme.toml` file:
+
+.. code-block:: toml
+
+   [theme]
+   inherit = "basic"
+   stylesheets = [
+       "main-CSS-stylesheet.css",
+   ]
+   sidebars = [
+       "localtoc.html",
+       "relations.html",
+       "sourcelink.html",
+       "searchbox.html",
+   ]
+   # Style names from https://pygments.org/styles/
+   pygments_style = { default = "style_name", dark = "dark_style" }
+
+   [options]
+   variable = "default value"
+
 Theme configuration (``theme.conf``)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/doc/usage/theming.rst b/doc/usage/theming.rst
index 098a151db..be46cab1c 100644
--- a/doc/usage/theming.rst
+++ b/doc/usage/theming.rst
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ page's top and bottom), add the following :file:`conf.py`::
 
 If the theme does not come with Sphinx, it can be in two static forms or as a
 Python package. For the static forms, either a directory (containing
-:file:`theme.conf` and other needed files), or a zip file with the same
+:file:`theme.toml` and other needed files), or a zip file with the same
 contents is supported. The directory or zipfile must be put where Sphinx can
 find it; for this there is the config value :confval:`html_theme_path`. This
 can be a list of directories, relative to the directory containing
diff --git a/sphinx/theming.py b/sphinx/theming.py
index 4dfb70e67..7239f6341 100644
--- a/sphinx/theming.py
+++ b/sphinx/theming.py
@@ -21,17 +21,42 @@ from sphinx.locale import __
 from sphinx.util import logging
 from sphinx.util.osutil import ensuredir
 
+if sys.version_info >= (3, 11):
+    import tomllib
+else:
+    import tomli as tomllib  # type: ignore[import-not-found]
+
 if sys.version_info >= (3, 10):
     from importlib.metadata import entry_points
 else:
     from importlib_metadata import entry_points  # type: ignore[import-not-found]
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from typing import TypedDict
+
+    from typing_extensions import Required
+
     from sphinx.application import Sphinx
 
+    class _ThemeToml(TypedDict, total=False):
+        theme: Required[_ThemeTomlTheme]
+        options: dict[str, str]
+
+    class _ThemeTomlTheme(TypedDict, total=False):
+        inherit: Required[str]
+        stylesheets: list[str]
+        sidebars: list[str]
+        pygments_style: _ThemeTomlThemePygments
+
+    class _ThemeTomlThemePygments(TypedDict, total=False):
+        default: str
+        dark: str
+
+
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 _NO_DEFAULT = object()
+_THEME_TOML = 'theme.toml'
 _THEME_CONF = 'theme.conf'
 
 
@@ -185,7 +210,9 @@ class HTMLThemeFactory:
                         entry,
                     )
             else:
-                if path.isfile(path.join(pathname, _THEME_CONF)):
+                toml_path = path.join(pathname, _THEME_TOML)
+                conf_path = path.join(pathname, _THEME_CONF)
+                if path.isfile(toml_path) or path.isfile(conf_path):
                     themes[entry] = pathname
 
         return themes
@@ -196,7 +223,7 @@ class HTMLThemeFactory:
             self._load_extra_theme(name)
 
         if name not in self._themes:
-            raise ThemeError(__('no theme named %r found (missing theme.conf?)') % name)
+            raise ThemeError(__('no theme named %r found (missing theme.toml?)') % name)
 
         themes, theme_dirs, tmp_dirs = _load_theme_with_ancestors(self._themes, name)
         return Theme(name, configs=themes, paths=theme_dirs, tmp_dirs=tmp_dirs)
@@ -206,7 +233,8 @@ def _is_archived_theme(filename: str, /) -> bool:
     """Check whether the specified file is an archived theme file or not."""
     try:
         with ZipFile(filename) as f:
-            return _THEME_CONF in f.namelist()
+            namelist = frozenset(f.namelist())
+            return _THEME_TOML in namelist or _THEME_CONF in namelist
     except Exception:
         return False
 
@@ -255,7 +283,11 @@ def _load_theme(name: str, theme_path: str, /) -> tuple[str, str, str | None, _C
         theme_dir = path.join(tmp_dir, name)
         _extract_zip(theme_path, theme_dir)
 
-    if path.isfile(conf_path := path.join(theme_dir, _THEME_CONF)):
+    if path.isfile(toml_path := path.join(theme_dir, _THEME_TOML)):
+        _cfg_table = _load_theme_toml(toml_path)
+        inherit = _validate_theme_toml(_cfg_table, name)
+        config = _convert_theme_toml(_cfg_table)
+    elif path.isfile(conf_path := path.join(theme_dir, _THEME_CONF)):
         _cfg_parser = _load_theme_conf(conf_path)
         inherit = _validate_theme_conf(_cfg_parser, name)
         config = _convert_theme_conf(_cfg_parser)
@@ -279,6 +311,48 @@ def _extract_zip(filename: str, target_dir: str, /) -> None:
                 fp.write(archive.read(name))
 
 
+def _load_theme_toml(config_file_path: str, /) -> _ThemeToml:
+    with open(config_file_path, encoding='utf-8') as f:
+        config_text = f.read()
+    c = tomllib.loads(config_text)
+    return {s: c[s] for s in ('theme', 'options') if s in c}  # type: ignore[return-value]
+
+
+def _validate_theme_toml(cfg: _ThemeToml, name: str) -> str:
+    if 'theme' not in cfg:
+        raise ThemeError(__('theme %r doesn\'t have the "theme" table') % name)
+    if inherit := cfg['theme'].get('inherit', ''):
+        return inherit
+    msg = __('The %r theme must define the "theme.inherit" setting') % name
+    raise ThemeError(msg)
+
+
+def _convert_theme_toml(cfg: _ThemeToml, /) -> _ConfigFile:
+    theme = cfg['theme']
+    if 'stylesheets' in theme:
+        stylesheets: tuple[str, ...] | None = tuple(theme['stylesheets'])
+    else:
+        stylesheets = None
+    if 'sidebars' in theme:
+        sidebar_templates: tuple[str, ...] | None = tuple(theme['sidebars'])
+    else:
+        sidebar_templates = None
+    pygments_table = theme.get('pygments_style', {})
+    if isinstance(pygments_table, str):
+        hint = f'pygments_style = {{ default = "{pygments_table}" }}'
+        msg = __('The "theme.pygments_style" setting must be a table. Hint: "%s"') % hint
+        raise ThemeError(msg)
+    pygments_style_default: str | None = pygments_table.get('default')
+    pygments_style_dark: str | None = pygments_table.get('dark')
+    return _ConfigFile(
+        stylesheets=stylesheets,
+        sidebar_templates=sidebar_templates,
+        pygments_style_default=pygments_style_default,
+        pygments_style_dark=pygments_style_dark,
+        options=cfg.get('options', {}),
+    )
+
+
 def _load_theme_conf(config_file_path: str, /) -> configparser.RawConfigParser:
     c = configparser.RawConfigParser()
     c.read(config_file_path, encoding='utf-8')
diff --git a/tests/test_theming/test_theming.py b/tests/test_theming/test_theming.py
index b2c6c3ed0..5ed2eedd8 100644
--- a/tests/test_theming/test_theming.py
+++ b/tests/test_theming/test_theming.py
@@ -77,8 +77,8 @@ def test_theme_api(app, status, warning):
     assert not any(map(os.path.exists, theme._tmp_dirs))
 
 
-def test_nonexistent_theme_conf(tmp_path):
-    # Check that error occurs with a non-existent theme.conf
+def test_nonexistent_theme_settings(tmp_path):
+    # Check that error occurs with a non-existent theme.toml or theme.conf
     # (https://github.com/sphinx-doc/sphinx/issues/11668)
     with pytest.raises(ThemeError):
         _load_theme('', str(tmp_path))