Code and terminal colours

Besides the app itself, a theme colours the code in Claude’s replies, the diffs in Changes and in the conversation, and the terminal panel. Every built-in theme brings its own code colours, and a theme file can set them too.

Where to find it

• The colours follow the theme you pick in Settings → Theme (Command, Comma⌘,Control, CommaCtrl,) or with Theme: <name> in the command palette.
• When you import a theme, the preview shows a code sample in its code colours (with the name of the syntax theme it uses) and its 16 terminal colours.
• Settings → Diagnostics shows a code block and some Markdown under Rendering, in the theme in use.

Code colours

Code blocks always sit on the theme’s code-bg colour, never on the background of the syntax theme. Light and dark mode each have their own code colours, and they switch with the app.

In a theme file, syntax in a mode sets them. It is one of:

• The name of a syntax theme that comes with Switchboard, such as github-dark, dracula, nord, one-dark-pro, solarized-light or tokyo-night. The full list is in Code colours. A name that isn’t on the list refuses the file, with a hint when it looks like a typo.
• Your own colours, such as the tokenColors of a VS Code theme. Only name, type and tokenColors are read, and of each rule only its scope, foreground colour and fontStyle (italic, bold, underline).

"syntax": {
  "name": "Mine",
  "type": "dark",
  "tokenColors": [
    { "scope": ["comment"], "settings": { "foreground": "#7f8c98", "fontStyle": "italic" } },
    { "scope": ["keyword", "storage"], "settings": { "foreground": "#ff7ab2" } },
    { "scope": "string", "settings": { "foreground": "#a3e635" } }
  ]
}

Without syntax, code keeps Demo Time’s colours.

Diffs

Added and removed lines take their background from the diff-added and diff-removed tokens, and their marks from ok and error. Without them, a theme generates the backgrounds from ok and error.

Terminal colours

The terminal panel is always dark, in light mode too, so a theme sets its colours once, in dark.terminal:

Key	What it sets
background	the terminal’s background (and the panel around it, unless colors.terminal-bg says otherwise)
foreground	its text
cursor	the cursor
selection	selected text
ansi	exactly 16 colours: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, then the bright versions in the same order

"terminal": {
  "background": "#001e26",
  "foreground": "#93a1a1",
  "cursor": "#b58900",
  "ansi": ["#073642", "#dc322f", "#859900", "#b58900", "#268bd2", "#d33682", "#2aa198", "#eee8d5",
           "#002b36", "#cb4b16", "#586e75", "#657b83", "#839496", "#6c71c4", "#93a1a1", "#fdf6e3"]
}

Each key is optional. Without it, the terminal uses the dark mode’s terminal-bg, text and accent-ink, the accent at 25% for the selection, and Demo Time’s 16 colours.

Note

Terminal and code colours go through the same check as the rest of a theme: colour values only.

Settings

Code and terminal colours come with the theme you choose in Settings → Theme. There is no separate setting for them.