Themes

Default

Tokyo Night is the default when neither configuration nor --theme selects another palette.

Bundled palettes

Ink bundles these themes without requiring filesystem access:

• Tokyo Night
• Catppuccin Latte
• Catppuccin Frappe
• Catppuccin Macchiato
• Catppuccin Mocha
• Dracula
• Gruvbox Dark
• Nord
• Solarized Dark
• Solarized Light

Theme names are matched case-insensitively with hyphens as separators. For example:

ink textarea --theme catppuccin-mocha

Interactive browser

Run ink theme to browse all bundled palettes. The browser starts on the configured theme, or Tokyo Night when none is configured, and applies each palette as you move with Up/Down or j/k. Enter saves the highlighted theme; Escape, q, or Ctrl-C cancels without changing configuration. Controls remain visible in narrow layouts.

Semantic overrides

User configuration overrides individual semantic color roles after loading a bundled base palette. Roles not overridden retain the selected theme’s values.

Role	Purpose
foreground	Primary text
background	Filled widget backgrounds
status-background	Prompt status backgrounds
line-number	Textarea line numbers
muted	Hints and secondary text
placeholder	Empty-value guidance
accent	Reserved accent color
border	Reserved border color
selection	Selected-cell background
selection-foreground	Selected-cell text
cursor	Reserved cursor color
insert-mode	Insert mode indicator
normal-mode	Normal mode indicator
visual-mode	Visual mode indicators
error	Reserved error color
warning	Reserved warning color

Use the exact kebab-case role name with a #RRGGBB value:

[colors]
selection = "#33467c"
selection-foreground = "#c0caf5"
normal-mode = "#7aa2f7"
status-background = "#202330"

Single-line input and its status row leave the terminal background untouched by default. Set background for a filled input row or status-background to fill the status row for either prompt.

Bundled themes derive line-number from their muted text color. Override it independently when the gutter needs a different subdued color.

Unknown theme names, color roles, or color values fail startup before terminal state changes.

Accessibility

The interface does not use color as the only signal for editing state. Every mode is also identified by a visible text label, and Insert mode uses a bar cursor while the other modes use a block cursor.

Every bundled placeholder color has at least 4.5:1 contrast against its background.