The TUI ships four themes. They set every colour the interface uses — timeline text, tool rows, borders, status and accents.
| Theme id | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
dark |
Dark | The default. Gray chrome on the host terminal background; the Cortex banner green marks the focused selection. |
light |
Light | Light background with dark text. |
ocean_dark |
Ocean Dark | Deep blue and cyan. Also accepted as ocean. |
monokai |
Monokai | Classic code-editor colours. |
From the TUI:
/theme open the picker
/theme monokai switch directly
In the picker, ↑/↓ (or k/j) previews a theme live, Enter accepts and
Esc reverts to what you had.
From configuration:
[tui.theme]
name = "ocean_dark"/reload-config picks up a change made on disk without restarting.
For reference — these are the colours the demo recording on the docs index uses.
| Role | Colour |
|---|---|
Selection accent (> caret + focused label; focused composer >) |
#1F4945 |
| Background | #000000 (painted alternate-screen void) |
| Charcoal panel (tips / info) | #141414 |
| Past user turn bar | #1C1C1C |
| Selection bar | #262626 (focused green glyphs have a #F5F5F5 backing for contrast; descriptions stay dim) |
| Hairline (above / below the prompt, around search fields) | #3A3A3A |
| Focused border | #525252 (gray — the accent never outlines a box) |
| Text | #F5F5F5 |
| Dim text (placeholders, hints, descriptions) | #6B7280 |
| Muted text | #4B5563 |
Success ✓ and diff additions +N |
#4ADE80 (bright semantic green) |
Warning (warn in diagnostics) |
#FFC857 |
Error (error, × Stopped, quota, failed MCP x) |
#F87171 |
| Thinking status | #6B7280 (dim session chrome; gold #C9A95C is retired) |
The footer is gray: the model on the left (Cortex Mini 1 · Agent · 92% context), one shortcut hint on the right (shift+tab to cycle modes).
The accent is the dominant background pixel of the supplied banner: RGB (31, 73, 69) (#1F4945). Focused green glyphs use a near-white backing rather than disappearing on black. Success and diff colours are unchanged.
[tui]
animations = true
notifications = true/compact toggles a denser layout, and --color auto|always|never controls
colour for non-TUI output.