# Terminal > The projectious.work terminal palette and the configuration that applies it to tmux, WezTerm, Kitty, Ghostty, iTerm2, and Zellij. --- LLMS index: [llms.txt](/brand/v2.1.0/llms.txt) --- This page is the source of truth for rendering the projectious.work brand in a terminal. It answers which sixteen colours the brand uses, which program owns each part of the result, and how to prove a configuration is conformant. The terminal is where the brand's rule that *code surfaces stay dark in both modes* stops being a stylistic choice and becomes the only option: a terminal has one surface, it is dark, and everything is measured against it. ## Implementation contract ### What owns what A terminal's appearance is produced by two programs that do not overlap, and almost every "my theme is wrong" report is a confusion between them. | Layer | Owns | Examples | |---|---|---| | **Emulator** | The sixteen ANSI colours, background, foreground, cursor, selection, its own tabs and splits | WezTerm, Kitty, Ghostty, iTerm2, Windows Terminal | | **Multiplexer** | Only its own chrome — status bar, pane borders, message line, copy mode, popups | tmux, Zellij, screen | A multiplexer cannot fix a wrong ANSI palette, and an emulator cannot style a status bar. Configure the emulator first; a multiplexer theme applied over an unbranded emulator will look wrong no matter how carefully it is written. ### Inputs and ownership | Need | Canonical input | Do not do this | |---|---|---| | The sixteen colours | The ANSI table on this page | Import a third-party scheme and rename it | | Surface, cursor, selection | The chrome table on this page | Let the emulator keep its default background | | Monospace face | IBM Plex Mono | Substitute a different mono face for the brand | | Multiplexer chrome | The tmux / Zellij sections below | Style a status bar in colours not on this page | ### Non-negotiable rules 1. The background is `midnight-dark-1` (`#0e1720`). The terminal has one surface and it does not follow a light mode. 2. Every one of the fourteen non-background colours clears **4.5:1** against that surface. The measured floor for this palette is 4.95:1. 3. `orange-9` (`#e05232`) is the cursor and the active marker. It is not a text colour in the palette, and it is never ANSI red — an error and the brand accent must not look alike. 4. Use IBM Plex Mono. Enable its ligatures only if the team has agreed to them; they change how operators read in diffs. 5. Dim text uses the dedicated comment token (`#72889d`), not ANSI bright black. Bright black is a *border* value here and fails text contrast on purpose. 6. Do not rely on colour alone for state. A red segment needs a word or glyph beside it. ## The palette ### Sixteen colours The palette is defined in the [Colour foundations](/brand/v2.1.0/docs/foundations/color/) and rendered here from the same source, so this page cannot state a value the foundations do not.
# Name Normal On surface Bright On surface Provenance
0 black #0e1720 — #2e4b68 2.00:1 midnight-dark-1 / midnight-dark-6 — Box drawing and rules, not text — deliberately below the floor.
1 red #e55b5b 5.15:1 #f08b80 7.49:1 bright = danger-dark — Never the accent — an error and the brand must not look alike.
2 green #3f9d74 5.41:1 #6cc090 8.24:1 bright = success-dark
3 yellow #c08a1e 5.93:1 #e0a92a 8.50:1 bright = warning-dark — Gold, matching the warning role in the interface.
4 blue #6289b3 4.95:1 #8aacc8 7.59:1 bright = midnight-dark-11
5 magenta #bd6d96 4.98:1 #d491b4 7.32:1 terminal-only — The brand defines no magenta; this slot exists only here.
6 cyan #3f97a3 5.31:1 #74c0c9 8.71:1 terminal-only — The brand defines no cyan; this slot exists only here.
7 white #97a8b8 7.41:1 #c5daf0 12.62:1 slate-dark-11 / midnight-dark-12
The **bright** ramp is the brand: where a hue already exists in the system, the bright slot takes that step verbatim. The **normal** ramp is derived from it — darkened until it reads a step back while still clearing the floor — and magenta and cyan exist in neither half of the brand. A normal-ramp value is a terminal value only: `#e55b5b` is the terminal's red, not `$danger` (`#a8261c`). Bright black is the one deliberate exception to the 4.5:1 floor: programs use it for box drawing and rules, not for text. If a program uses it for prose that is the program's bug, and the fix is to configure the program — not to lighten the palette until unreadable text becomes readable. The brand accent has no ANSI slot, because it is not a semantic colour: it marks *where you are*, which the chrome table covers. ### Chrome
RoleValueMeasured
Background #0e1720 the surface
Foreground #c5daf0 12.62:1
Cursor #e05232 4.67:1
Cursor text #0e1720 4.67:1 on the cursor
Selection background #20354d —
Selection text #c5daf0 8.74:1
Dim / comment #72889d 4.93:1
Status bar surface #131e2b —
Status bar text #c5daf0 11.74:1
Inactive tab and pane label #7b8da3 4.95:1
Active tab fill #e05232 4.67:1 with #0e1720 text
Active pane border #e05232 4.67:1
Inactive pane border #7b8da3 5.32:1
## Syntax in the terminal An editor running inside a terminal paints code from the sixteen ANSI slots, not from a stylesheet. Since the [syntax roles](/brand/v2.1.0/docs/interface/code/) were reassigned by measured perceptual distance, seven of the nine now resolve to an ANSI slot exactly — so a file open in Helix, Neovim or Vim under this palette looks like the same file on the documentation site. | Syntax role | Value | ANSI slot | |---|---|---| | Plain and variables | `#c5daf0` | 15 · bright white | | Keywords and modifiers | `#d491b4` | 13 · bright magenta | | Types and classes | `#6cc090` | 10 · bright green | | Functions and methods | `#e0a92a` | 11 · bright yellow | | Decorators and macros | `#74c0c9` | 14 · bright cyan | | Operators and punctuation | `#97a8b8` | 7 · white | | Invalid and deprecated | `#e55b5b` | 1 · red | | Strings | `#ea7558` | — brand `orange-dark-10` | | Numbers and constants | `#f09878` | — brand `orange-dark-11` | | Comments | `#72889d` | — dedicated token | Strings, numbers and comments are the three that do not map. ANSI has no orange slot — orange is the brand's accent family — and comments need a value dimmer than any slot provides while still clearing 4.5:1. An editor that supports truecolour should be given those three literally; one limited to sixteen colours should use bright red for strings, red for numbers, and bright black for comments, accepting that the last of those falls below the text floor. ## tmux tmux styles its own chrome only. Everything inside a pane keeps the colours the emulator supplied, so configure the emulator first. ### Required capability tmux must be told the terminal supports true colour, or every hex value silently degrades to the nearest of 256 approximations — which is the usual cause of a status bar that is "nearly right". ```bash # ~/.tmux.conf set -g default-terminal "tmux-256color" set -ga terminal-overrides ",*256col*:Tc" set -ga terminal-overrides ",xterm-256color:Tc" ``` Verify with `tmux info | grep -i Tc`, or print a truecolour ramp inside tmux and check for banding. ### Theme ```bash # ~/.tmux.conf — projectious.work # Status bar set -g status-style "bg=#131e2b,fg=#c5daf0" set -g status-left-length 32 set -g status-left "#[bg=#e05232,fg=#0e1720,bold] #S #[bg=#131e2b,fg=#e05232]" set -g status-right-length 80 set -g status-right "#[fg=#7b8da3] %Y-%m-%d #[fg=#c5daf0]%H:%M " # Windows — the active one is the single accent element in the bar setw -g window-status-format "#[fg=#7b8da3] #I #W " setw -g window-status-current-format "#[bg=#e05232,fg=#0e1720,bold] #I #W " setw -g window-status-activity-style "fg=#e0a92a" setw -g window-status-bell-style "fg=#e55b5b,bold" # Panes set -g pane-border-style "fg=#7b8da3" set -g pane-active-border-style "fg=#e05232" set -g pane-border-status top set -g pane-border-format " #{pane_index} #{pane_current_command} " # Messages and the command prompt set -g message-style "bg=#131e2b,fg=#c5daf0" set -g message-command-style "bg=#131e2b,fg=#e0a92a" # Copy mode — selection matches the emulator's selection pair setw -g mode-style "bg=#20354d,fg=#c5daf0" # Popups (tmux 3.2+) set -g popup-style "bg=#131e2b,fg=#c5daf0" set -g popup-border-style "fg=#e05232" # Clock setw -g clock-mode-colour "#8aacc8" ``` The active window is the only accent-filled element in the bar. Adding a second one — an accented session name *and* an accented window — removes the cue that tells you which window you are in. ### Status-bar frameworks Many tmux setups do not write `set -g status-*` lines directly. A status-bar framework — tmux-powerkit, catppuccin/tmux, dracula/tmux and others — takes over `status-format` and re-renders it on its own schedule, overwriting anything set before it loads. That is fine, and it does not need working around. Supply the framework with brand values through whatever palette hook it documents, rather than fighting it with `set -g` lines it will discard. The shape differs per framework; the values do not. A framework that reads an associative array, for example: ```bash declare -gA THEME_COLORS=( [background]="#0E1720" [statusbar-bg]="#131E2B" [statusbar-fg]="#C5DAF0" [session-bg]="#E05232" [session-fg]="#0E1720" [window-active-base]="#E05232" [window-inactive-base]="#7B8DA3" [pane-border-active]="#E05232" [pane-border-inactive]="#7B8DA3" [error-base]="#E55B5B" [warning-base]="#E0A92A" [info-base]="#8AACC8" ) ``` Every value maps to a row in the tables above. Where a framework offers a slot the brand has no name for, resolve it from the palette rather than inventing a colour: a "modified" or "prefix" state is a warning, a "copy mode" state is informational, and both already have values. If a framework exposes no palette hook at all, load the `set -g` block above *after* it — in tmux, later wins — and record the ordering dependency in the config, because a framework upgrade can silently reintroduce its own colours. ## WezTerm WezTerm is configured in Lua, so the palette can be a table the rest of the config refers to. ```lua -- ~/.config/wezterm/wezterm.lua local wezterm = require("wezterm") local pj = { bg = "#0e1720", fg = "#c5daf0", accent = "#e05232", surface = "#131e2b", selection = "#20354d", dim = "#7b8da3", } return { font = wezterm.font_with_fallback({ "IBM Plex Mono", "Symbols Nerd Font Mono" }), font_size = 13.0, harfbuzz_features = { "calt=0", "liga=0" }, -- opt in to ligatures deliberately colors = { foreground = pj.fg, background = pj.bg, cursor_bg = pj.accent, cursor_fg = pj.bg, cursor_border = pj.accent, selection_bg = pj.selection, selection_fg = pj.fg, split = pj.dim, ansi = { "#0e1720", "#e55b5b", "#3f9d74", "#c08a1e", "#6289b3", "#bd6d96", "#3f97a3", "#97a8b8", }, brights = { "#2e4b68", "#f08b80", "#6cc090", "#e0a92a", "#8aacc8", "#d491b4", "#74c0c9", "#c5daf0", }, tab_bar = { background = pj.surface, active_tab = { bg_color = pj.accent, fg_color = pj.bg, intensity = "Bold" }, inactive_tab = { bg_color = pj.surface, fg_color = pj.dim }, inactive_tab_hover = { bg_color = pj.selection, fg_color = pj.fg }, new_tab = { bg_color = pj.surface, fg_color = pj.dim }, new_tab_hover = { bg_color = pj.selection, fg_color = pj.fg }, }, }, use_fancy_tab_bar = false, window_padding = { left = 12, right = 12, top = 8, bottom = 8 }, inactive_pane_hsb = { saturation = 1.0, brightness = 1.0 }, } ``` Leave `inactive_pane_hsb` at 1.0. WezTerm's default dims inactive panes, which silently pushes every measured value in them below the floor. ## Kitty ```ini # ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf — projectious.work font_family IBM Plex Mono font_size 13.0 disable_ligatures always background #0e1720 foreground #c5daf0 cursor #e05232 cursor_text_color #0e1720 selection_background #20354d selection_foreground #c5daf0 url_color #8aacc8 # Normal color0 #0e1720 color1 #e55b5b color2 #3f9d74 color3 #c08a1e color4 #6289b3 color5 #bd6d96 color6 #3f97a3 color7 #97a8b8 # Bright color8 #2e4b68 color9 #f08b80 color10 #6cc090 color11 #e0a92a color12 #8aacc8 color13 #d491b4 color14 #74c0c9 color15 #c5daf0 # Tabs — the active tab is the single accent element tab_bar_style powerline tab_powerline_style slanted active_tab_background #e05232 active_tab_foreground #0e1720 active_tab_font_style bold inactive_tab_background #131e2b inactive_tab_foreground #7b8da3 tab_bar_background #131e2b # Splits active_border_color #e05232 inactive_border_color #7b8da3 window_padding_width 6 # Marks and bells mark1_foreground #0e1720 mark1_background #e0a92a bell_border_color #e55b5b ``` Kitty applies `background_opacity` before contrast is measured. Any value below 1.0 puts whatever is behind the window into every ratio on this page, so the palette is no longer measurable. Keep it at 1.0 for work that has to meet the floor. ## Ghostty Ghostty reads a plain `key = value` file and supports **named themes**, so the palette is a separate file that the config selects. That is the idiomatic split: the theme file carries only colour, and the config carries everything else. ```ini # ~/.config/ghostty/themes/projectious — colour only, nothing else palette = 0=#0e1720 palette = 1=#e55b5b palette = 2=#3f9d74 palette = 3=#c08a1e palette = 4=#6289b3 palette = 5=#bd6d96 palette = 6=#3f97a3 palette = 7=#97a8b8 palette = 8=#2e4b68 palette = 9=#f08b80 palette = 10=#6cc090 palette = 11=#e0a92a palette = 12=#8aacc8 palette = 13=#d491b4 palette = 14=#74c0c9 palette = 15=#c5daf0 background = #0e1720 foreground = #c5daf0 cursor-color = #e05232 cursor-text = #0e1720 selection-background = #20354d selection-foreground = #c5daf0 ``` ```ini # ~/.config/ghostty/config — projectious.work theme = projectious font-family = IBM Plex Mono font-size = 13 font-feature = -liga font-feature = -calt cursor-style = block cursor-opacity = 1 # The accent marks the focused split, and nothing else in the chrome. split-divider-color = #7b8da3 unfocused-split-fill = #0e1720 window-padding-x = 6 window-padding-y = 6 window-padding-balance = true link-url = true ``` `theme` also takes an absolute path, which is the better form for a config checked into a dotfiles repository: `theme = /Users/you/dotfiles/ghostty/projectious`. Ghostty's `theme` accepts a `light:…,dark:…` pair that follows the system appearance. **Do not use it here.** This palette has one surface and every ratio on this page is measured against it; a light variant would be a different palette, not a mode of this one — see [Colour](/brand/v2.1.0/docs/foundations/color/). Four defaults have to be set explicitly, because each one moves rendered colour off the measured palette: | Setting | Required | Why | |---|---|---| | `minimum-contrast` | `1` | Anything above 1 lets Ghostty rewrite a foreground to reach a ratio it computes itself. The palette already clears 4.95:1; this would replace measured values with generated ones | | `background-opacity` | `1` | Below 1 puts whatever is behind the window into every ratio on this page | | `background-blur` | `false` | Only applies under transparency, and blurring the desktop behind the text does not make the ratio measurable again | | `unfocused-split-opacity` | `1` | Ghostty fades unfocused splits by default. The faded text is still text, and at the default it no longer clears the floor | ```ini minimum-contrast = 1 background-opacity = 1 background-blur = false unfocused-split-opacity = 1 ``` Leaving `unfocused-split-opacity` at its default is the most common way this theme fails review: the split you are *not* looking at is the one you are reading a stack trace in. Ghostty has no bold-brightening setting to disable — it renders bold as a bold face and leaves the colour alone, which is the behaviour the other emulators on this page need to be told to adopt. Check the parsed result rather than the file, since an unknown key is skipped rather than reported: ```sh ghostty +show-config | grep -E 'palette|background|foreground|contrast|opacity' ghostty +validate-config ``` ## iTerm2 iTerm2 stores colours as a plist of floating-point components, so hand-editing is error-prone. Generate the scheme instead: ```python #!/usr/bin/env python3 """Emit projectious.iterm2colors — import via Settings ▸ Profiles ▸ Colors ▸ Color Presets ▸ Import. Regenerate rather than hand-editing the plist.""" PALETTE = { "Ansi 0": "#0e1720", "Ansi 8": "#2e4b68", "Ansi 1": "#e55b5b", "Ansi 9": "#f08b80", "Ansi 2": "#3f9d74", "Ansi 10": "#6cc090", "Ansi 3": "#c08a1e", "Ansi 11": "#e0a92a", "Ansi 4": "#6289b3", "Ansi 12": "#8aacc8", "Ansi 5": "#bd6d96", "Ansi 13": "#d491b4", "Ansi 6": "#3f97a3", "Ansi 14": "#74c0c9", "Ansi 7": "#97a8b8", "Ansi 15": "#c5daf0", "Background": "#0e1720", "Foreground": "#c5daf0", "Bold": "#c5daf0", "Cursor": "#e05232", "Cursor Text": "#0e1720", "Link": "#8aacc8", "Selection": "#20354d", "Selected Text": "#c5daf0", "Badge": "#e05232", "Tab": "#131e2b", } def component(value): return f"{int(value, 16) / 255:.10f}" rows = [] for name, hex_value in PALETTE.items(): h = hex_value.lstrip("#") rows.append( f"\t{name} Color\n\t\n" f"\t\tColor Space\n\t\tsRGB\n" f"\t\tRed Component\n\t\t{component(h[0:2])}\n" f"\t\tGreen Component\n\t\t{component(h[2:4])}\n" f"\t\tBlue Component\n\t\t{component(h[4:6])}\n" f"\t\tAlpha Component\n\t\t1\n\t" ) print('') print('') print('\n') print("\n".join(rows)) print("\n") ``` ```sh python3 make-iterm-scheme.py > projectious.itermcolors open projectious.itermcolors # registers it as a preset ``` Two iTerm2 defaults have to be turned off, both under **Settings ▸ Profiles ▸ Colors**: | Setting | Required | Why | |---|---|---| | Minimum contrast | `0` | Non-zero silently rewrites foreground colours, so the measured palette is not what renders | | Brighten bold text | off | Repaints normal colours as brights and collapses the two halves of the palette | | Smart cursor colour | off | Overrides the accent cursor with a computed colour | | Transparency / blur | `0` | Puts the desktop behind the window into every contrast ratio | ## Zellij Zellij declares a named theme in KDL and paints its own UI from it. ```kdl // ~/.config/zellij/config.kdl themes { projectious { fg "#c5daf0" bg "#0e1720" black "#0e1720" red "#e55b5b" green "#3f9d74" yellow "#c08a1e" blue "#6289b3" magenta "#bd6d96" cyan "#3f97a3" white "#97a8b8" orange "#e05232" } } theme "projectious" pane_frames true ui { pane_frames { rounded_corners true hide_session_name false } } ``` Zellij's `orange` slot is what it paints the active pane frame and the session name with, so it takes the brand accent. Its `red`/`green`/`yellow` slots drive mode indicators — locked, pane, resize — which is why they must be the semantic values and not decorative choices. Zellij has no separate bright ramp: it derives emphasis from the ten names above. Programs running inside it still receive the emulator's sixteen, so the bright half of the palette is not lost. ## Verify ### Palette Print the sixteen slots and compare them against the table above: ```sh for i in $(seq 0 15); do printf "\033[48;5;%dm %3d \033[0m" "$i" "$i" [ $(( (i + 1) % 8 )) -eq 0 ] && echo done ``` Confirm true colour reaches the terminal — this must print a smooth ramp, not bands: ```sh awk 'BEGIN{for(i=0;i<256;i++){printf "\033[48;2;%d;%d;%dm ", i, 90, 120}print "\033[0m"}' ``` ### States to review A terminal theme that only renders a prompt is not complete. | State | What it proves | |---|---| | `git diff` with colour | Red and green are distinguishable and neither is the accent | | `ls --color` on a mixed directory | Blue, cyan and green separate at a glance | | A failing command's stderr | Red reads as an error, not as brand emphasis | | `man` or a pager | Bold, underline, and dim all stay readable | | Split panes, one active | The active border is the only accent element | | Copy / visual mode | Selection contrast holds over both normal and coloured text | | A full-screen TUI (`htop`, `lazygit`) | Bright black is used for rules, not for text | | 256-colour and truecolour output | No banding, no fallback to the nearest ANSI slot | ### Release evidence - the emulator and multiplexer versions, and the config files changed; - a screenshot of the sixteen-slot ramp beside the table on this page; - `git diff`, a failing command, and a split-pane view captured at the working font size; - confirmation that minimum-contrast, bold-brightening, and transparency settings are off; - for a multiplexer, evidence that true colour survives inside a session. ## Sources and upgrade boundary - [tmux manual](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/tmux.1.html) - [WezTerm colour configuration](https://wezterm.org/config/appearance.html) - [Kitty configuration](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/conf/) - [Ghostty configuration reference](https://ghostty.org/docs/config/reference) - [iTerm2 documentation](https://iterm2.com/documentation.html) - [Zellij theme configuration](https://zellij.dev/documentation/themes) When a terminal is upgraded, re-print the sixteen-slot ramp before assuming the theme survived. Emulators change their default handling of bold, dim, and minimum contrast between releases more often than they change colour parsing, and each of those silently moves values off the measured palette.