Theme reference

Every theme field with its type, default, limits and validation rules, plus the values of the built-in themes.

File format

A theme is a JSON file with comments allowed. glowup accepts // line comments and /* */ block comments. Trailing commas are not allowed.

Rule	Value
Location	`~/.claude/glowup/themes/<name>.json`, or `$CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR/glowup/themes/` when that variable is set
Extension	Only files that end in `.json` are read
Theme name	The file name without `.json`. The `name` field is used only by `/glowup theme add`.
Size limit	65536 bytes (64 KB)
Top level	Must be a JSON object
Unknown top-level keys	Ignored

A file in the folder with the name of a built-in theme replaces that theme for you.

Fields

Field	Type	Default	What it does
`name`	string	none	The name `theme add` saves the file under. Lowercase letters, digits and dashes, 1 to 40 characters, starting with a letter or digit. Not a built-in name.
`extends`	string	none	Name of the theme to build on. See The extends chain.
`colors`	object	`classic` colors	Colors by key. Each value is `#rrggbb`.
`spinner.words`	array of strings	`["Thinking"]`	Words for the spinner. See Spinner words.
`glyphs`	object	`classic` glyphs	One glyph per tool kind.
`band.hearts`	array of two strings	`["♥", "♡"]`	The full and empty heart in the context meter.

Every value must match #rrggbb: a hash and six hex digits, upper or lower case. Short forms like #fff are refused. An unknown key is an error: unknown color "<key>". A bad value is an error: color "<key>" must be #rrggbb.

Key	Used for
`accent`	plan item, progress pips, plan glyphs
`text`	main text
`dim`	secondary text, separators, empty hearts
`faint`	empty bar parts, box and section borders
`read`	read & search rows, running subagent work
`edit`	edit rows, context warnings
`shell`	shell rows
`agent`	subagent rows
`pass`	passing tests, finished subagents, added lines
`fail`	failures, full hearts, removed lines
`panel`	the background fades blend toward
`addBg`	not drawn yet
`delBg`	not drawn yet
`sel`	not drawn yet

Percentages in the status line read in pass below meter.warn, edit from it, and fail from meter.danger (50 and 80 unless you change them with /glowup setup).

Glyphs

Glyphs are the marks glowup adds to a tool row after the call finishes. The keys are read, search, edit, shell, agent and plan. A tool of any other kind gets no glyph.

Each glyph, and each heart, must be exactly one character in the Basic Multilingual Plane (U+0000 to U+FFFF) that is one cell wide. glowup refuses:

Control characters (U+0000 to U+001F, U+007F to U+009F).
Zero-width and bidirectional marks (U+200B to U+200F, U+2028 to U+202F, U+2060 to U+206F, U+FEFF).
Surrogates (U+D800 to U+DFFF).
Wide East Asian characters, which take two cells.
Anything above U+FFFF, which includes emoji.

Errors: unknown glyph "<key>", glyph "<key>" must be one width-1 character, "glyphs" must be an object, and band.hearts must be two width-1 characters.

Spinner words

spinner.words is an array of strings. Each string can be at most 24 characters. glowup rejects a word that contains control, bidirectional or zero-width characters. An empty array is ignored and the parent's words stay. A bad value is an error: spinner.words must be short strings.

glowup picks one word at random at the start of each turn and uses it for the whole turn. A theme named classic keeps Claude Code's own rotating words, so classic ignores its words. With reduced motion on, every theme keeps Claude Code's word. glowup can change the word only; the spinner frames are Claude Code's.

The extends chain

extends names another theme: a built-in, or a file in your themes folder. glowup resolves it like this:

It starts from the classic values.
It follows extends to the end of the chain, then applies the files from the root of the chain down to your theme.
Within each file, colors and glyphs replace only the keys they set. spinner.words and band.hearts replace the whole value.

A theme with no extends still starts from classic, so any field the file leaves out takes the classic value.

Every file in the chain is validated. Errors:

Message	Cause
`theme "<name>": no theme named "<other>"`	`extends` names a theme that does not exist.
`theme "<name>": "extends" loops: a -> b -> a`	The chain comes back to a theme already in it.
`theme "<name>": "extends" must be a theme name`	`extends` is not a string.
`theme "<name>": a theme must be a JSON object`	The file is not an object.

When any of these happen, /glowup theme <name> prints the message and keeps your current theme. At session start, glowup shows the message and uses classic.

Built-in themes

classic is the default theme. glowup, aurora, dusk, cyberpunk, vaporwave and high-contrast extend classic. They set all 14 colors. All of them except high-contrast set spinner words.

Key	glowup	aurora	dusk
`accent`	`#ffc857`	`#5ef1c6`	`#b69cff`
`text`	`#ece6f2`	`#e2eef2`	`#e6e6f6`
`dim`	`#8e86a0`	`#7f97a3`	`#8a8cad`
`faint`	`#2f2a3a`	`#22313b`	`#272a44`
`read`	`#8ecbff`	`#7cc7ff`	`#7fd6ff`
`edit`	`#ffa94d`	`#ffd479`	`#ffcf7a`
`shell`	`#7ee0a1`	`#5ef1c6`	`#8ef0b0`
`agent`	`#c9a7ff`	`#b49cff`	`#ff9ad5`
`pass`	`#7ee0a1`	`#5ef1c6`	`#8ef0b0`
`fail`	`#ff6f7d`	`#ff7a8a`	`#ff7088`
`panel`	`#1d1924`	`#131c23`	`#171a2b`
`addBg`	`#1d3326`	`#123329`	`#18322a`
`delBg`	`#3f1f27`	`#3a1d26`	`#3b1f2f`
`sel`	`#2a2433`	`#1c2933`	`#222640`

Key	classic	cyberpunk	vaporwave	high-contrast
`accent`	`#d77757`	`#ff2bd6`	`#ff71ce`	`#ffff00`
`text`	`#e4e4e7`	`#e4dcff`	`#ffe3f6`	`#ffffff`
`dim`	`#8b8b94`	`#7d7398`	`#a08bc0`	`#d0d0d0`
`faint`	`#3a3a42`	`#2d1f45`	`#4a2d70`	`#808080`
`read`	`#7dc4e4`	`#00e5ff`	`#01cdfe`	`#00ffff`
`edit`	`#e5b567`	`#ffb000`	`#fffb96`	`#ffaa00`
`shell`	`#4eba65`	`#39ff88`	`#05ffa1`	`#00ff00`
`agent`	`#b39ddb`	`#b388ff`	`#b967ff`	`#ff80ff`
`pass`	`#4eba65`	`#39ff88`	`#05ffa1`	`#00ff00`
`fail`	`#ff6b80`	`#ff3b5c`	`#ff6b6b`	`#ff4040`
`panel`	`#1f1f24`	`#140c22`	`#24123f`	`#000000`
`addBg`	`#1f3a26`	`#0f3324`	`#123a3a`	`#003300`
`delBg`	`#4a2228`	`#3d1020`	`#4a1a3a`	`#440000`
`sel`	`#2a2a33`	`#24123a`	`#3a1d5c`	`#333333`

Other values:

Field	classic	glowup	aurora	dusk
`spinner.words`	`Thinking`	`Glowing`, `Kindling`, `Polishing`	`Drifting`, `Shimmering`, `Charting`	`Dreaming`, `Musing`, `Wandering`
`glyphs`	`read ▸`, `search ⌕`, `edit ✎`, `shell $`, `agent ◆`, `plan ◇`	from `classic`	from `classic`	from `classic`
`band.hearts`	`♥` `♡`	from `classic`	from `classic`	from `classic`

Field	cyberpunk	vaporwave	high-contrast
`spinner.words`	`Jacking in`, `Compiling`, `Glowing`	`Vibing`, `Drifting`, `Glowing`	from `classic`
`glyphs`	from `classic`	from `classic`	from `classic`
`band.hearts`	from `classic`	from `classic`	from `classic`

Theme reference

File formatCopy Anchor Link

FieldsCopy Anchor Link

ColorsCopy Anchor Link

GlyphsCopy Anchor Link

Spinner wordsCopy Anchor Link

The extends chainCopy Anchor Link

Built-in themesCopy Anchor Link