# Themes

Eva ships three themes and takes custom ones. A theme is a name and four colors, written in config or dropped into a .eva/themes directory.

Eva ships three themes.

| Id         | Name          | For                                 |
| ---------- | ------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| `default`  | Default       | most terminals                      |
| `contrast` | High contrast | low-contrast displays, bright rooms |
| `mono`     | Monochrome    | terminals with a restricted palette |

## Switch theme

```
/theme contrast
```

Running `/theme` with no argument opens the picker rather than complaining.

## Set one permanently

The selector is the top-level `theme` key:

```yaml title="~/.eva/config.yaml"
theme: contrast
```

[Configuration](/configure/configuration) explains where that file goes and
how Eva decides which layer wins. The key is read by the terminal surface —
which is why, in a run with the console disabled, Eva reports `theme` as a
key nothing read.

## Write your own

A theme is a name and exactly four colors. Define one under the top-level
`themes` mapping and select it:

```yaml title="~/.eva/config.yaml"
theme: dusk

themes:
  dusk:
    name: Dusk
    colors:
      foreground: "#e8e4d8"
      muted: "#8a8a7a"
      accent: "#d8a657"
      warning: "#e78a4e"
```

Or ship it as a file — `.eva/themes/dusk.yaml` is the same row, keyed by its
base name, so a repository can carry a team's theme:

```yaml title=".eva/themes/dusk.yaml"
name: Dusk
colors:
  foreground: "#e8e4d8"
  muted: "#8a8a7a"
  accent: "#d8a657"
  warning: "#e78a4e"
```

The four keys, and what each paints:

| Key          | Paints                                                   |
| ------------ | -------------------------------------------------------- |
| `foreground` | the words — yours and the agent's                        |
| `muted`      | thoughts, hints, and secondary text                      |
| `accent`     | the bar beside your words, the spinner, the selected row |
| `warning`    | tool calls, and what needs your attention                |

## Change one color of a built-in

Colors merge onto a theme that already exists, so overriding one key leaves
the other three alone:

```yaml
themes:
  default:
    colors:
      accent: "#ff79c6"
```

## A theme with a gap

A row missing one of the four colors is not a theme yet. The console keeps
drawing the default and says so, rather than painting half a theme. The same
holds for a `theme` that names no row: the default is drawn, and a notice
names the theme that was not found.

## Themes are a plugin

`eva.themes` is a plugin like everything else in Eva, so you can turn it off:

```bash
eva --without-plugin eva.themes
```

Eva keeps running without it. A plugin that fails or is disabled degrades the
run rather than stopping it — the repository has a CI job whose only purpose
is to prove that.


---

This page as HTML: https://docs.evafactory.co/use/themes
Every page as one markdown index: https://docs.evafactory.co/llms.txt