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Theme settings in Windows Terminal (Preview)

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The settings listed below affect the visuals of the terminal window itself, rather than the appearance of an individual tab/pane. These settings are currently only editable directly in the settings.json file and are not configurable via the settings UI.

"theme": "dark"
"themes":
[
    // THEME OBJECTS
]

For some example themes, take a look at the Themes gallery.

Each theme in the themes list is comprised of a collection of property objects, that specify the properties of individual elements of the application. For example, the default "dark" theme is the following:

{
    "name": "dark",
    "window": {
        "applicationTheme": "dark"
    },
    "tab": {
        "background": "terminalBackground",
        "unfocusedBackground": "#00000000"
    },
    "tabRow": {
        "unfocusedBackground": "#333333FF"
    }
},

You may also configure the Terminal to use separate themes for light and dark mode in the OS and change automatically between those themes when the OS theme changes. To do this, specify the theme property as an object containing the keys light and dark:

"theme": { "dark": "<Dark Theme Name>", "light": "<Light Theme Name>" },

Theme name

This is the name of the theme. Names should be unique. The names dark, light, and system are reserved for the built-in default themes.

Property name: name

Necessity: Required

Accepts: Name of theme as a string


Window

These settings are used to configure the appearance of the whole of the window of the Terminal.

Property name: window

Application theme

This sets the UI theme of the application. This will stylize items such as buttons, the command palette, and other application UI elements. It can either be light or dark. "system" will use the same theme as Windows.

Property name: applicationTheme

Necessity: Optional

Accepts: "system", "dark", "light"

Default value: "dark"

Mica

This enables the Mica effect on this window, beneath all other UI layers. For Mica to be visible, the layers above it need to be transparent. As an example, to have a tab row with Mica in it you'll need to configure the alpha channel of the background to be 0 as follows:

{
    "name": "My Mica Theme",
    "tab":
    {
        "background": "terminalBackground"
    },
    "tabRow":
    {
        "background": "#00000000"
    },
    "window":
    {
        "applicationTheme": "system",
        "useMica": true
    }
},

Note that when Mica is enabled for the window it is enabled under the entirety of the window, including as a backdrop for the Terminal panes in the window. This means that profiles which are using opacity without useAcrylic enabled will show through to the new Mica background. It is not currently possible to have a unblurred transparent background for the Terminal and a Mica background for the tabs / tab row simultaneously.

Property name: useMica

Necessity: Optional

Accepts: true, false

Default value: false

Note

Mica is only available on Windows builds >= 22621.

Window border

This sets the color of the window border, when the window is active. When set to null, the border will use whatever the default color is for the OS theme.

Property name: frame

Necessity: Optional

Accepts: a theme color

Default value: null

Note

Window border colors are only available on Windows 11.

Important

This feature is only available in Windows Terminal Preview.

Inactive window border

This sets the color of the window border, when the window is inactive. When set to null, the border will use whatever the default color is for the OS theme.

Property name: unfocusedFrame

Necessity: Optional

Accepts: a theme color

Default value: null

Important

This feature is only available in Windows Terminal Preview.

Experimental: Rainbow Window border

When enabled, this setting will cause the window border to cycle through the colors of the rainbow. This is an experimental feature, and its continued existence is not guaranteed. When this setting is enabled, it will take precedence over both frame and unfocusedFrame.

The Windows Terminal with rainbowFrame enabled

Property name: experimental.rainbowFrame

Necessity: Optional

Accepts: true, false

Default value: false

Important

This feature is only available in Windows Terminal Preview.


Tab row

These settings are used to configure the appearance of the tab row. When showTabsInTitlebar is true (the default), this configures the title bar.

Property name: tabRow

Background color

The color of the tab row when the window is in the foreground.

Property name: background

Necessity: Optional

Accepts: a theme color.

Inactive background color

The color of the tab row when the window is inactive.

Property name: unfocusedBackground

Necessity: Optional

Accepts: a theme color.


Tabs

These are settings that control the appearance of individual tabs in the Terminal.

Property name: tab

Background color

The color of the active tab. Setting a tabColor in a profile will override this value. Similarly, setting a color at runtime with the tab color picker will override this color.

This color is always treated as a solid color, even if set to a terminalBackground of a pane with an acrylic background.

Property name: background

Necessity: Optional

Accepts: a theme color.

Inactive background color

The color of inactive tabs. Setting a tabColor in a profile will override this value. Similarly, setting a color at runtime with the tab color picker will override this color.

This color is always treated as a solid color, even if set to a terminalBackground of a pane with an acrylic background.

When set to terminalBackground or accent, this will automatically use an alpha value of 30%, to be semi-transparent.

Property name: unfocusedBackground

Necessity: Optional

Accepts: a theme color.

Show close button

Configures how the "close" button on the tab should appear. This accepts the following values:

  • "always": Always show tab close buttons.
  • "hover": Show the tab close button on the active tab, and any tabs that are hovered with the mouse.
  • "never": Never show tab close buttons. This also disables the ability to close the tab with the middle mouse button.
  • "activeOnly": Show the tab close button on the active tab only.

Property name: showCloseButton

Necessity: Optional

Accepts: "always", "hover", "never", "activeOnly"

Default value: "always"


Theme colors

The colors used in themes both accept RGBA color values, as well as a few special strings for custom values. The accepted values are as follows:

  • "#rgb, "#rrggbb, "#rrggbbaa: An RGB color value. When the alpha chanel is omitted, these colors default to a fully opaque alpha channel.
  • "accent": This is a special value that means "the accent color set in the system settings".
  • "terminalBackground": This is a special value evaluated to mean "the background color of the active terminal pane". If there are multiple panes in a tab, then this is the color of the active one. This always uses the background of the profile - it ignores anything from a backgroundImage, if set.