Built-in Themes Reference

CRT ships with 19 built-in themes installed to ~/.config/crt/themes/. Each theme is a CSS file that can be viewed and modified directly.

To activate a theme, set name under [theme] in config.toml:

[theme]
name = "synthwave"

Themes can also be switched at runtime via right-click > context menu without restarting.

Theme Index

#	Name	Reactive	Gallery Screenshot
1	`synthwave`	No	synthwave.png
2	`dracula`	No	dracula.png
3	`tron`	No	tron.png
4	`vaporwave`	No	vaporwave.png
5	`matrix`	No	matrix.png
6	`robco`	No	robco.png
7	`robco-reactive`	Yes	—
8	`alien`	No	alien.png
9	`wh40k`	No	wh40k.png
10	`solarized`	No	solarized.png
11	`minimal`	No	minimal.png
12	`starfield`	No	starfield.png
13	`rain`	No	rain.png
14	`particles`	No	particles.png
15	`shape`	No	shape.png
16	`stress`	No	stress.png
17	`nyancat`	No	nyancat.png
18	`nyancat-responsive`	Yes	—
19	`pokemon`	No	—

“Reactive” means the theme responds to shell events (command success/failure, bell) by temporarily changing visual properties. Reactive themes require OSC 133 shell integration — see Shell Integration Requirements.

Theme Descriptions

synthwave

Property	Value
Background	Dark purple (`#0d0021`)
Foreground	Cyan (`#00ffff`)
Cursor	Magenta
Color scheme	Purple-tinted grayscale ANSI palette
Effects	Perspective grid (animated, glowing magenta lines), text glow
Reactive	No

80s neon retrowave aesthetic. Animated perspective grid scrolls toward the viewer. The default theme for release builds.

dracula

Property	Value
Background	Dark purple (`#282a36`)
Foreground	Light gray (`#f8f8f2`)
Cursor	Pink/magenta
Color scheme	Dracula standard palette
Effects	None
Reactive	No

The classic Dracula color scheme. No background effects; pure color scheme with no GPU overhead beyond basic rendering.

tron

Property	Value
Background	Near-black with blue tint
Foreground	Bright cyan
Cursor	Cyan
Color scheme	Cyan/blue TRON-inspired
Effects	Perspective grid (cyan lines)
Reactive	No

TRON Legacy-inspired aesthetic. Animated perspective grid in cyan. Pairs with the blue-dominant ANSI palette.

vaporwave

Property	Value
Background	Dark purple-blue
Foreground	Pink/cyan
Cursor	Hot pink
Color scheme	Vaporwave pink and cyan
Effects	Perspective grid (animated, pink/magenta lines)
Reactive	No

Vaporwave aesthetic with pink and cyan color scheme. Animated scrolling perspective grid.

matrix

Property	Value
Background	Black
Foreground	Bright green
Cursor	Green
Color scheme	Green-dominant; all ANSI colors shifted to green variants
Effects	Matrix rain (falling green characters), CRT post-processing (scanlines, curvature, vignette)
Reactive	No

The Matrix. Animated falling character rain in the background combined with CRT post-processing effects (scanlines, screen curvature, vignette) on the entire terminal output.

robco

Property	Value
Background	Near-black
Foreground	Amber-green phosphor (`#20c20e`)
Cursor	Phosphor green
Color scheme	Monochrome green phosphor
Effects	CRT post-processing (scanlines, curvature, vignette, flicker), text glow
Reactive	No

Fallout Pip-Boy terminal aesthetic. Simulates a green phosphor CRT monitor (Robco Industries MF series). CRT scanlines, screen curvature, vignette, and phosphor flicker are all active.

robco-reactive

Property	Value
Background	Near-black
Foreground	Amber-green phosphor
Cursor	Phosphor green
Color scheme	Monochrome green phosphor
Effects	CRT post-processing, Vault Boy sprite
Reactive	Yes

Extends robco with a Vault Boy sprite that reacts to shell events: shows a thumbs-up animation on command success and an alert/fail animation on command failure. Requires OSC 133 shell integration (see below).

alien

Property	Value
Background	Near-black
Foreground	Amber phosphor
Cursor	Amber
Color scheme	Amber monochrome
Effects	CRT post-processing (scanlines, curvature, heavy vignette), text glow
Reactive	No

Weyland-Yutani MU/TH/UR 6000 computer terminal from Alien. Amber phosphor CRT with heavy vignette and scanlines.

wh40k

Property	Value
Background	Dark (`#0a0a0a`)
Foreground	Aged parchment/gold
Cursor	Gold
Color scheme	Imperial gold and grey
Effects	Servo skull sprite animation, text glow
Reactive	No

Warhammer 40,000 Imperial cogitator terminal. Includes an animated servo skull sprite. Typography and colors evoke grimdark Imperial aesthetics.

solarized

Property	Value
Background	`#002b36` (solarized dark base)
Foreground	`#839496`
Cursor	Cyan
Color scheme	Full Solarized Dark palette
Effects	None
Reactive	No

The Solarized Dark color scheme by Ethan Schoonover. No background effects.

minimal

Property	Value
Background	Pure black (`#000000`)
Foreground	Light gray
Cursor	White
Color scheme	Clean neutral palette
Effects	None
Reactive	No

No effects, no animations. Pure black background with a clean neutral color palette. Minimum GPU overhead.

starfield

Property	Value
Background	Black
Foreground	White
Cursor	White
Color scheme	Standard dark
Effects	Starfield (twinkling stars, multiple parallax layers)
Reactive	No

Animated twinkling starfield in the background. Stars rendered across multiple parallax layers for depth. Text glow active.

rain

Property	Value
Background	Dark blue-grey
Foreground	Light
Cursor	Blue
Color scheme	Cool neutral
Effects	Animated rain drops
Reactive	No

Animated rain drops falling in the background. Drop density, speed, and angle are configurable in the CSS.

particles

Property	Value
Background	Dark
Foreground	White/pink
Cursor	Pink
Color scheme	Warm
Effects	Floating heart particle system
Reactive	No

Heart-shaped particles float upward in the background. Uses the particle system with --particles-shape: heart and --particles-behavior: rise.

shape

Property	Value
Background	Dark
Foreground	White
Cursor	White
Color scheme	Neutral
Effects	Animated spinning polygon (geometric shape)
Reactive	No

A single animated geometric shape (polygon) bounces and rotates in the background. Demonstrates the shape effect system.

stress

Property	Value
Background	Dark
Foreground	White
Cursor	White
Color scheme	Neutral
Effects	All effects simultaneously (grid, starfield, rain, particles, matrix, shape, CRT post-processing)
Reactive	No

All visual effects enabled at once. Intended for GPU performance testing and benchmarking, not normal use. Use this theme with benchmark_gpu to establish worst-case frame times.

nyancat

Property	Value
Background	Black
Foreground	White
Cursor	Rainbow/white
Color scheme	Standard dark
Effects	Animated Nyan Cat sprite, starfield
Reactive	No

Nyan Cat sprite sheet animation plays in the corner. Background starfield active. The default theme for debug builds.

nyancat-responsive

Property	Value
Background	Black
Foreground	White
Cursor	White
Color scheme	Standard dark
Effects	Animated Nyan Cat sprite, starfield
Reactive	Yes

Extends nyancat with reactive sprite swaps: happy Nyan Cat on command success, sad Nyan Cat on command failure, alert Nyan Cat on bell. Requires OSC 133 shell integration.

pokemon

Property	Value
Background	Dark
Foreground	White
Cursor	Yellow
Color scheme	Warm with yellow accent
Effects	Animated Pikachu sprite (run cycle)
Reactive	No

Animated Pikachu run-cycle sprite. Uses the sprite animation system with a multi-frame sprite sheet.

Shell Integration Requirements

Reactive themes (robco-reactive, nyancat-responsive) require OSC 133 semantic prompt markers to detect command exit codes. See How to Set Up Reactive Themes for setup instructions.

Theme Categories

Category	Themes
Minimal	minimal, solarized, dracula
Retro/CRT	robco, robco-reactive, alien, matrix, wh40k
Neon/Aesthetic	synthwave, tron, vaporwave
Effects Showcase	starfield, rain, particles, shape
Animated/Fun	nyancat, nyancat-responsive, pokemon
Performance Testing	stress