50 dark themes for Claude Code
Free dark themes for Claude Code's /theme picker: 50 in the main pack, 12 more in Vol. 2.
Every palette is contrast-checked against its terminal background and has a matched terminal color scheme.
Install
Needs Claude Code v2.1.118 or later (claude update). Two commands, typed inside Claude Code,
install the 50; one more adds Vol. 2.
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Add the marketplace:
/plugin marketplace add notgabriels-sys/claude-code-50-dark-themes
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Install the pack:
/plugin install 50-dark-themes@notgabriels-themes
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Optional, for the 12 Vol. 2 themes:
/plugin install dark-themes-vol-2@notgabriels-themes
Restart Claude Code, then run /theme and pick one. If /theme says custom themes are disabled
in safe mode, Claude Code was started with --safe-mode or CLAUDE_CODE_SAFE_MODE set, which
turns off plugins and custom themes: restart without --safe-mode, or run
unset CLAUDE_CODE_SAFE_MODE (and remove it from your shell profile) first.
→ Every theme, previewed: gabs-utilities.com/theme/ (a page for each of the 62, with a specimen in its own colors).
Other ways to install
These are themes for the Claude Code CLI. The chat app (claude.ai / desktop) only supports
Light / Dark / System, so every route below puts them into Claude Code. Step-by-step install,
terminal background and troubleshooting guide:
https://gabs-utilities.com/claude-code-theme-install-guide.html
From your terminal
The same plugin install, run outside Claude Code:
claude plugin marketplace add notgabriels-sys/claude-code-50-dark-themes
claude plugin install 50-dark-themes@notgabriels-themes
The plugin keeps the pack together and makes updates available through the marketplace. Press Ctrl+E
on a plugin theme if you want an editable copy in ~/.claude/themes/.
From the zip
Prefer a zip to a git clone? The same 50 themes are a free download on the
v1.0.1 GitHub release →
(claude-code-dark-themes-v1.0.1.zip). The plugin route above is the recommended install.
With install.sh
git clone https://github.com/notgabriels-sys/claude-code-50-dark-themes
cd claude-code-50-dark-themes && ./install.sh
Then run /theme in Claude Code and pick one.
./install.sh --list # show the 50 names
./install.sh acid deep-field # install only those
./install.sh --uninstall # remove them again
It copies into ~/.claude/themes/, and if a file of the same name is already there with
different contents it is backed up once as <name>.json.bak before being replaced.
--uninstall removes the themes and leaves the backups alone.
By copying the files
git clone https://github.com/notgabriels-sys/claude-code-50-dark-themes
mkdir -p ~/.claude/themes
cp claude-code-50-dark-themes/plugins/50-dark-themes/themes/*.json ~/.claude/themes/
Or copy only the .json files you want. In Claude Code, run /theme: each file appears in the
list by name. Edits to the files hot-reload, no restart needed (if ~/.claude/themes/ didn't
exist before, restart Claude Code once).
With an agent
The Claude Code Theme Setup Assistant (paid, on Agensi)
picks a theme with you, installs it, checks it shows in /theme and gives you the matching terminal
background. The themes themselves stay free here.
Matching terminal colors
Every one of the 62 themes also has a matched terminal color scheme (background, foreground, cursor,
selection and the 16 ANSI colors) for iTerm2, Ghostty, kitty, Alacritty, WezTerm, Windows Terminal,
VS Code, Warp, Konsole and Terminal.app, so your prompt, git and ls match Claude Code. Files and
setup steps: terminal-schemes/README.md.
What each file sets
claude + shimmer: brand accent (spinner, assistant label) = theme accenttext / inactive / subtle: foreground, readable secondary text, non-essential faint hairlinespromptBorder, suggestion, rate_limit_fill: accent-matchedpermission, planMode: second accent where the theme has oneuserMessageBackground (+hover): raised surface, one step above the theme bg
Left at the base dark preset on purpose: success, error, warning, diff colors —
so status colors stay semantically green/red/yellow in every theme.
The repository verifier checks each palette against its recommended terminal background:
AAA contrast for primary text, AA for foreground accents and readable secondary text, and the
WCAG non-text floor for functional borders and indicators. subtle is reserved for decorative
hairlines; it is never used as the readable secondary-text color.
Note on backgrounds
Claude Code cannot set your terminal's background color — the terminal app owns that.
For the full effect, set your terminal background to the theme's bg hex
(listed in the gallery page, e.g. Graphite = #1D1E20).
Transparent terminals
Claude Code paints userMessageBackground opaquely — it does not inherit your terminal's
transparency. So these themes set it one step above the theme bg rather than equal to it.
On a transparent terminal the user-message block then reads as a deliberately raised panel,
instead of an opaque patch in the exact color of the background you can otherwise see through.
On an opaque terminal it just reads as a subtle raised surface.
Same palettes, on the web
These 50 palettes also ship as a set of dark website templates — portfolio, SaaS landing,
docs, pricing, changelog, waitlist, link-in-bio and a résumé, each a single index.html
with no build step. Live demo →
The 50 themes
Each name opens the theme's own page: a specimen, the install commands, its palette and the measured contrast.
Absinthe · Acid ·
Amber Room · Anaglyph ·
Blackout · Blueprint ·
Cassette · Clay ·
Cobalt Hour · Concrete ·
Coral · Crossfade ·
Deep Field · Dubplate ·
Ember · Fathom ·
Fjord · Furnace ·
Glacier · Graphite ·
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The 12 Vol. 2 themes
Afterglow · Aurora Borealis ·
Basalt · Biolume ·
Cryosleep · Darkroom ·
Gaslight · Heliotrope ·
Magnetite · Monsoon ·
Neon Noir · Ozone
A separate free plugin in the same marketplace, held to the same contrast floors.
Preview them all: plugins/dark-themes-vol-2/preview.png
or in the gallery's expansion section.
claude plugin install dark-themes-vol-2@notgabriels-themes
Building something on top of these? The id, display name and key palette roles
of each of the original 50 themes are published as one generated JSON file
(Vol. 2 is not in it yet):
gabs-utilities.com/themes.json
It is generated from the theme files by scripts/build-theme-index.mjs and CI
fails if it drifts, so it always matches what actually installs. Free themes
only — no pricing in it.
Also in this marketplace — Berlin Studio Skills
claude plugin install berlin-studio-skills@notgabriels-themes
Five skills for running a techno studio and a freelance audio practice in Berlin: building a
specific sound, diagnosing a mix that will not translate, getting masters and metadata out the
door, formal German correspondence, and German freelance invoicing and tax admin. The audio pair
and the admin pair route to each other, so you rarely have to name one. See
the plugin README.
Familiars: Claude skills for sound work
Familiars is the catalogue these themes sit in, at https://gabs-utilities.com/familiars.html : Claude
skills and plugins built in a Berlin studio for people who make and deliver sound. Each one has a
form, a name and one narrow job, works inside your specs instead of inventing sample rates or
loudness targets, and keeps what you said apart from what it inferred. Six are in early access by
email (track finishing, release concepts, audio evaluation, mix and master reports, studio German,
and a studio ops plugin that covers a techno studio from demo triage to the tech rider); the dark
theme is public under MIT.
More dark tools
Same palettes and the same care, applied elsewhere. All one-time purchases, no
subscriptions, and none of it needed to use the themes above.
The whole catalog, previewed: gabs-utilities.com.
| |
|---|
| Dark UI Kit — one CSS file, no build step | buttons, forms, cards, tabs, modal · €12 |
| Dark HTML Templates — 8 single-file pages | portfolio, SaaS, docs, pricing · $19 |
| Dark App Screens — 6 product screens + 50 themes | sign-in, dashboard, data table, settings, inbox, error pages · €14 |
| Dark Email Templates — transactional email | welcome, receipt, reset, OTP · €9 |
| Dark Invoice & Business Documents — 9 print-ready HTML documents | invoice, quote, receipt, credit note, purchase order and more · €12 |
| Social & OG Templates — exact-size share images | OG cards, X header, thumbnails · €9 |
| Résumé & CV Templates — live demo — prints clean to PDF | 5 layouts + cover letter · checkout temporarily withheld |
| Dev Cheatsheets + Vol. 2 | git, vim, tmux, SQL, CSS, HTTP · €7 each |
| Keyboard Shortcuts — keycap reference cards | VS Code, macOS, Vim, tmux · €7 |
Everything Dark — the complete kit → (published dark-asset bundle, $39)
More free things
The contrast tool, free
theme-contrast — one Python file, no
dependencies, checks any theme against WCAG floors and exits non-zero in CI. It knows the
difference between body text, accents, UI marks and surfaces, so it does not bury the real
failures under false positives. MIT.
python3 theme_contrast.py themes/
How these are built
What 50 dark Claude Code themes taught me about semantic terminal colors
— why decorative accents can move while errors, warnings, success states and diffs keep their meaning.
Every one of my 50 themes failed a contrast check
— what the floors are, why a naive check is worse than none, and the fix.
See them running first
Live demos → — business documents,
slide decks and app screens, running in your browser. No signup, nothing to download.
The HTML templates demo is separate.
Themes in this repo are free and stay free — MIT. If they saved you some fiddling,
a ⭐ helps other people find them.
Contributions are welcome. Read CONTRIBUTING.md before adding or changing a theme;
the repository verifies the theme schema, gallery parity, installation command and payment links on every pull request and every push to main.
