An interactive theme picker for PowerShell + Windows Terminal. Browse a gallery of looks, preview them live, and apply one across all 4 layers at once, without leaving your terminal.
48 themes from dark dev classics to neon and retro CRT — browse the full gallery →
Platform: the Windows Terminal layer (scheme, background, opacity, font) is Windows-only. The PSReadLine,
$PSStyle, and oh-my-posh layers run in any PowerShell 7 session, so on macOS/Linux you still get everything except the Windows Terminal–specific bits.
| Layer | What it colors | How it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Terminal | scheme, background, opacity, font | settings.json (hot-reloads instantly) |
| PSReadLine | the command line you type | $PROFILE + live session |
$PSStyle |
command output (dirs, errors, tables) | $PROFILE + live session |
| oh-my-posh | the prompt | $PROFILE + live session |
Prerequisite: PowerShell 7.2+ — the modern, cross-platform pwsh, not the
built-in Windows PowerShell 5.1 (check with $PSVersionTable.PSVersion). Don't
have it yet? winget install Microsoft.PowerShell, then start pwsh.
Install-Module PoshPalette -Scope CurrentUser
paletteIn Windows Terminal, set the default profile to PowerShell (7.x) rather than Windows PowerShell so new tabs use it automatically.
oh-my-posh is optional. Only the prompt layer uses it — the other three layers apply without it. The first time you pick a theme whose prompt needs it, PoshPalette offers to install it for you (per-user via
winget, no admin), then you re-open pwsh to see the prompt. To install it yourself ahead of time:winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh -s winget.
To move to a newer release of the module:
Update-Module PoshPalette # then open a new PowerShell tab to load itYou don't have to remember to check: on launch Posh Palette compares your version
against the Gallery (on the same once-a-day cadence it uses to fetch new themes),
and when a newer one is out the menu shows a [5] Update option — pick it to
run the update right there. New themes, separately, arrive on their own with no
module update needed (see Use → New themes show up automatically, below).
Launch the interactive picker, apply a theme by name, or tweak one layer at a time. The rest — importing schemes, the auto-update catalog, the setup doctor, and font installs — is grouped below.
Interactive (Simple or Detail mode):
Start-PoshPalette # or just: palette- Simple mode: scroll a list of full themes, live preview on the right, Enter to apply.
- Detail mode: choose each layer independently (scheme / prompt / input / output).
By name:
Install-PoshPaletteTheme tokyo-night
Install-PoshPaletteTheme catppuccin-mocha -DryRun # preview without writingChange a single part by its catalog name and keep everything else exactly as it is. Each command edits just that slot on top of your current look:
Set-PoshPaletteScheme nord # color scheme (Windows Terminal bg + 16 ANSI)
Set-PoshPaletteColors tokyo-night # input + output colors (PSReadLine / $PSStyle)
Set-PoshPalettePrompt auto-twoline # the oh-my-posh prompt (any oh-my-posh name works too)
Set-PoshPaletteFont robotomono # the terminal font
Set-PoshPaletteLayer -Opacity 90 -Acrylic $true -FontSize 12 # window + sizeA name is the id of any entry in schemes/, palettes/, prompts/, or
fonts.json. Browse the options in Detail mode, in the
theme gallery, or by listing
those folders. Your current look is remembered in ~/.poshpalette/current.json, so
tweaks stack: install a theme, then swap just its prompt, then just its font.
Every command takes -DryRun to preview without writing.
Reset to default (stock Campbell scheme + Cascadia Mono + default prompt) for a
clean, repeatable baseline, e.g. to demo before/after. Also in the menu as [4] Reset:
Reset-PoshPalette # back to the stock default look
Reset-PoshPalette -DryRun # preview without writingRevert (restores settings.json from the newest backup and removes the profile block):
Restore-PoshPalette # full revert to your previous state
Restore-PoshPalette -WhatIf # show what it would do
Restore-PoshPalette -KeepProfileBlock # revert Terminal onlyThe scheme layer normally writes to Windows Terminal's settings.json. On other
terminals (WezTerm, kitty, Alacritty, iTerm2, macOS Terminal.app, …) you can
instead push a scheme's colors — the 16 ANSI colors plus foreground /
background / cursor — straight to the running terminal via OSC escape sequences:
Set-PoshPaletteSchemeOsc eclipse # recolor the current session
Set-PoshPaletteSchemeOsc eclipse -ShowBytes # print the escapes instead of applying
Set-PoshPaletteSchemeOsc eclipse -Force # try a terminal not on the known listThis is per-session (nothing is written to disk) — open a new session, or reset, to revert. Background image, opacity and font stay Windows-Terminal-only.
Import a scheme from the formats the community already publishes:
Import-PoshPaletteScheme ./Dracula.itermcolors -Save # iTerm2
Import-PoshPaletteScheme ./gruvbox.yaml -Save # base16
Import-PoshPaletteScheme ./scheme.json -Save # Windows TerminalNew themes show up automatically. On launch, palette checks the GitHub
catalog (at most once a day) and pulls any new community themes — along with the
scheme / palette / prompt files they reference — into a local cache at
~/.poshpalette/catalog/, so you get them without reinstalling the module. The
check is time-boxed and best-effort: offline or slow, it just uses what you
already have. Force a check, browse, or opt out:
palette -Refresh # check for new themes right now
Get-PoshPaletteRemoteCatalog # list what's published
Save-PoshPaletteRemoteTheme some-theme # pull one on demand
$env:POSHPALETTE_NO_AUTOUPDATE = 1 # disable the auto-check (e.g. offline / locked-down)Check your setup (PowerShell, fonts, oh-my-posh, terminal: what's ready, what to fix):
Test-PoshPaletteSetup # or: palette, then [3] DoctorInstall a Nerd Font. The pack references fonts by name; it does not bundle the binaries, so it pulls one from the nerd-fonts releases for you:
Install-PoshPaletteFont robotomono # any font id from the catalog
Install-PoshPaletteFont CascadiaCode # or a raw Nerd Font name48 themes, from muted dev classics to neon and retro CRT. Browse them all in the theme gallery.
Also upstream: 22 of these are original schemes, now published to iTerm2-Color-Schemes and windowsterminalthemes.dev — usable in any terminal, not just via PoshPalette.
- Drift set (featured):
eclipse,graphite,driftwood,prism,daybreak,porcelain— six themes that lead the catalog as a deliberate style drift from dark → grey → neutral → colorful → soft light → light - Originals:
nebula-drift,verdigris,miami-heat,forge-ember,matcha-zen,velvet-court,acid-lime,frostbyte,halcyon - Vivid / neon:
synthwave,cyberpunk,oxocarbon,monokai-pro - Dark classics:
tokyo-night,dracula,catppuccin-mocha,nord,one-dark,gruvbox,rose-pine,kanagawa,everforest,solarized-dark,github-dark - Warm:
horizon,ayu-dark,night-owl - Retro CRT:
green-phosphor,amber-crt - Light:
catppuccin-latte,github-light,solarized-light,rose-pine-dawn - Baseline & a11y:
campbell(Windows Terminal default),high-contrast
A theme is a composition: it doesn't hold colors, it references one entry from each per-layer catalog. This is what lets you swap a single layer (keep your prompt, try a new scheme) instead of forcing all-or-nothing presets.
themes/*.json a composition: { scheme, palette, prompt, font, opacity, acrylic, fontSize }
schemes/*.json Windows Terminal color scheme (16 ANSI + bg/fg/cursor)
palettes/*.json PSReadLine input colors + $PSStyle output colors
prompts/*.json oh-my-posh theme reference
fonts.json list of (nerd) fonts to choose from
The resolver expands a composition into the flat shape the appliers write, so
Simple mode, Detail mode, Install-PoshPaletteTheme, and the Set-PoshPalette*
layer commands all share one path.
Note on prompts: every bundled prompt is generated from the active scheme, so the prompt always matches your colors and always loads (no external oh-my-posh theme files needed).
Pick a style by name — pass any to Set-PoshPalettePrompt, or choose it in Detail
mode (auto is the classic default):
auto · auto-minimal · auto-powerline · auto-robby · auto-twoline ·
auto-arrow · auto-lambda · auto-pure · auto-spaceship · auto-atomic ·
auto-smoothie · auto-1shell · auto-cert · auto-clean · auto-velvet
Prefer a specific oh-my-posh community theme? Pass its name to
Set-PoshPalettePrompt(or type it in Detail mode) and it'll be used if you have it installed underPOSH_THEMES_PATH. Either way, applying a prompt-bearing theme offers to install oh-my-posh if it's missing (per-user viawinget, no admin) — see Install.
Each layer is independently contributable: one JSON file, one PR.
- a scheme goes in
schemes/(just the 16 ANSI colors) - a palette goes in
palettes/(PSReadLine +$PSStylecolors) - a prompt goes in
prompts/(an oh-my-posh theme reference) - a preset goes in
themes/(a composition tying the above together)
Copy an existing file in the matching folder, change the values, open a PR. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full workflow and naming conventions.
The data and catalog logic (resolver, dark/light detection, prompt generation,
and the GitHub auto-refresh — with the network mocked) is covered by
Pester tests in tests/, run in CI on both Windows and
Linux on every push and PR:
Install-Module Pester -MinimumVersion 5.5.0 -Scope CurrentUser
Invoke-Pester ./tests- Backs up
settings.jsonand$PROFILEbefore the first write (*.poshpalette-*.bak). - Profile edits live in a single managed block (
# >>> PoshPalette >>>), so re-applying replaces cleanly and removing it reverts you.
Stable and published to the PowerShell Gallery — everything described above ships today. See CHANGELOG.md for release history. Issues and theme PRs welcome.