I changed my terminal theme six times in eight minutes
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I spend most of my day in a terminal. Lately that's even more true, because most of my work now happens in a Claude Code session. So when I got bored of how my terminal looked, it bugged me more than it used to.
A few months ago I tried to fix this the usual way. I googled "best terminal themes," read a few listicles, found a GitHub repo, figured out which file format my terminal wanted, downloaded it, imported it, fiddled with settings, and then fiddled some more when it didn't look like the screenshot. It took long enough that once I had something that worked, I stopped. I never tried a second option, because each try cost too much.
This week I did it again, but this time I just asked Claude.
Round 1: the font
I started with a link: "Can we start using this font for my terminal/claude?" and the URL for Iosevka.
Claude worked out that I use the stock macOS Terminal.app, installed the font with Homebrew, and set it on my profile through AppleScript. Its first guess at the font name didn't stick, so it read the real names out of the font file and tried again. It then read the setting back from Terminal to confirm, and told me how to undo it.
I opened a new window and didn't like it. So I said so: "Ok, I'm not a fan of that. What are some other highly readable fonts I could use for free?"
Before answering, Claude put my old font back. Then it gave me five options with a sentence on each: JetBrains Mono, Fira Code, Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono, IBM Plex Mono and Source Code Pro.
"Let's try JetBrains mono." Installed and applied in about 20 seconds. I liked it, and I kept it.
From my first message to settling on a font took about two minutes.
Round 2: the theme
Next: "What is a high contrast terminal theme I could use? I'm getting bored of my current theme."
This is the part that went so badly last time. Here's how it went this time:
| Time | What I said | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 16:19 | "Let's try the first option" | Modus Vivendi installed. Very readable, but it's basically white on black. |
| 16:20 | "I want something interesting and cool too" | Five more colorful options. I picked Tokyo Night. |
| 16:21 | "Let's try Catppuccin Mocha" | Installed. |
| 16:21 | "I'm not seeing any difference. can we confirm it was installed?" | Claude found the problem: new windows got the theme, but my open windows were still on the old profile. It switched all five open windows. |
| 16:22 | "Can we try a theme that has more color?" | Synthwave, retro 80s neon. Fun, but a lot. |
| 16:23 | "What are other options can we try?" | Nine more, grouped into "bright and colorful" and "rich but calmer." Claude checked the theme collection first, so it only suggested themes it could actually install. |
| 16:24 | "Let's try Gruvbox Dark Hard" | Warm, earthy, and high contrast. This is the one I'm keeping. |
That's six themes in about five minutes. Last time I tried one and gave up.
What made it fast
Trying something cost me nothing. Each try was one sentence from me. Claude did the downloading, importing and configuring, so I could judge each theme by how it looked and not by how much work it would take to undo.
"I don't like it" was enough. I never had to explain why. "Not a fan," "I want something cool," and "more color" were enough for Claude to narrow it down.
It checked its own work. After each change, Claude read the setting back from Terminal before saying it was done. When I said I couldn't see a difference, it looked into why and found the real cause (open windows keep their old profile). Last time, that kind of problem would have sent me back to Google.
It was careful with things it downloaded. Before importing each theme file, Claude checked that it held only colors and no commands that would run on startup. I wouldn't have thought to check that myself.
It taught me something along the way. Claude Code uses its own text colors by default, so a terminal theme mostly changes the background. Picking the ANSI option under /theme lets Claude use the theme's colors too.
The result
I'm now on JetBrains Mono with Gruvbox Dark Hard, and I enjoy working in my terminal more than I did a week ago. That sounds small, but I spend hours a day looking at it.
The bigger point for me: what used to be an annoying research project took less time than a coffee break. Because each try was so cheap, I kept trying until I found something I actually liked, and didn't settle for the first thing that worked.
[Screenshot: before (Clear Dark + SF Mono) vs. after (Gruvbox Dark Hard + JetBrains Mono)]