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wtf is iterm2-color-schemes?

mbadolato/iterm2-color-schemes — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-21

26,853ShellAudience · developerComplexity · 1/5LicenseSetup · easy

TL;DR

A collection of over 450 ready-to-install color themes for terminals and code editors, covering iTerm2, Windows Terminal, VS Code, Alacritty, Ghostty, and dozens more apps, letting you swap in a new look in under a minute.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((iterm2-color-schemes))
    What it is
      450 plus color themes
      Multi-platform support
      Ready-to-import files
    Supported apps
      iTerm2 and Ghostty
      Windows Terminal
      VS Code
      Alacritty
    Theme styles
      Dark minimal
      Retro classic
      Pastel light
    Use cases
      Terminal aesthetics
      Editor theming
      Consistent workspace

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

Why would anyone build with this?

REASON 1

Browse and apply a color scheme to your terminal app (iTerm2, Windows Terminal, Alacritty, VS Code) to make long coding sessions easier on the eyes.

REASON 2

Find a consistent theme that works across multiple tools so your terminal, editor, and IDE share the same color palette.

REASON 3

Quickly audition dozens of dark, light, or retro themes to match your personal aesthetic without manual color customization.

What's in the stack?

Shell

How it stacks up

mbadolato/iterm2-color-schemesnvie/gitflowyuaotian/go-cursor-help
Stars26,85326,84126,345
LanguageShellShellShell
Setup difficultyeasymoderateeasy
Complexity1/52/51/5
Audiencedeveloperdevelopervibe coder

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you spin it up?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Free to use for any purpose, open-source themes with no restrictions.

Wtf does this do

This is a large collection of color themes for terminal applications, the command-line windows developers use to interact with their computers. Specifically, it started as themes for iTerm2 (a popular terminal app on Mac), but has since expanded to include versions compatible with virtually every major terminal on every platform: Windows Terminal, VS Code, Ghostty, Kitty, Alacritty, PuTTY, and many more. In total there are over 450 color schemes, everything from dark minimalist themes to retro green-on-black looks to pastel-heavy designs. Each theme controls colors like the background, text, cursor, and the standard set of highlight colors that command-line tools use to display code, errors, file names, and other output. For developers and vibe coders who spend a lot of time in the terminal: the default terminal color scheme is often either bland or hard to read for long sessions. Swapping in a well-designed color scheme makes a real difference in daily comfort. Installing a theme usually takes just a minute, you download the scheme file and import it into your terminal's settings. For non-technical founders reviewing a developer's setup or trying to understand why someone might use this: it's essentially the same idea as choosing a theme for your code editor or IDE, purely aesthetic and ergonomic customization that has no effect on functionality but matters a lot to people who stare at terminals all day. Free and open-source, with nearly 27,000 stars.

Yoink these prompts

Prompt 1
I use iTerm2 on Mac and want to try the Dracula color scheme from this repo. Give me step-by-step instructions to download and install it.
Prompt 2
I use Alacritty on Linux. Show me how to find, download, and apply a dark theme from iterm2-color-schemes by editing my alacritty.toml config.
Prompt 3
I want matching color schemes for both Windows Terminal and VS Code from this collection. How do I install the same theme in both apps?
Prompt 4
Help me preview multiple themes in iTerm2 quickly, is there a script or batch import method to cycle through several schemes from this repo?

Frequently asked questions

wtf is iterm2-color-schemes?

A collection of over 450 ready-to-install color themes for terminals and code editors, covering iTerm2, Windows Terminal, VS Code, Alacritty, Ghostty, and dozens more apps, letting you swap in a new look in under a minute.

What language is iterm2-color-schemes written in?

Mainly Shell. The stack also includes Shell.

What license does iterm2-color-schemes use?

Free to use for any purpose, open-source themes with no restrictions.

How hard is iterm2-color-schemes to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is iterm2-color-schemes for?

Mainly developer.

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