Skins & Themes

Skins control the visual presentation of the Fabric CLI: banner colors, spinner faces and verbs, response-box labels, branding text, and the tool activity prefix.

Conversational style and visual style are separate concepts:

Personality changes the agent's tone and wording.
Skin changes the CLI's appearance.

Change skins

/skin                # show the current skin and list available skins
/skin mono           # switch to a built-in skin
/skin mytheme        # switch to a custom skin from ~/.fabric/skins/mytheme.yaml

Or set the default skin in ~/.fabric/config.yaml:

display:
  skin: default

Built-in skins

Skin	Description	Agent branding	Visual character
`default`	Fabric — primary violet and kawaii	`Fabric`	Violet borders, lavender accents, the Fabric mark, and kawaii faces in spinners.
`mono`	Monochrome — clean grayscale	`Fabric`	All grays — no color. Borders are `#555555`, text is `#c9d1d9`. Ideal for minimal terminal setups or screen recordings.
`slate`	Cool blue — developer-focused	`Fabric`	Royal blue borders (`#4169e1`), soft blue text. Calm and professional. No custom spinner — uses default faces.
`daylight`	Light theme for bright terminals with dark text and cool blue accents	`Fabric`	Designed for white or bright terminals. Dark slate text with blue borders, pale status surfaces, and a light completion menu that stays readable in light terminal profiles.
`warm-lightmode`	Warm brown/gold text for light terminal backgrounds	`Fabric`	Warm parchment tones for light terminals. Dark brown text with saddle-brown accents, cream-colored status surfaces. An earthy alternative to the cooler daylight theme.
`charizard`	Volcanic theme — burnt orange and ember	`Charizard Agent`	Warm burnt orange to ember gradient. Fire-themed spinners ("banking into the draft", "measuring burn"). Dragon-silhouette ASCII art banner.

Complete list of configurable keys

Colors (`colors:`)

Controls all color values throughout the CLI. Values are hex color strings.

Key	Description	Default (`default` skin)
`banner_border`	Panel border around the startup banner	`#4628CC` (Fabric violet)
`banner_title`	Title text color in the banner	`#9481E6` (lavender)
`banner_accent`	Section headers in the banner (Available Tools, etc.)	`#7C66E1`
`banner_dim`	Muted text in the banner (separators, secondary labels)	`#667085`
`banner_text`	Body text in the banner (tool names, skill names)	`#F0EDFB`
`ui_accent`	General UI accent color (highlights, active elements)	`#7C66E1`
`ui_label`	UI labels and tags	`#9481E6`
`ui_ok`	Success indicators (checkmarks, completion)	`#0F9545` (green)
`ui_error`	Error indicators (failures, blocked)	`#EA2A37` (red)
`ui_warn`	Warning indicators (caution, approval prompts)	`#E09818` (amber)
`prompt`	Interactive prompt text color	`#F0EDFB`
`input_rule`	Horizontal rule above the input area	`#4628CC`
`response_border`	Border around the agent's response box (ANSI escape)	`#4628CC`
`session_label`	Session label color	`#9481E6`
`session_border`	Session ID dim border color	`#667085`
`status_bar_bg`	Background color for the TUI status / usage bar	`#19294D`
`voice_status_bg`	Background color for the voice-mode status badge	`#19294D`
`selection_bg`	Background color for the TUI mouse-selection highlighter. Falls back to `completion_menu_current_bg` when unset.	`#25156B`
`completion_menu_bg`	Background color for the completion menu list	`#19294D`
`completion_menu_current_bg`	Background color for the active completion row	`#25156B`
`completion_menu_meta_bg`	Background color for the completion meta column	`#19294D`
`completion_menu_meta_current_bg`	Background color for the active completion meta column	`#25156B`

Spinner (`spinner:`)

Controls the animated spinner shown while waiting for API responses.

Key	Type	Description	Example
`waiting_faces`	list of strings	Faces cycled while waiting for API response	`["(·)", "(··)", "(···)"]`
`thinking_faces`	list of strings	Faces cycled during model reasoning	`["(⌁)", "(<>)", "(◇)"]`
`thinking_verbs`	list of strings	Verbs shown in spinner messages	`["thinking", "planning", "checking"]`
`wings`	list of [left, right] pairs	Decorative brackets around the spinner	`[["⟪", "⟫"], ["[", "]"]]`

When spinner values are empty (like in default and mono), hardcoded defaults from display.py are used.

Branding (`branding:`)

Text strings used throughout the CLI interface.

Key	Description	Default
`agent_name`	Name shown in banner title and status display	`Fabric`
`welcome`	Welcome message shown at CLI startup	`Fabric. Type a message or /help for commands.`
`goodbye`	Message shown on exit	`Fabric session closed.`
`response_label`	Label on the response box header	`Fabric`
`prompt_symbol`	Symbol before the user input prompt (bare token, renderers add a trailing space)	`❯`
`help_header`	Header text for the `/help` command output	`Fabric commands`

Other top-level keys

Key	Type	Description	Default
`tool_prefix`	string	Character prefixed to tool output lines in the CLI	`┊`
`tool_emojis`	dict	Per-tool emoji overrides for spinners and progress (`{tool_name: emoji}`)	`{}`
`banner_logo`	string	Rich-markup ASCII art logo (replaces the default Fabric wordmark)	Fabric wordmark
`banner_hero`	string	Rich-markup hero art (replaces the default Fabric mark)	Fabric mark

Custom skins

Create YAML files under ~/.fabric/skins/. User skins inherit missing values from the built-in default skin, so you only need to specify the keys you want to change.

Full custom skin YAML template

# ~/.fabric/skins/mytheme.yaml
# Complete skin template — all keys shown. Delete any you don't need;
# missing values automatically inherit from the 'default' skin.

name: mytheme
description: My custom theme

colors:
  banner_border: "#4628CC"
  banner_title: "#9481E6"
  banner_accent: "#7C66E1"
  banner_dim: "#667085"
  banner_text: "#F0EDFB"
  ui_accent: "#7C66E1"
  ui_label: "#9481E6"
  ui_ok: "#0F9545"
  ui_error: "#EA2A37"
  ui_warn: "#E09818"
  prompt: "#F0EDFB"
  input_rule: "#4628CC"
  response_border: "#4628CC"
  session_label: "#9481E6"
  session_border: "#667085"
  status_bar_bg: "#19294D"
  voice_status_bg: "#19294D"
  selection_bg: "#25156B"
  completion_menu_bg: "#19294D"
  completion_menu_current_bg: "#25156B"
  completion_menu_meta_bg: "#19294D"
  completion_menu_meta_current_bg: "#25156B"

spinner:
  waiting_faces:
    - "(·)"
    - "(··)"
    - "(···)"
  thinking_faces:
    - "(⌁)"
    - "(<>)"
    - "(◇)"
  thinking_verbs:
    - "processing"
    - "analyzing"
    - "computing"
    - "evaluating"
  wings:
    - ["⟪", "⟫"]
    - ["[", "]"]

branding:
  agent_name: "My Agent"
  welcome: "Welcome to My Agent! Type your message or /help for commands."
  goodbye: "See you later! ⚡"
  response_label: " ⚡ My Agent "
  prompt_symbol: "⚡"
  help_header: "(⚡) Available Commands"

tool_prefix: "┊"

# Per-tool emoji overrides (optional)
tool_emojis:
  terminal: ">_"
  web_search: "🔮"
  read_file: "📄"

# Custom ASCII art banners (optional, Rich markup supported)
# banner_logo: |
#   [bold #FFD700] MY AGENT [/]
# banner_hero: |
#   [#FFD700]  Custom art here  [/]

Minimal custom skin example

Since everything inherits from default, a minimal skin only needs to change what's different:

name: cyberpunk
description: Neon terminal theme

colors:
  banner_border: "#FF00FF"
  banner_title: "#00FFFF"
  banner_accent: "#FF1493"

spinner:
  thinking_verbs: ["jacking in", "decrypting", "uploading"]
  wings:
    - ["⟨⚡", "⚡⟩"]

branding:
  agent_name: "Cyber Agent"
  response_label: " ⚡ Cyber "

tool_prefix: "▏"

Fabric Mod — Visual Skin Editor

Fabric Mod is a community-built web UI for creating and managing skins visually. Instead of writing YAML by hand, you get a point-and-click editor with live preview.

Fabric Mod skin editor

What it does:

Lists all built-in and custom skins
Opens any skin into a visual editor with all Fabric skin fields (colors, spinner, branding, tool prefix, tool emojis)
Generates banner_logo text art from a text prompt
Converts uploaded images (PNG, JPG, GIF, WEBP) into banner_hero ASCII art with multiple render styles (braille, ASCII ramp, blocks, dots)
Saves directly to ~/.fabric/skins/
Activates a skin by updating ~/.fabric/config.yaml
Shows the generated YAML and a live preview

Install

Option 1 — Pinokio (1-click):

Find it on pinokio.computer and install with one click.

Option 2 — npx (quickest from terminal):

npx -y fabric-mod

Option 3 — Manual:

git clone https://github.com/cocktailpeanut/fabric-mod.git
cd fabric-mod/app
npm install
npm start

Usage

Start the app (via Pinokio or terminal).
Open Skin Studio.
Choose a built-in or custom skin to edit.
Generate a logo from text and/or upload an image for hero art. Pick a render style and width.
Edit colors, spinner, branding, and other fields.
Click Save to write the skin YAML to ~/.fabric/skins/.
Click Activate to set it as the current skin (updates display.skin in config.yaml).

Fabric Mod respects the FABRIC_HOME environment variable, so it works with profiles too.

Operational notes

Built-in skins load from fabric_cli/skin_engine.py.
Unknown skins automatically fall back to default.
/skin updates the active CLI theme immediately for the current session.
User skins in ~/.fabric/skins/ take precedence over built-in skins with the same name.
Skin changes via /skin are session-only. To make a skin your permanent default, set it in config.yaml.
The banner_logo and banner_hero fields support Rich console markup (e.g., [bold #FF0000]text[/]) for colored ASCII art.

Change skins​

Built-in skins​

Complete list of configurable keys​

Colors (colors:)​

Spinner (spinner:)​

Branding (branding:)​

Other top-level keys​

Custom skins​

Full custom skin YAML template​

Minimal custom skin example​

Fabric Mod — Visual Skin Editor​

Install​

Usage​

Operational notes​