Custom skins (visual themes) for Claude Code CLI.
Skins transform the full Claude Code experience — terminal colors, ASCII art banners, themed status lines, Claude's voice/personality, and tool feedback sounds. They don't affect core behavior — just how things look, sound, and feel.
Inspired by hermes-skins. Mythos and Netrunner banner art adapted from that project under MIT license.
- Clone this repo:
git clone https://github.com/basicScandal/claude-skins.git- Run the installer:
cd claude-skins
./install.sh- Activate a skin:
# In Claude Code, use the /skin command
/skin nebula
# Or set a permanent default
/skin defaultThat's it. Missing values inherit from the default skin, so you only need to define what you want to change.
If you prefer to set things up yourself:
- Copy
skins/andpersonalities/to~/.claude/skins/ - Copy
engine/to~/.claude/skins/engine/ - Make engine scripts executable:
chmod +x ~/.claude/skins/engine/*.sh - Add hooks to your
~/.claude/settings.json(see Hooks Setup) - Create the
/skinskill (see Skill Setup)
Offensive security scanner — purple-to-orange gradient, tactical precision.
AGI awakening — Greek mythology meets artificial intelligence. Eye of Providence braille art, blue and gold divine palette.
Cyberpunk netrunner — neural interface hacker aesthetic. Cyan ICE-breaking colors on black, skull braille art.
1940s detective procedural — high-contrast black and cream, amber accents, hardboiled Chandler narration.
Minimalist Japanese ink-wash aesthetic — warm parchment, deep charcoal, vermillion hanko seal accent.
NASA retro-futurist ops console — amber phosphor on deep navy, Apollo-era mission control aesthetic.
1980s Commodore 64 nostalgia — classic C64 blue palette, 8-bit ASCII art, enthusiastic magazine voice.
The anti-skin — pure monochrome, zero decoration, no sounds, maximum terseness.
Dark academia spellbook — deep brown parchment, golden arcane sigils, patient wizard's codex voice.
| Layer | What it does |
|---|---|
| Terminal colors | Background, foreground, cursor, and ANSI palette via OSC sequences |
| ASCII banner | Braille art + block letter logo displayed on session start |
| Status line | Themed colors, icon, and progress bar in the Claude Code status bar |
| Personality | Output style that shapes Claude's voice (oracular, hacker, tactical) |
| Tool sounds | macOS system sounds triggered on file writes, commands, errors |
/skin List available skins, highlight active one
/skin <name> Switch to a skin immediately
/skin reset Deactivate skin, restore terminal defaults
/skin default Set current skin as permanent default
Switching is instant — no restart needed.
Add these to your ~/.claude/settings.json under "hooks":
SessionStart — activate default skin on boot:
{
"type": "command",
"command": "~/.claude/skins/engine/activate.sh"
}SessionEnd — restore terminal on exit:
{
"type": "command",
"command": "~/.claude/skins/engine/deactivate.sh"
}PostToolUse — themed sounds (optional):
{
"matcher": "Bash|Write|Edit|MultiEdit|Grep|Glob",
"hooks": [{
"type": "command",
"command": "~/.claude/skins/engine/skin-tool-hook.sh",
"timeout": 5
}]
}Status line — replace your current statusline:
"statusLine": {
"type": "command",
"command": "~/.claude/skins/engine/statusline.sh"
}Create ~/.claude/skills/skin/SKILL.md — see engine/SKILL.md for the content.
- Copy template.yaml to
skins/<name>.yaml - Customize colors, banner art, branding
- Optionally add
personalities/<name>.mdfor Claude's voice - Test:
~/.claude/skins/engine/activate.sh <name>
See SCHEMA.md for the full reference and CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
- Claude Code CLI
- Python 3 with PyYAML (
pip install pyyaml) - Terminal with OSC sequence support (iTerm2, Kitty, WezTerm, Ghostty, Terminal.app)
- macOS for tool sounds (silently skipped on Linux)
MIT — see LICENSE.
Banner art for Mythos and Netrunner adapted from joeynyc/hermes-skins under MIT license.