Is there any way to use different colors in statusformatl without using ansi escape codes?

[Chlebqowy]

text

[abderrahimchadli]

For the whole status line, yes: use a custom colorscheme rather than escape codes. For different colors for individual fields inside statusformatl, I don't see a built-in markup/directive for that in the current renderer.

The options documentation describes $() as value substitution. In statusline.go, those substitutions produce text, then the left and right portions are drawn using the same statusLineStyle. A plugin function returning a status string goes through that same rendering path.

To change the whole bar, copy your existing theme to a custom .micro file under ~/.config/micro/colorschemes/, give it a new name, and change/add these entries:

color-link statusline "black,cyan"
color-link statusline.inactive "white,black"

Then select that custom theme with Ctrl-e, followed by set colorscheme YOUR_THEME_NAME. The colorscheme documentation describes these groups and the foreground,background syntax. Copying the existing theme retains the rest of its colors.

If you mean something like a green filename followed by a red line number in the same active bar, these theme entries won't do that; it would need rendering support beyond the documented format-string substitutions. Which Micro version are you using?

[Chlebqowy]

I already have a custom color scheme but I want to mix different colors in it.

Also I know about $() but that would need ansi color codes to change the color which is not ideal

And ```
$ micro --version
Version: 2.0.15
Commit hash: rpmbuild
Compiled on 2026-07-27T01:07:30Z

[abderrahimchadli]

Thanks for clarifying. You're right: changing the whole bar's theme doesn't solve mixing colors within it.

I checked the upstream 2.0.15 renderer. For the ordinary status line, it substitutes $() values, selects one statusLineStyle, and passes that same style to screen.SetContent for the characters on both sides. There isn't a per-field color directive in that path. It also doesn't parse ANSI/SGR escapes there, so I shouldn't suggest embedding them as a supported solution.

For stock 2.0.15, different colors within statusformatl aren't available through the colorscheme or format-string settings alone. A Lua status function returning text doesn't add styling metadata either. This would need a renderer change, for example support for styled segments or inline references to theme groups. That's a feature request rather than a missing setting. Your rpmbuild package could carry downstream patches; this conclusion is from the upstream release source.

[Chlebqowy]

Thanks!