Customization¶

CrossTerm is highly customizable. You can change themes, fonts, keybindings, and terminal appearance to match your workflow.

Theming¶

Built-in Themes¶

CrossTerm ships with eight built-in themes:

Dark — Default dark theme with blue accents
Light — Clean light theme for bright environments
Solarized Dark — Ethan Schoonover's warm dark palette
Solarized Light — Ethan Schoonover's warm light palette
Dracula — Popular purple-accented dark theme
Nord — Arctic, north-bluish color palette
Monokai Pro — Rich, vibrant dark theme
High Contrast — Maximum readability for accessibility

Switch themes from: 1. Title Bar — Click the theme toggle button (sun/moon icon) to cycle through Dark → Light → System. 2. Settings — Open Settings (Ctrl+, / ⌘,) → Appearance → Theme. 3. Command Palette — Press Ctrl+Shift+P / ⌘⇧P and type "Switch to Light/Dark Theme".

System Theme¶

Select System to follow your operating system's light/dark mode preference. CrossTerm listens for prefers-color-scheme changes and updates automatically.

Importing Custom Themes¶

You can import custom themes from JSON files:

Open Settings → Appearance → Import Theme.
Select a .json theme file from your filesystem.
The theme is loaded and applied immediately.

Custom theme files must follow the CrossTerm design token schema. See src/themes/tokens.json for the full token reference. A valid theme file includes:

{
  "name": "My Theme",
  "variant": "dark",
  "tokens": {
    "surface-primary": "#1a1b26",
    "surface-secondary": "#24283b",
    "text-primary": "#c0caf5",
    "accent-primary": "#7aa2f7"
  }
}

Design Token System¶

CrossTerm uses a three-layer token indirection system:

CSS Custom Properties — Raw values defined at the :root level.
Tailwind Config — Maps tokens to Tailwind utility classes.
Utility Classes — Used in components (e.g., bg-surface-primary, text-accent-primary).

This ensures theme changes propagate consistently across the entire UI.

Terminal Appearance¶

Font Settings¶

Configure terminal fonts from Settings → Terminal:

Font Family — Default: JetBrains Mono. Any monospace font installed on your system works.
Font Size — Default: 14px. Range: 8–32px.
Line Height — Default: 1.2. Adjust for tighter or looser line spacing.
Letter Spacing — Default: 0. Fine-tune character spacing.
Font Ligatures — Enable/disable programming ligatures (e.g., =>, !=).

Cursor¶

Cursor Style — Block, Underline, or Bar.
Cursor Blink — Enable or disable cursor blinking.

Opacity¶

Adjust terminal background transparency from Settings → Terminal → Opacity. Values range from 0 (fully transparent) to 1 (fully opaque).

Bell Mode¶

Choose how the terminal bell character is rendered:

None — Silent.
Visual — Brief flash on the terminal pane.
Audio — System beep sound.

Keybindings¶

Default Shortcuts¶

CrossTerm provides a comprehensive set of keyboard shortcuts. View them all by pressing Ctrl+/ / ⌘/, or open the Command Palette and search "Keyboard Shortcuts".

Custom Keybindings¶

To customize a keyboard shortcut:

Open the Keyboard Shortcuts overlay (Ctrl+/ / ⌘/).
Shortcuts marked with (custom) have been modified from defaults.
Custom keybindings are stored per-profile and sync across sessions.

Exporting Shortcuts¶

Click the Print / Export button in the Keyboard Shortcuts overlay to download a text file with all your current shortcuts for reference or sharing.

Tab Title Format¶

Customize how tab titles are displayed from Settings → Terminal → Tab Title Format. Use template variables:

{name} — Session name
{host} — Remote hostname
{user} — Username
{shell} — Shell name

Example: {user}@{host} displays as root@server1.

Scrollback Buffer¶

Configure the number of lines kept in the terminal scrollback buffer from Settings → Terminal → Scrollback Lines. Default is 10,000 lines. Higher values use more memory.

GPU Acceleration¶

Enable or disable hardware-accelerated rendering from Settings → Terminal → GPU Acceleration. Enabled by default for smooth performance. Disable if you experience rendering issues on older hardware.