Claude Skins

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.

View the gallery

Quick Start

1. Clone this repo:

git clone https://github.com/basicScandal/claude-skins.git

1. Run the installer:

cd claude-skins
./install.sh

1. Activate a skin:

# In Claude Code, use the /skin command
/skin nebula

# Or set a permanent default
/skin default

That's it. Missing values inherit from the default skin, so you only need to define what you want to change.

Manual Installation

If you prefer to set things up yourself:

1. Copy skins/ and personalities/ to ~/.claude/skins/
2. Copy engine/ to ~/.claude/skins/engine/
3. Make engine scripts executable: chmod +x ~/.claude/skins/engine/*.sh
4. Add hooks to your ~/.claude/settings.json (see Hooks Setup)
5. Create the /skin skill (see Skill Setup)

Available Skins

Nebula

Offensive security scanner — purple-to-orange gradient, tactical precision.

→ nebula.yaml

Mythos

AGI awakening — Greek mythology meets artificial intelligence. Eye of Providence braille art, blue and gold divine palette.

→ mythos.yaml

Netrunner

Cyberpunk netrunner — neural interface hacker aesthetic. Cyan ICE-breaking colors on black, skull braille art.

→ netrunner.yaml

Noir

1940s detective procedural — high-contrast black and cream, amber accents, hardboiled Chandler narration.

→ noir.yaml

Sensei

Minimalist Japanese ink-wash aesthetic — warm parchment, deep charcoal, vermillion hanko seal accent.

→ sensei.yaml

Mission Control

NASA retro-futurist ops console — amber phosphor on deep navy, Apollo-era mission control aesthetic.

→ mission-control.yaml

Retro86

1980s Commodore 64 nostalgia — classic C64 blue palette, 8-bit ASCII art, enthusiastic magazine voice.

→ retro86.yaml

Brutalist

The anti-skin — pure monochrome, zero decoration, no sounds, maximum terseness.

→ brutalist.yaml

Grimoire

Dark academia spellbook — deep brown parchment, golden arcane sigils, patient wizard's codex voice.

→ grimoire.yaml

What a Skin Changes

Commands

/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.

Hooks Setup

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"
}

Skill Setup

Create ~/.claude/skills/skin/SKILL.md — see engine/SKILL.md for the content.

Creating Your Own Skin

1. Copy template.yaml to skins/<name>.yaml
2. Customize colors, banner art, branding
3. Optionally add personalities/<name>.md for Claude's voice
4. Test: ~/.claude/skins/engine/activate.sh <name>

See SCHEMA.md for the full reference and CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Requirements

• 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)

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Banner art for Mythos and Netrunner adapted from joeynyc/hermes-skins under MIT license.