description: Pick the terminal background color Ralph uses to distinguish its terminal from Claude Code.

Terminal Color

The user wants to change Ralph's terminal background tint - the color applied during npx agentic-loop run to visually distinguish Ralph's terminal from Claude Code.

Note: This only works in macOS Terminal.app. On other terminals (iTerm2, VS Code, Linux), Ralph skips tinting automatically.

Step 1: Show Current Color

Read .ralph/config.json and check for terminalTint. Show the current setting:

• If set: "Current tint: {value}"
• If not set: "Current tint: #1a1a2e (default dark navy)"

Step 2: Ask Color Preference

Use AskUserQuestion:

Question: "What color should Ralph's terminal background be?" Header: "Tint color" Options:

• Dark Navy (default) - "#1a1a2e - cool and distinct, easy on the eyes"
• Dark Teal - "#1a2e2e - subtle blue-green undertone"
• Dark Red - "#2e1a1a - warm undertone, clearly different"
• Off - "Disable terminal tinting entirely"

If the user selects "Other", ask them to provide a hex color (e.g., #2e2e1a).

Step 3: Validate (if custom hex)

If the user provided a custom hex:

• Must match # followed by exactly 6 hex characters (/^#[0-9a-fA-F]{6}$/)
• If invalid, say "That doesn't look like a valid hex color (e.g., #1a1a2e). Try again." and re-ask.

Step 4: Save to Config

Read .ralph/config.json, set the terminalTint field, and write it back.

• If a color was chosen: Set "terminalTint": "#xxxxxx"
• If "Off" was chosen: Set "terminalTint": "off"

Use jq to update:

jq --arg color "THE_HEX_VALUE" '.terminalTint = $color' .ralph/config.json > .ralph/config.json.tmp && mv .ralph/config.json.tmp .ralph/config.json

Step 5: Preview (macOS Terminal.app only)

If running in Terminal.app, apply the color immediately so the user can see it:

# Apply preview (will be restored when Claude session ends)
osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to set background color of front window to {R, G, B}' 2>/dev/null

Where R, G, B are the hex values converted to 16-bit (multiply each 8-bit value by 257).

If "Off" was chosen, skip the preview.

Step 6: Confirm

Say:

"Done! Ralph will use #xxxxxx as the terminal tint.

Next time you run npx agentic-loop run, the terminal background will change to this color. It restores to your original background when the loop ends.

Run /color again anytime to change it."

If "Off" was chosen, say:

"Done! Terminal tinting is now disabled. Ralph will run without changing your terminal background."