vivid

vivid is a generator for the LS_COLORS environment variable, which controls how ls, eza, fd, and other tools colour-code files in the terminal. Instead of hand-crafting a long, unreadable LS_COLORS string, vivid lets you pick from a library of curated themes and generates the correct value for you.

Features

• Rich theme library — ships with themes like Molokai, Solarized, Nord, dracula, one-dark, and many more
• YAML-based file type database — file types and their categories are defined in a human-readable YAML file, making it easy to add custom extensions
• 24-bit true colour support — generates both truecolor and 8-bit (256-colour) output depending on your terminal
• Consistent colour schemes — ensures all tools that respect LS_COLORS share the same palette
• Easy to extend — add your own file categories and colour rules by overriding the built-in database

Installation

cargo install vivid

Or via your system package manager:

# macOS
brew install vivid

# Arch Linux
pacman -S vivid

# Nix
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.vivid

# Debian / Ubuntu (Debian 12+)
apt install vivid

# Fedora
dnf install vivid

Usage

# Print the LS_COLORS string for a given theme
vivid generate molokai

# List all available themes
vivid themes

# Apply a theme in your current shell session
export LS_COLORS="$(vivid generate molokai)"

Tip: Set it permanently

Add this to your ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or equivalent:

export LS_COLORS="$(vivid generate one-dark)"

Once set, any tool that respects LS_COLORS — including ls, eza, fd, and tree — will automatically use the chosen colour scheme. Pair it with eza --icons for a particularly polished terminal experience.

Available Themes

Some popular included themes:

• one-dark — based on Atom's One Dark
• molokai — based on the classic Molokai Vim theme
• dracula — the popular dark Dracula palette
• nord — the cool, bluish Nord colour scheme
• solarized-dark / solarized-light — the iconic Solarized palette
• catppuccin-mocha — the trendy Catppuccin Mocha pastel theme
• ayu — a simple, bright colour scheme inspired by Ayu for editors