Feature request: per-project persistent color/theme settings

[jobimdev]

Feature Request: Per-project persistent color & terminal theme

Problem

I work with multiple different projects simultaneously (games, websites, apps, etc.) and I often have several Claude Code CLI sessions open on my PC at the same time. Right now, there's no way to visually distinguish which session belongs to which project at a glance.

The /color command exists and works great — but it's session-only. Every time I open a new session, I have to manually run /color pink (or red, blue, etc.) again. There's no way to persist this per project.

Proposed Solution

Add a color (or theme) key to the project-level settings (.claude/settings.json or .claude/settings.local.json) that automatically applies when Claude Code starts in that directory.

Example .claude/settings.local.json:

{
  "color": "pink"
}

Ideally, this would also change the terminal background color via OSC escape codes, so that just by navigating (cd) into a project directory, the entire terminal appearance shifts — background color + Claude Code prompt color — making it instantly obvious which project you're in.

Why This Matters

When you're jumping between 3-4 CLI sessions across different projects, they all look identical. A per-directory color setting would make multitasking much easier and reduce the chance of running commands in the wrong project.

Current Workarounds (and why they don't work)

• /color pink — works but resets every session, no persistence
• OSC escape codes in .bashrc — changes terminal background, but Claude Code's TUI paints over it
• Windows Terminal profiles — only works if you manually pick the right profile each time, doesn't auto-switch on cd

Summary

A simple per-project "color" key in settings would solve this cleanly. Bonus points if it also emits OSC codes to theme the terminal background automatically.

Thanks!

[kirugan]

Hi @jobimdev I have a similar problem! So my workflow is the following: I use iTerm2 with different profiles for different directories and each profile has different color scheme.

For example:
here is how my iTerm window looks like when I work on projects related to work:

and here is for personal pet projects:

So I have to switch inside claude code /theme everytime I change a directory, sometimes I forget about it. It would be great if we will be able to set theme per project in addition to default (global) one.

[lumincui]

Just to add a data point on the "OSC codes in .bashrc get painted over by the TUI" observation — that's true if you set the color once at shell init, but it works fine if you re-emit OSC 11 on Claude Code lifecycle events instead. Claude only repaints the TUI region, not the surrounding pane background.

I have a hook that does this for a different cut of the same problem (idle/blocked/working rather than per-project): https://github.com/lumincui/cc-iterm2-pane-color. Re-coloring on Stop / PermissionRequest survives Claude's redraw because it fires after each render cycle.

So the OSC half of your "bonus points" ask is technically achievable today via a hook keyed on SessionStart + cwd → color lookup. The persistent .claude/settings.json "color": "pink" half still needs native support — manually editing a hook script per project isn't a real solution.