Appearance

Settings ▸ Appearance sets Mel's theme, zoom, font size, text cursor, and how blocks and panes are drawn. Like every settings page, changes apply immediately and persist to ~/.mel/settings.json — see the Settings overview.

Theme

Choose Dark, Light or System, then click a theme card for each mode: Mel Dark, Midnight, Graphite or Forest for dark, and Mel Light, Paper, Mist or Lilac for light. System follows your computer between the two. See Appearance for a colour preview of each theme.

Window

Zoom

A dropdown that scales the entire UI. Available steps: 80%, 90%, 100%, 110%, 125%, 150%. The default is 100%. This is a real UI zoom factor — text, chrome, and spacing all scale together, so it's the right knob if Mel feels too small on a high-DPI display or too large on a laptop. Ctrl+=, Ctrl+- and Ctrl+0 zoom from the keyboard.

Font size

The type size in the terminal and the transcript. The default is 15 pt.

Text cursor

• Shape — Bar, Block or Underline, in the prompts and the terminal.
• Blinking cursor — the cursor blinks while it waits for you to type.

Blocks

These two toggles shape how command blocks render in the scrollback:

• Show block dividers (on by default) — draws a thin hairline between consecutive blocks so each command's readout is visually separated. Turn it off for a completely flush scrollback.
• Compact block header (off by default) — folds the directory and timestamp into the command row itself instead of giving each block a separate header line. The currently selected block always keeps its full header, so you never lose context on the block you're inspecting.

Panes

• Dim inactive panes (off by default) — when your tab is split into multiple panes, panes without focus are rendered slightly darker. Useful when you run several sessions side by side and want your eye drawn to the one receiving keystrokes.

• Focus follows mouse (off by default) — moving the pointer onto a pane focuses it, with no click. Never while a button is held or text is being selected.

Graphics

If Mel's fast renderer crashed on your computer, Mel switches to a safer one by itself, and this section says so. Try the fast renderer again tries it on the next launch; if it crashes again, Mel switches back on its own.

Notes

• The toggles are the standard pill switches; green means on.
• Appearance settings are global — they apply to every tab and pane, not per session.
• If you prefer editing by hand, the backing fields in ~/.mel/settings.json are theme, theme_dark, theme_light, zoom, font_size, cursor_type, cursor_blink, show_block_dividers, compact_block_header, dim_inactive_panes and focus_follows_mouse. Use the </> Open settings file button in the settings nav to jump straight to the file.

Related

• Features — block count limits and the new-session help block
• Settings overview — where everything persists

Keyboard shortcuts

FAQ

How do I change the terminal theme? Open Settings ▸ Appearance and click a theme card. It applies at once.

Can Mel switch between light and dark with my system? Yes. Choose System and pick one dark and one light theme.

Can I change the terminal font? You can change its size (Font size, 15 pt by default). The typeface is fixed: Hack for code and terminal output.