tlc (file manager)
cub (package manager)
redbear-info (system dashboard)
redbear-netctl-console (network control)
redbear-wifictl, redbear-btctl (device control)
redbear-mtr, redbear-traceroute, redbear-nmap, redbear-hwutils (diagnostics)
any future TUI app

The palette is pure-Rust (no ratatui dep at the core), builds offline, and ships with both dark and light presets.

Quick start

# Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
redbear-tui-theme = { path = "../../../tui/redbear-tui-theme/source" }

use redbear_tui_theme::{REDBEAR_DARK, Theme};

// Render a selection row.
let bg = REDBEAR_DARK.selection_bg;  // #3652A0
let fg = REDBEAR_DARK.selection_fg;  // #F4F4F4

// Or pick a theme from the environment (REDBEAR_TUI_THEME or COLORFGBG).
let theme = Theme::from_env();

What's in the palette

The Theme struct has 33 slots organized into six families:

Family	Slots	Purpose
Surface	`background`, `surface`, `overlay_bg`, `title_bg`, `status_bg`, `gauge_bg`	6 slots; 3-tier raised surface; chrome bars
Text	`text`, `muted`, `dim`, `border`	4 slots; body text + de-emphasis
Accent	`accent`, `accent_soft`, `title_accent`, `pink`	4 slots; brand red + secondary accents
Semantic	`success`, `warning`, `error`, `info`	4 slots; status colours (must pair with glyphs)
File types	`directory`, `executable`, `symlink`, `device`, `device_warn`, `hidden`	6 slots; tlc file-type colours
Selection	`selection_{bg,fg}`, `cursor_{bg,fg}`, `marked_{bg,fg}`, `buttonbar_{bg,fg}`	8 slots; tlc selection/cursor/marked/buttonbar

All 33 slots are sourced from the shared Theme — no consumer hard-codes brand hex values.

Brand red

#B52430 is the Red Bear OS brand red. It is identical in both dark and light themes. This matches the convention of macOS, KDE, GNOME, and Windows: the brand stays constant; only the background flips.

WCAG 2.1 AA contrast (verified)

Pair	Dark ratio	Light ratio	Pass
`text` on `background`	17.51	15.86	AA-body ✓
`text` on `accent`	5.86	6.44	AA-body ✓
`muted` on `background`	8.33	5.82	AA-body ✓
`border` on `background`	4.53	2.27	AA-body (dark) / AA-large (light)
`dim` on `background`	2.91	3.81	Intentionally below AA-body (de-emphasis)

The only intentional AA-body failure is dim/hidden. By design: de-emphasis is the function. Apps must not use dim for body text.

Color-blindness

success vs error: distinguishable for all three common deficiencies.
warning vs error: confusable for protanopia and deuteranopia. Mitigation: every warning must be accompanied by a ⚠ glyph prefix, every error by ✗.
info vs success: confusable for tritanopia. Mitigation: keep info and success on separate lines in status bars.
pink is for highlights (favorites, active link). Mitigation: when used, also prepend ★ (U+2605).

Apps render these as styles with Modifier::BOLD on the semantic colours; the styles module (planned v0.2) will provide ready-made success_style(), warning_style(), etc. as one-liners.

256-color + 16-color fallback

For terminals that don't support truecolor, the fallback module provides:

fallback_256(rgb: Rgb) -> u8 — closest XTerm-256 index (0..=255)
fallback_16_name(rgb: Rgb) -> &'static str — closest ANSI-16 name

fallback_256 uses a weighted Euclidean distance in sRGB space (small luminance penalty to keep the returned colour visually close). Verified mappings:

Slot	Truecolor	256-idx	16-name
`background`	`#0E0E12`	233	Black
`text`	`#F4F4F4`	255	Bright White
`accent`	`#B52430`	125 or 9	Bright Red
`success`	`#74C793`	114	Bright Black
`warning`	`#FFBF57`	215	Bright Yellow

Migrating an existing TUI app

Add the dep to Cargo.toml:

redbear-tui-theme = { path = "../../../tui/redbear-tui-theme/source" }

Replace local Color::Rgb(r, g, b) constants with REDBEAR_DARK.<slot> (or Rgb(r,g,b) if you need a custom value).
Convert to your TUI lib's colour type: ratatui::style::Color::Rgb(t.bg.0, t.bg.1, t.bg.2).
Replace any local Theme struct with pub use redbear_tui_theme::Theme;.
Add redbear-tui-theme to the cookbook's cascade list in local/scripts/rebuild-cascade.sh.

Build

The crate has zero required dependencies. It builds offline:

cd local/recipes/tui/redbear-tui-theme/source
cargo build --release
cargo test              # 11 unit tests (palette + fallback) + 1 doc test

The recipe lives at local/recipes/tui/redbear-tui-theme/recipe.toml and stages the resulting libredbear_tui_theme.rlib into ${COOKBOOK_STAGE}/usr/lib/ so the cookbook's repo artifact check passes. The recipe is symlinked into the cookbook search path at recipes/tui/redbear-tui-theme (per local/AGENTS.md "Local recipe priority vs upstream WIP"). Downstream TUI apps depend on the crate via a Cargo path dependency — they do not install it as a binary.

Downstream consumers (as of 2026-06-13)

App	Status	Notes
`tlc`	✅ wired	`tlc/source/Cargo.toml` adds `redbear-tui-theme = { path = "../../../tui/redbear-tui-theme/source" }`. The 22-field `Theme` struct in `src/terminal/color.rs` is preserved (TOML skin deserializer still works); `DEFAULT_THEME` and `LIGHT_THEME` are now built from the shared `REDBEAR_DARK`/`REDBEAR_LIGHT` via a const `as_color(rgb)` adapter.
`cub`	✅ wired	`local/recipes/system/cub/source/cub/src/tui/theme.rs` is now a 33-field `RedBearTheme` newtype constructed from `redbear_tui_theme::REDBEAR_DARK` via a const `as_color(rgb)` adapter. The 19 `*_style()` methods are preserved as inherent methods; all 33 slots are sourced from the shared palette. 2 new tests verify byte-identical brand red and 19 non-empty styles.
`redbear-info`	🚧 TODO	`local/recipes/system/redbear-info/source/src/tui.rs` uses the legacy ANSI-16 palette (`Color::Red`, `Color::DarkGray`, etc.). Migration is non-trivial because the file uses semantic colors only, not slot names.
`redbear-netctl-console`	🚧 TODO	`local/recipes/system/redbear-netctl-console/source/src/ui.rs` uses the legacy ANSI-16 palette. Same migration story as `redbear-info`.

License

MIT — same as Red Bear OS.