AERC-STYLESETS(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual AERC-STYLESETS(7) NAME aerc-stylesets - styleset file specification for aerc(1) SYNOPSIS aerc uses a simple configuration syntax to configure the styleset for its ui. STYLESET CONFIGURATION The styleset is described as <object>.<attribute> = <value> pairs. For example, in the line below, the foreground color of the style object msglist_unread is set to cornflowerblue msglist_unread.fg = cornflowerblue The configuration also allows wildcard matching of the keys to configure multiple style objects at a time. ATTRIBUTES The following options are available to be modified for each of the style objects. <object>.fg = <color> The foreground color of the style object is set. <object>.bg = <color> The background color of the style object is set. <object>.bold = true|false|toggle The bold attribute of the style object is set/unset. <object>.blink = true|false|toggle The blink attribute of the style object is set/unset. The terminal needs to support blinking text. <object>.underline = true|false|toggle The underline attribute of the style object is set/unset. The terminal needs to support underline text. <object>.italic = true|false|toggle The italic attribute of the style object is set/unset. The terminal needs to support italic text. <object>.dim = true|false|toggle The dim attribute of the style object is set/unset. The terminal needs to support half-bright text. <object>.reverse = true|false|toggle Reverses the color of the style object. Exchanges the foreground and background colors. If the value is false, it doesn't change anything. <object>.normal = true All the attributes of the style object are unset. The value doesn't matter. <object>.default = true Set the style object to the default style of the context. Usually based on the terminal. The value doesn't matter. STYLE OBJECTS The style objects represent the various ui elements or ui instances for styling. +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | Style Object | Description | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | default | The default style object | | | used for normal ui elements | | | while not using specialized | | | configuration. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | error | The style used to show er- | | | rors. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | warning | The style used when showing | | | warnings. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | success | The style used for success | | | messages. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | title | The style object used to | | | style titles in ui ele- | | | ments. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | header | The style object used to | | | style headers in ui ele- | | | ments. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | statusline_default | The default style applied | | | to the statusline. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | statusline_error | The style used for error | | | messages in statusline. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | statusline_success | The style used for success | | | messages in statusline. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_default | The default style for mes- | | | sages in a message list. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_unread | Unread messages in a mes- | | | sage list. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_read | Read messages in a message | | | list. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_flagged | The messages with the | | | flagged flag. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_deleted | The messages marked as | | | deleted. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_marked | The messages with the | | | marked flag. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_result | The messages which match | | | the current search. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_answered | The messages marked as an- | | | swered. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_forwarded | The messages marked as for- | | | warded. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_gutter | The message list gutter. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_pill | The message list scrollbar. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_thread_folded | Visible messages that have | | | folded thread children. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_thread_context | The messages not matching | | | the mailbox / query, dis- | | | played for context. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | msglist_thread_orphan | Threaded messages that have | | | a missing parent message. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | dirlist_default | The default style for di- | | | rectories in the directory | | | list. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | dirlist_unread | The style used for directo- | | | ries with unread messages | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | dirlist_recent | The style used for directo- | | | ries with recent messages | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | part_switcher | Background for the part | | | switcher in the message | | | viewer. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | part_filename | Attachment file name in the | | | part switcher. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | part_mimetype | Attachment/part MIME type | | | in the part switcher. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | completion_default | The default style for the | | | completion engine. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | completion_description | Completion item descrip- | | | tions. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | completion_gutter | The completion gutter. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | completion_pill | The completion pill. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | tab | The style for the tab bar. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | stack | The style for ui stack ele- | | | ment. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | spinner | The style for the loading | | | spinner. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | border | The style used to draw bor- | | | ders (only the bg color is | | | used unless you customize | | | border-char-vertical and/or | | | border-char-horizontal in | | | aerc.conf). | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | selector_default | The default style for the | | | selector ui element. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | selector_focused | The focused item in a se- | | | lector ui element. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ | selector_chooser | The item chooser in a se- | | | lector ui element. | +------------------------+-----------------------------+ These next style objects only affect the built-in colorize filter and must be declared under a [viewer] section of the styleset file. +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | Style Object | Description | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | url | URLs. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | header | RFC-822-like header names. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | signature | Email signatures. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | diff_meta | Patch diff meta lines. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | diff_chunk | Patch diff chunks. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | diff_chunk_func | Patch diff chunk function | | | names. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | diff_add | Patch diff added lines. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | diff_del | Patch diff deleted lines. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | quote_1 | First level quoted text. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | quote_2 | Second level quoted text. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | quote_3 | Third level quoted text. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | quote_4 | Fourth level quoted text. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ | quote_x | Above fourth level quoted | | | text. | +-----------------+-----------------------------+ User defined styles can be used to style arbitrary strings in go-templates (see .Style in aerc-templates(7)). User styles must be defined in the [user] ini section. Styles can be referenced by their name (e.g. red.fg is named "red"). Example: [user] red.fg=red User styles are layered with other styles applied to the context in which they are rendered. The user style colors (fg and/or bg) will only be effec- tive if the context style does not define any. Other boolean attributes will be merged with the underlying style boolean attributes. For example, if the context style is: fg=red bold And the inline style is: fg=yellow italic underline The effective style will be: fg=red bold italic underline FNMATCH STYLE WILDCARD MATCHING The styleset configuration can be made simpler by using the fnmatch style wildcard matching for the style object. The special characters used in the fnmatch wildcards are: +---------+-----------------------------+ | Pattern | Meaning | +---------+-----------------------------+ | * | Matches everything | +---------+-----------------------------+ | ? | Matches any single charac- | | | ter | +---------+-----------------------------+ For example, the following wildcards can be made using this syntax. +--------------------+-----------------------------+ | Example | Description | +--------------------+-----------------------------+ | *.fg = blue | Set the foreground color of | | | all style objects to blue. | +--------------------+-----------------------------+ | *list.bg = hotpink | Set the background color of | | | all style objects that end | | | in list to hotpink. | +--------------------+-----------------------------+ Note that the statements in a given styleset are parsed in the order in which they are written. That means that with the following styleset: msglist_marked.fg = pink msglist_*.fg = white The msglist_marked.fg attribute will be set to white. SELECTED MODIFIER The selected modifier can be applied to any style object. The style pro- vided for the selected modifier is applied on top of the style object it corresponds to. If you would like to make sure message that are flagged as read in the ms- glist appear in yellow foreground and black background. You can specify that with this: msglist_default.selected.fg = yellow msglist_default.selected.bg = black If we specify the global style selected modifier using fnmatch as below: *.selected.reverse = toggle This toggles the reverse switch for selected version of all the style ob- jects. selected objects inherit from all attributes of their non-selected counter- parts. selected statements are parsed after non-selected ones and effec- tively override the attributes of the non-selected style object. LAYERED STYLES Some styles, (currently the msglist_* and dirlist_* ones) are applied in layers. If a style differs from the base (in this case *list_default) then that style applies, unless overridden by a higher layer. If fg and bg col- ors are not defined explicitly (or defined to the default color) they will be considered as "transparent" and the colors from the lower layer will be used instead. The order that msglist_* styles are applied in is, from first to last: 1. msglist_default 2. msglist_unread 3. msglist_read 4. msglist_answered 5. msglist_forwarded 6. msglist_flagged 7. msglist_deleted 8. msglist_result 9. msglist_thread_folded 10. msglist_thread_context 11. msglist_thread_orphan 12. msglist_marked So, the marked style will override all other msglist styles. The order for dirlist_* styles is: 1. dirlist_default 2. dirlist_unread 3. dirlist_recent DYNAMIC MESSAGE LIST STYLES All msglist_* styles can be defined for specific email header values. The syntax is as follows: msglist_<name>.<header>,<header_value>.<attribute> = <attr_value> If <header_value> starts with a tilde character ~, it will be interpreted as a regular expression. If you are writing regular expressions that try to match with . or . you need to wrap like this ~/<expression>/. <header>,<header_value> can be specified multiple times to narrow down matches to more than one email header value. In that case, all given head- ers must match for the dynamic style to apply. Examples: msglist*.X-Sourcehut-Patchset-Update,APPROVED.fg = green msglist*.X-Sourcehut-Patchset-Update,NEEDS_REVISION.fg = yellow msglist*.X-Sourcehut-Patchset-Update,REJECTED.fg = red "msglist_*.Subject,~^(\[[w-]+]\s*)?\[(RFC )?PATCH.fg" = #ffffaf "msglist_*.Subject,~^(\[[w-]+]\s*)?\[(RFC )?PATCH.selected.fg" = #ffffaf "msglist_*.From,~^Bob.Subject,~^(\[[w-]+]\s*)?\[(RFC )?PATCH.selected.fg" = #ffffaf "msglist_*.List-ID,~/lists.sr.ht/selected.fg" = blue When a dynamic style is matched to an email header, it will be used in pri- ority compared to its non-dynamic counterpart. Provided the following styleset: msglist_marked.fg = blue msglist_*.Subject,~foobar.fg = red An email with foobar in its subject will be colored in red all the time, since msglist_* also applies to msglist_marked. When multiple <header>,<header_value> pairs are given, the last style which matches all given patterns will be applied. Provided the following style- set: msglist_*.From,~^Bob.Subject,~foobar.fg = red msglist_*.From,~^Bob.fg = blue An email from Bob with foobar in its subject will be colored in blue, since the second style is a full match too. COLORS The color values are set using any of the following methods: default The color is set as per the system or terminal default. <Color name> Any w3c approved color name is used to set colors for the style. <Hex code> Hexcode for a color can be used. The format must be #XXXXXX. <Dec number> Color based on the terminal palette index. Valid numbers are between 0 and 255. DEFAULTS Before parsing a styleset, it is first initialized with the following de- faults: *.selected.bg = 12 *.selected.fg = 15 *.selected.bold = true statusline_*.dim = true *warning.dim = false *warning.bold = true *warning.fg = 11 *success.dim = false *success.bold = true *success.fg = 10 *error.dim = false *error.bold = true *error.fg = 9 border.bg = 12 border.fg = 15 title.bg = 12 title.fg = 15 title.bold = true header.fg = 4 header.bold = true msglist_unread.bold = true msglist_deleted.dim = true msglist_marked.bg = 6 msglist_marked.fg = 15 msglist_pill.bg = 12 msglist_pill.fg = 15 part_mimetype.fg = 12 selector_chooser.bold = true selector_focused.bold = true selector_focused.bg = 12 selector_focused.fg = 15 completion_*.bg = 8 completion_pill.bg = 12 completion_default.fg = 15 completion_description.fg = 15 completion_description.dim = true [viewer] url.underline = true url.fg = 3 header.bold = true header.fg = 4 signature.dim = true signature.fg = 4 diff_meta.bold = true diff_chunk.fg = 6 diff_chunk_func.fg = 6 diff_chunk_func.dim = true diff_add.fg = 2 diff_del.fg = 1 quote_1.fg = 6 quote_2.fg = 4 quote_3.fg = 6 quote_3.dim = true quote_4.fg = 4 quote_4.dim = true quote_x.fg = 5 quote_x.dim = true You can choose either to reset everything (except in the [viewer] section) by starting your styleset with these two lines: *.default=true *.normal=true Or selectively override style object attributes. If you want to also reset the [viewer] section, you need to insert the same two lines: [viewer] *.default=true *.normal=true SEE ALSO aerc(1) aerc-config(5) AUTHORS Originally created by Drew DeVault and maintained by Robin Jarry who is as- sisted by other open source contributors. For more information about aerc development, see https://sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc/. 2026-08-30 AERC-STYLESETS(7)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | STYLESET CONFIGURATION | ATTRIBUTES | STYLE OBJECTS | FNMATCH STYLE WILDCARD MATCHING | SELECTED MODIFIER | LAYERED STYLES | DYNAMIC MESSAGE LIST STYLES | COLORS | DEFAULTS | SEE ALSO | AUTHORS
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