Agent skill

Write Zot Themes

by patriceckhart in patriceckhart/zot

Help the user create, install, or package zot themes, including theme-only extensions.

MITAuto-check passed

Install Write Zot Themes

skills CLI
$ npx skills add patriceckhart/zot --skill write-zot-themes -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install patriceckhart/zot write-zot-themes --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/patriceckhart/zot.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/packages/agent/skills/builtin/write-zot-themes .claude/skills/write-zot-themes && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
write-zot-themes
GitHub stars
351
Token cost
~2.1k tokens
SKILL.md length
601 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
2
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Help the user create, install, or package zot themes, including theme-only extensions.

  • SKILL.md covers What a zot theme is, Minimal examples, Full theme shape and Color fields, plus 5 more sections
  • Calls python3

What it does

Write Zot Themes is an agent skill from patriceckhart/zot. Help the user create, install, or package zot themes, including theme-only extensions.

Its SKILL.md is about 2.1k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

The repository describes itself as: Yet another coding agent harness, lightweight and written in go. The licence is MIT.

Example prompts

  • “/write-zot-themes”

Requirements

  • Python 3

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 0f23566. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • python3

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Write Zot Themes loads about 2.1k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 26 tokens; SKILL.md has 601 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~26
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.1k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from patriceckhart/zot at commit 0f23566, republished under its MIT licence (© patriceckhart). 601 words, ~2,096 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/write-zot-themes/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
write-zot-themes
description
Help the user create, install, or package zot themes, including theme-only extensions.

Writing zot themes

Use this skill when the user asks for help creating, editing, installing, debugging, or packaging a zot color theme. Read this skill before generating a theme file or advising on theme extension layout.

What a zot theme is

A zot theme is a JSON file that overrides any subset of zot's built-in light/dark theme values. Theme files are intentionally permissive: nothing is required. A file may contain only colors, only spinner settings, only syntax colors, or only metadata. Missing values always inherit from the built-in detected light/dark default.

User themes are discovered from:

text
$ZOT_HOME/themes/*.json

Extension themes are discovered in-place from loaded extension dirs:

text
$ZOT_HOME/extensions/<extension>/theme.json
$ZOT_HOME/extensions/<extension>/themes/theme.json
<project>/.zot/extensions/<extension>/theme.json
<project>/.zot/extensions/<extension>/themes/theme.json

zot does not copy extension themes into $ZOT_HOME/themes; extension owned themes stay in the extension directory. The settings picker stores an absolute path for extension-owned themes and loads that file directly.

Minimal examples

Empty / metadata-only theme

Valid; inherits all colors/spinner/syntax from zot defaults.

json
{
  "name": "my-theme",
  "description": "Metadata only; all visuals inherit zot defaults."
}
Change one color for both light and dark
json
{
  "name": "pink-accent",
  "colors": {
    "accent": 204
  }
}
Change one color per mode
json
{
  "name": "split-accent",
  "colors": {
    "dark": { "accent": 204 },
    "light": { "accent": 161 }
  }
}
Spinner-only theme

Top-level spinner overrides are valid and apply to both modes.

json
{
  "name": "custom-spinner",
  "description": "Only changes the busy spinner.",
  "spinner_frames": ["◢", "◣", "◤", "◥"],
  "spinner_messages": ["working"],
  "spinner_interval_ms": 120
}
Dark-only theme also works in light terminals

If colors.light is missing, zot applies colors.dark overrides on top of the built-in light default when running in light mode. The inverse is also true: if dark is missing but light exists, light settings are used on dark defaults.

json
{
  "name": "custom-spinner",
  "description": "An alternative spinner for zot that only displays a single spinner text.",
  "colors": {
    "dark": {
      "spinner_frames": ["◢", "◣", "◤", "◥"],
      "spinner_messages": ["working"],
      "spinner_interval_ms": 120
    }
  }
}

Full theme shape

All fields below are optional.

json
{
  "name": "my-theme",
  "description": "Shown in /settings → color theme.",
  "color_descriptions": {
    "accent": "Optional documentation for humans. zot ignores this object."
  },
  "colors": {
    "dark": {
      "fg": 253,
      "muted": 244,
      "accent": 111,
      "user": 180,
      "user_bubble_bg": "#42454b",
      "user_bubble_fg": 248,
      "assistant": 117,
      "tool": 114,
      "tool_out": 245,
      "error": 203,
      "warning": 214,
      "spinner": 183,
      "selection_bg": 24,
      "selection_fg": 231,
      "spinner_frames": ["⠋", "⠙", "⠚", "⠞", "⠖", "⠦", "⠴", "⠲", "⠳", "⠓"],
      "spinner_messages": ["thinking", "working"],
      "spinner_interval_ms": 80,
      "syntax_base_style": "monokai",
      "syntax": {
        "keyword": "#81a1c1 bold",
        "keyword_constant": "#81a1c1",
        "keyword_declaration": "#81a1c1",
        "keyword_namespace": "#81a1c1",
        "keyword_reserved": "#81a1c1 bold",
        "keyword_type": "#88c0d0",
        "name_builtin": "#88c0d0",
        "name_function": "#8fbcbb",
        "name_class": "#a3be8c bold",
        "name_decorator": "#b48ead",
        "literal_string": "#a3be8c",
        "literal_string_escape": "#bf616a",
        "literal_number": "#d08770",
        "comment": "#616e88 italic",
        "comment_preproc": "#b48ead",
        "operator": "#eceff4",
        "punctuation": "#d8dee9",
        "text": "#e5e9f0"
      }
    },
    "light": {
      "fg": 236,
      "muted": 244,
      "accent": 33
    }
  }
}

You may also put overrides directly at the top level, or directly under colors, when they should apply to both modes:

json
{
  "name": "tiny",
  "accent": 204,
  "colors": {
    "spinner_messages": ["shipping"]
  }
}

Color fields

  • fg — default foreground text.
  • muted — secondary text, dividers, gutters, inactive hints.
  • accent — prompt bar, bullets, links, headings, active markers.
  • user — user role label color; mostly compatibility.
  • user_bubble_bg — background behind user message rows.
  • user_bubble_fg — foreground inside user message rows.
  • assistant — assistant/zot accent and spinner text.
  • tool — tool names, success marks, diff additions.
  • tool_out — plain tool-output text.
  • error — errors, refused calls, diff deletions.
  • warning — warnings and high context-usage state.
  • spinner — reserved spinner color slot.
  • selection_bg — highlighted row background.
  • selection_fg — highlighted row foreground.

Most color fields are xterm-256 indexes (0–255).

user_bubble_bg supports richer terminal color forms:

json
254
"#42454b"
{ "mode": "256", "index": 254 }
{ "mode": "ansi", "index": 100 }
{ "mode": "rgb", "r": 66, "g": 69, "b": 75 }
Show full SKILL.md (258 more words)Show less

Spinner fields

Spinner settings can appear at top level, under colors, or under colors.dark / colors.light.

  • spinner_frames — list of frame strings. Use single-cell glyphs when possible so status-bar alignment stays clean.
  • spinner_messages — list of messages; zot chooses one per turn.
  • spinner_interval_ms — frame interval in milliseconds; must be positive. Missing/invalid falls back to 80ms.

Example:

json
{
  "spinner_frames": ["◐", "◓", "◑", "◒"],
  "spinner_messages": ["shipping pixels", "warming edge cache"],
  "spinner_interval_ms": 120
}

Syntax fields

Syntax highlighting uses Chroma style entries. Values may include attributes after the color, such as bold, italic, or underline.

Common fields:

  • keyword
  • keyword_constant
  • keyword_declaration
  • keyword_namespace
  • keyword_reserved
  • keyword_type
  • name_builtin
  • name_function
  • name_class
  • name_decorator
  • literal_string
  • literal_string_escape
  • literal_number
  • comment
  • comment_preproc
  • operator
  • punctuation
  • text

Example:

json
{
  "colors": {
    "dark": {
      "syntax_base_style": "monokai",
      "syntax": {
        "keyword": "#f05b8d",
        "name_function": "#b675f1",
        "literal_string": "#58c760",
        "comment": "#a1a1a1 italic"
      }
    }
  }
}

Installing a user theme

bash
mkdir -p "$ZOT_HOME/themes"
cp my-theme.json "$ZOT_HOME/themes/my-theme.json"

Then open /settings and choose color theme. zot switches theme immediately and persists the selection in $ZOT_HOME/config.json.

If a selected theme file is deleted, zot resets the setting to the built-in auto/default theme.

Theme-only extensions

A zot extension can exist only to ship a theme. No slash command, subprocess, or executable is required when the extension contains a valid theme file.

Layout:

text
$ZOT_HOME/extensions/my-theme-extension/
├── extension.json
└── theme.json

or:

text
$ZOT_HOME/extensions/my-theme-extension/
├── extension.json
└── themes/
    └── theme.json

extension.json for a theme-only extension:

json
{
  "name": "my-theme-extension",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Ships a zot color theme",
  "enabled": true
}

No exec is needed when theme.json or themes/theme.json exists. If exec is present, zot treats it as a normal extension too.

In /settings → color theme, extension themes show source info in the description, e.g. from extension my-theme-extension — ....

Recommendations

  • Prefer short descriptions; settings wraps them, but concise is easier to scan.
  • Keep spinner frames single-width when possible.
  • For theme packages, use a unique extension name so the source label is clear.
  • For user-editable themes, keep comments out of JSON; JSON comments are not supported.
  • Validate with python3 -m json.tool theme.json before installing.

© patriceckhart, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in packages/agent/skills/builtin/write-zot-themes of patriceckhart/zot.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 0f23566

Compare with similar skills

Write Zot Themes next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Write Zot Themes compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Write Zot Themes this skillpatriceckhart/zot351—~2.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Theme Factoryanthropics/skills180k47 repos~781Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Theme Factorynexu-io/open-design100k—~329Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Pierre Theme Packagepierrecomputer/pierre6.3k—~352Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Pierre Theming Librarypierrecomputer/pierre6.3k—~661Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Maui Themingdotnet/skills5.6k1 repos~4.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Write Zot Themes

What does Write Zot Themes do?

Help the user create, install, or package zot themes, including theme-only extensions. Write Zot Themes is an agent skill from patriceckhart/zot. Help the user create, install, or package zot themes, including theme-only extensions.

How do I install Write Zot Themes in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add patriceckhart/zot --skill write-zot-themes -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (packages/agent/skills/builtin/write-zot-themes in patriceckhart/zot) into .claude/skills/write-zot-themes in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Write Zot Themes in Codex?

Run `npx skills add patriceckhart/zot --skill write-zot-themes -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (packages/agent/skills/builtin/write-zot-themes in patriceckhart/zot) into .agents/skills/write-zot-themes in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Write Zot Themes in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add patriceckhart/zot --skill write-zot-themes -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/write-zot-themes, .gemini/skills/write-zot-themes, .github/skills/write-zot-themes and .opencode/skills/write-zot-themes in your project.

What does Write Zot Themes need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Write Zot Themes needs the command-line tools its instructions call (python3). Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Write Zot Themes access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Write Zot Themes safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Write Zot Themes use?

Write Zot Themes is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Write Zot Themes use?

About 2.1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 8.4k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Write Zot Themes?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Write Zot Themes: Theme Factory (anthropics/skills, 180k stars), Theme Factory (nexu-io/open-design, 100k stars), Pierre Theme Package (pierrecomputer/pierre, 6.3k stars) and Pierre Theming Library (pierrecomputer/pierre, 6.3k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Write Zot Themes?

patriceckhart (a GitHub user) maintains it in patriceckhart/zot, which has 351 GitHub stars. The repository holds 2 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 10, 2026.

Source: patriceckhart/zot on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.