Verbose Mode & Themes

Verbose Mode

Verbose mode enables additional rendering in the event feed. Enable it at startup:

athena-flow --verbose

What --verbose does is determined by the feed and layout components — it signals them to include additional detail in rendered rows. It does not toggle a separate log stream or add socket diagnostics to the UI.

When to Use It

Verbose mode is useful when you need more detail about what's happening in the feed — for example, seeing fuller event payloads or additional context rows that are hidden by default.

Themes

Athena ships three terminal color themes, selectable via --theme or in your config file.

`dark` (default)

Designed for dark terminal backgrounds. Color palette:

Role	Color	Hex
Primary text	Warm gray	`#c9d1d9`
Muted text	Dim gray	`#484f58`
Accent / focus	Blue	`#58a6ff`
Permission	Purple	`#bc8cff`
Success	Green	`#3fb950`
Error	Red	`#f85149`
Warning/working	Amber	`#d29922`
Info	Blue	`#58a6ff`

Context bar fills: green (0–50%) → amber (50–80%) → red (80–100%).

`light`

Designed for light terminal backgrounds. Darker shades of the same color roles for readability on white:

Role	Color	Hex
Primary text	Near-black	`#1f2328`
Muted text	Medium gray	`#656d76`
Accent / focus	Dark blue	`#0969da`
Permission	Dark purple	`#8250df`
Success	Dark green	`#1a7f37`
Error	Dark red	`#cf222e`
Warning/working	Dark amber	`#9a6700`

`high-contrast`

Maximum differentiation between all UI elements. Intended for bright environments or accessibility needs:

Role	Color	Hex
Primary text	Near-white	`#f0f6fc`
Muted text	Lighter gray	`#7d8590`
Accent / focus	Bright blue	`#71b7ff`
Permission	Bright purple	`#d2a8ff`
Success	Bright green	`#56d364`
Error	Bright red	`#ff7b72`
Warning/working	Bright amber	`#e3b341`

Setting a Theme

At startup:

athena-flow --theme=light

Permanently in your global config (~/.config/athena/config.json):

{
  "theme": "high-contrast"
}

Or per-project in .athena/config.json:

{
  "theme": "light"
}

ASCII Mode

If your terminal font doesn't render Unicode box-drawing characters or special glyphs correctly, start Athena with --ascii:

athena-flow --ascii

Every glyph in the UI has both a Unicode and ASCII variant. --ascii switches the entire UI to ASCII-safe equivalents — borders, spinners, status dots, expand/collapse indicators, and feed markers all use plain characters.