Terminal Workbench
GitHub Releases

$ terminal-workbench

A modern terminal-inspired theme for Obsidian. Not retro green-on-black nostalgia — a calm, dense, high-contrast working surface: graphite backgrounds, crisp typography, restrained ANSI-style accents, and readable code in both dark and light modes.

Install View source
Terminal Workbench in dark mode — Obsidian with the file tree, tabs, breadcrumb, and a note open Terminal Workbench in light mode — the same Obsidian note in the light palette

The same vault in both palettes — use the light mode switch above to compare.

A closer look

Every surface, considered

Real captures from Obsidian, not mockups. Each piece of the reading experience gets deliberate, restrained styling.

The full callout family: note, abstract, tip, info, warning, danger — each tinted from its own color The full callout family in light mode
Callouts

The whole family, each with a three-pixel top bar, a tinted fill, and the monospace manifest-label title. Unmapped types inherit the accent.

Framed Python and JavaScript code blocks with header bands and language labels Framed code blocks in light mode
Code blocks

A header band with a language label, framed consistently across editing and reading views.

Custom task states: todo, done, cancelled, deferred, and important with distinct checkbox colors Custom task states in light mode
Task states

Done, cancelled, deferred, and important each get a distinct checkbox color and text treatment.

A Mermaid flowchart styled in the theme's palette A Mermaid flowchart in light mode
Diagrams

Mermaid flowchart, state, sequence, and class diagrams recolored to the theme palette.

Heading hierarchy and a bordered table in the theme Heading hierarchy and table in light mode
Typography & tables

A colored heading hierarchy, hairline-framed tables, and prose tuned for long reading sessions.

Palette

Two deliberate modes

Dark and light are separate palettes, not an inversion. These swatches come from the theme's actual tokens and follow the toggle.

Features

Built to get out of the way

Opinionated where it counts, quiet everywhere else — and it composes with your existing Obsidian setup instead of fighting it.

Terminal manifest idiom

Monospace micro-labels unify properties, code headers, tab titles, and breadcrumbs into one system.

Colored folders

Optional per-folder coloring: each top-level folder takes one of six palette colors and passes it down to everything inside, so folders read at a glance. All six colors and the file-name color are configurable.

Respects your settings

Your accent color, interface / text / monospace fonts, and font size all flow through instead of being overridden.

Style Settings support

Accents per mode, fonts, line width, radius, tag shape, line height, compact mode, and per-feature toggles.

Print friendly

Decorative bands and glyphs are stripped from PDF export, leaving clean printed pages.

No remote assets

CSS only, no network requests, no scripts — compliant with Obsidian's developer policies.

Install

Two ways in

  1. In Obsidian: Settings → Appearance → Themes → Manage, then search Terminal Workbench and select Install and use.
  2. Or manually: copy theme.css and manifest.json from the latest release into .obsidian/themes/Terminal Workbench/.
  3. Requires Obsidian 1.5.0 or newer. For the tuning options, install the Style Settings plugin.