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What it styles

LSD splits its output into column roles — owner, permissions, size, date, git status, tree edges — and this theme recolors each of them to match the VSCode and Alacritty Slatewave ports. File-type colors (directories, symlinks, archives, media, …) are driven by LS_COLORS, so Slatewave composes with any LS_COLORS scheme you already run — vivid, trapd00r/LS_COLORS, or the default.

Two palette files ship: colors.yaml uses #rrggbb hex (LSD ≥ 1.1) and colors-256.yaml uses ANSI 256-color indices (LSD ≥ 1.0; required for 1.0.x, which silently ignores hex). Run lsd --version to pick — 1.0.x → 256, 1.1+ → hex.

Highlights:

• Permissions — teal read, amber write, rose exec, slate for the - placeholder so the rwx column reads at a glance
• Modified date — teal-300 for the last hour, teal-200 for the last day, slate-400 for anything older; freshness is spatial, not verbal
• Git status — teal for stage/add, amber for modified, rose for deleted, bright red only for conflicted
• Size — slate for small files, amber for medium, amber-700 for large; large files visibly "weigh more"
• Tree edges — slate-600 so the guide lines recede and the filenames lead

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Requirements

• LSD ≥ 1.0 — install guide. Hex colors (colors.yaml) need LSD ≥ 1.1; on 1.0.x use colors-256.yaml. Check with lsd --version.
• A Nerd Font if you want the fancy icons — icons.theme: fancy in LSD's config. Tested with Hack Nerd Font and MesloLGS NF. Falls back to icons.theme: unicode cleanly.

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Installation

LSD looks for its config under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/lsd/ (typically ~/.config/lsd/) on macOS and Linux, and %APPDATA%\lsd\ on Windows.

Which file?

Your lsd --version	Use	Why
1.1.0 or newer	colors.yaml (hex)	Truer color match against the rest of the Slatewave family.
1.0.x	colors-256.yaml (256-index)	LSD 1.0.x silently ignores hex — the theme would fall back to defaults.

Both files install to the same path (~/.config/lsd/colors.yaml); only the source differs.

Clone + symlink

git clone https://github.com/kevinlangleyjr/lsd-slatewave.git \
  ~/.config/lsd-slatewave
mkdir -p ~/.config/lsd
# LSD ≥ 1.1
ln -sf ~/.config/lsd-slatewave/colors.yaml ~/.config/lsd/colors.yaml
# or, on LSD 1.0.x
ln -sf ~/.config/lsd-slatewave/colors-256.yaml ~/.config/lsd/colors.yaml

Or: curl the file straight in

mkdir -p ~/.config/lsd
# LSD ≥ 1.1
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kevinlangleyjr/lsd-slatewave/main/colors.yaml \
  -o ~/.config/lsd/colors.yaml
# or, on LSD 1.0.x
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kevinlangleyjr/lsd-slatewave/main/colors-256.yaml \
  -o ~/.config/lsd/colors.yaml

Activate the theme

The colors.yaml file is only consulted when LSD is told to use a custom theme. Add or edit ~/.config/lsd/config.yaml:

color:
  when: auto
  theme: custom

That's it — lsd picks up the new palette on the next invocation.

Verify

lsd -la --git --tree --depth 2

You should see teal permissions, amber sizes, slate tree edges, and a git column that reads clearly against the rest of the row.

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Palette

Slatewave shares its palette with the companion themes. Every color resolves to a semantic role you can override in place.

Foregrounds

	Hex	Tailwind	Role
	#cbd5e1	slate-300	small file size, git default
	#94a3b8	slate-400	group, older dates
	#64748b	slate-500	no-access, non-file size, git unmodified, invalid inode
	#475569	slate-600	tree edges, git ignored

Accent — teal signature

	Hex	Tailwind	Role
	#5eead4	teal-300	read bit, hour-old date, new-in-index
	#99f6e4	teal-200	day-old date, new-in-workdir
	#67e8f9	cyan-300	ACL flag
	#0e7490	cyan-700	octal permission suffix

State

	Hex	Tailwind	Role
	#38bdf8	sky-400	SELinux context
	#7dd3fc	sky-300	valid hard-link count, git renamed
	#fda4af	rose-300	user (owner column)
	#fb7185	rose-400	exec bit, invalid links, git deleted
	#ef5350	red-bright	git conflicted
	#b388ff	—	exec-sticky bit, valid inode
	#fbbf24	amber-400	write bit, medium size, git modified
	#b45309	amber-700	large size, git typechange

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Columns in detail

Column	Role	Color
Permission — read	permission.read	teal-300 #5eead4
Permission — write	permission.write	amber-400 #fbbf24
Permission — exec	permission.exec	rose-400 #fb7185
Permission — exec-sticky	permission.exec-sticky	purple #b388ff
Permission — no-access	permission.no-access	slate-500 #64748b
Permission — octal suffix	permission.octal	cyan-700 #0e7490
Permission — ACL	permission.acl	cyan-300 #67e8f9
Permission — context	permission.context	sky-400 #38bdf8
Owner	user	slate-200 #e2e8f0
Group	group	slate-400 #94a3b8
Size — none	size.none	slate-500 #64748b
Size — small	size.small	slate-300 #cbd5e1
Size — medium	size.medium	amber-400 #fbbf24
Size — large	size.large	amber-700 #b45309
Date — hour old	date.hour-old	teal-300 #5eead4
Date — day old	date.day-old	teal-200 #99f6e4
Date — older	date.older	slate-400 #94a3b8
Inode — valid	inode.valid	purple #b388ff
Inode — invalid	inode.invalid	slate-500 #64748b
Links — valid	links.valid	sky-300 #7dd3fc
Links — invalid	links.invalid	rose-400 #fb7185
Tree edges	tree-edge	slate-600 #475569
Git — default	git-status.default	slate-300 #cbd5e1
Git — unmodified	git-status.unmodified	slate-500 #64748b
Git — ignored	git-status.ignored	slate-600 #475569
Git — new in index	git-status.new-in-index	teal-300 #5eead4
Git — new in workdir	git-status.new-in-workdir	teal-200 #99f6e4
Git — typechange	git-status.typechange	amber-700 #b45309
Git — deleted	git-status.deleted	rose-400 #fb7185
Git — renamed	git-status.renamed	sky-300 #7dd3fc
Git — modified	git-status.modified	amber-400 #fbbf24
Git — conflicted	git-status.conflicted	red-bright #ef5350

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Customize

The theme file is plain YAML. Override in place, or drop a single key in your own colors.yaml and leave the rest untouched — LSD merges missing keys against its defaults.

# Bump large-file warmth to orange
size:
  large: "#ff4500"

# Make the git-modified marker teal instead of amber
git-status:
  modified: "#5eead4"

File-type colors (LS_COLORS)

LSD inherits directory, executable, archive, image, and symlink colors from LS_COLORS, not from this theme. A Slatewave-compatible LS_COLORS isn't shipped here (yet) — for now, pair with vivid:

# A cool, slate-friendly baseline
export LS_COLORS="$(vivid generate molokai)"

or keep your existing LS_COLORS.

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Slatewave family

One palette. Every tool.

• Editors — VSCode · JetBrains · Xcode · Sublime Text · Zed · Neovim · Helix
• Terminals — Alacritty · Ghostty · iTerm2 · WezTerm · Windows Terminal · Kitty
• Prompts — Oh My Posh · Powerlevel10k · Starship
• Multiplexer — tmux
• CLI — bat · delta · btop
• Notes — Obsidian · Logseq · MarkEdit · Anytype
• Launchers — Alfred · Raycast
• Chat — Slack

See getslatewave.com for the full family.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. For palette changes, include a before/after screenshot of lsd -la --git --tree against a representative directory so the visual tradeoff is obvious.

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License

WTFPL — Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License. See LICENSE.