Name

       kitten-@-set-tab-color - Change the color of the specified tabs in the tab bar

Usage

       kitten @ set-tab-color  COLORS

Description

       Change the color of the specified tabs in the tab bar

       The  foreground  and background colors when active and inactive can be overridden using this command. The
       syntax for specifying colors is:  active_fg=color  active_bg=color  inactive_fg=color  inactive_bg=color.
       Where  color  can  be either a color name or a value of the form #rrggbb or the keyword NONE to revert to
       using the default colors.

Options

       --match, -m
              The tab to match. Match specifications are of the form: field:query. Where field can  be  one  of:
              id,  index, title, window_id, window_title, pid, cwd, cmdline env, var, state, session and recent.
              query is the expression to match. Expressions can be either a number or a regular expression,  and
              can be combined using Boolean operators.

              The special value all matches all tabs.

              For  numeric  fields:  id,  index,  window_id,  pid and recent, the expression is interpreted as a
              number, not a regular expression. Negative values for  id/window_id  match  from  the  highest  id
              number down, in particular, -1 is the most recently created tab/window.

              When  using title or id, first a matching tab is looked for, and if not found a matching window is
              looked for, and the tab for that window is used.

              You can also use window_id and window_title to match the tab that contains  the  window  with  the
              specified id or title.

              The index number is used to match the nth tab in the currently active OS window. The recent number
              matches  recently  active  tabs  in  the currently active OS window, with zero being the currently
              active tab, one the previously active tab and so on.

              The field session matches tabs that were created in the specified session. Use the  expression  ^$
              to  match  windows  that were not created in a session and . to match the currently active session
              and ~ to match either the currently active sesison or the last active session when no  session  is
              active.

              When  using  the env field to match on environment variables, you can specify only the environment
              variable name or a name and value, for example, env:MY_ENV_VAR=2. Tabs containing any window  with
              the specified environment variables are matched. Similarly, var matches tabs containing any window
              with the specified user variable.

              The  field  state  matches  on  the  state  of  the  tab.  Supported  states are: active, focused,
              needs_attention, parent_active, parent_focused and focused_os_window. Active  tabs  are  the  tabs
              that  are  active  in  their  parent OS window. There is only one focused tab and it is the tab to
              which keyboard events are delivered. If no tab is focused, the last focused tab  is  matched.  The
              value focused_os_window matches all tabs in the currently focused OS window.

              Note that you can use the kitten @ ls command to get a list of tabs.

       --self [=no]
              Close the tab this command is run in, rather than the active tab.

       --help, -h [=no]
              Show help for this command

Global options

       --to   An  address  for  the  kitty  instance  to  control. Corresponds to the address given to the kitty
              instance via the --listen-on option or the listen_on setting in kitty.conf. If not specified,  the
              environment  variable  KITTY_LISTEN_ON is checked. If that is also not found, messages are sent to
              the controlling terminal for this process, i.e. they will only work if this process is run  within
              a kitty window.

       --password
              A  password  to use when contacting kitty. This will cause kitty to ask the user for permission to
              perform the specified action, unless the password has been accepted before or is pre-configured in
              kitty.conf. To use a blank password specify --use-password as always.

       --password-file [=rc-pass]
              A file from which to read the  password.  Trailing  whitespace  is  ignored.  Relative  paths  are
              resolved from the kitty configuration directory. Use - to read from STDIN. Use fd:num to read from
              the  file  descriptor num. Used if no --password is supplied. Defaults to checking for the rc-pass
              file in the kitty configuration directory.

       --password-env [=KITTY_RC_PASSWORD]
              The name of an environment variable to read the password  from.  Used  if  no  --password-file  is
              supplied. Defaults to checking the environment variable KITTY_RC_PASSWORD.

       --use-password [=if-available]
              If  no  password  is  available, kitty will usually just send the remote control command without a
              password. This option can be used to force it to always or never use the supplied password. If set
              to always and no password is provided, the blank password is used.

              Choices: if-available, always, never

0.44.0                                            Nov 26, 2025                         kitten-@-set-tab-color(1)