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Catppuccin Terminal Theme: Full Setup Guide

· · 5 min read

Set up the Catppuccin terminal theme the easy way. All 4 flavor hex sets, where to paste them, and a one-click MOLTamp skin install.

Catppuccin is the most-searched named terminal palette of 2026, and setting it up takes about two minutes. The theme ships in four "flavors" (Latte, Frappe, Macchiato, and Mocha) that range from a bright cream light mode to a deep, soft-contrast dark mode. The fastest path is a terminal that bundles it as a one-click skin, but you can also paste the hex values into any terminal by hand. This guide gives you every flavor's core colors plus the exact steps for both.

What Catppuccin actually is

Catppuccin is a community-driven pastel color scheme that started in 2021 and now has official ports for 300-plus apps: VS Code, Neovim, iTerm2, Alacritty, Windows Terminal, Discord, and basically anything with a config file. It is wildly popular because the contrast is gentle on the eyes without going muddy, and because the four flavors share the same accent names (Mauve, Pink, Sky, Peach, and so on) so you can switch from light to dark without relearning your color associations.

The four flavors, from lightest to darkest:

Flavor Mode Base (background) Text Vibe
Latte Light #eff1f5 #4c4f69 Warm, paper-like light mode
Frappe Dark #303446 #c6d0f5 Muted, low-key dark
Macchiato Dark #24273a #cad3f5 Balanced midnight blue
Mocha Dark #1e1e2e #cdd6f4 The flagship, deepest dark

Mocha is the default most people mean when they just say "Catppuccin." If you are unsure, start there.

The hex values you need

For a terminal you mostly need the background (Base), the foreground (Text), a cursor color, and the 16 ANSI slots. Here are the headline colors for each flavor so you can wire them up fast.

Mocha (flagship dark)
  • Base: #1e1e2e
  • Text: #cdd6f4
  • Mauve: #cba6f7, Pink: #f5c2e7, Red: #f38ba8, Peach: #fab387
  • Yellow: #f9e2af, Green: #a6e3a1, Teal: #94e2d5, Sky: #89dceb, Blue: #89b4fa
Macchiato
  • Base: #24273a
  • Text: #cad3f5
  • Mauve: #c6a0f6, Red: #ed8796, Peach: #f5a97f, Green: #a6da95, Blue: #8aadf4
Frappe
  • Base: #303446
  • Text: #c6d0f5
  • Mauve: #ca9ee6, Red: #e78284, Peach: #ef9f76, Green: #a6d189, Blue: #8caaee
Latte (light)
  • Base: #eff1f5
  • Text: #4c4f69
  • Mauve: #8839ef, Red: #d20f39, Peach: #fe640b, Green: #40a02b, Blue: #1e66f5
How to install it: 3 paths ranked
  1. One-click skin (fastest). If your terminal has a skin or theme gallery, pick Catppuccin, choose a flavor, done. No files to edit, no restart gymnastics. This is the route we built into MOLTamp's skin system so you never touch a hex code unless you want to.
  2. Official port for your terminal. Catppuccin ships first-party themes for iTerm2 (.itermcolors file you import in Profiles), Windows Terminal (paste a JSON block into settings.json), and Alacritty (a .toml import under general.import). Grab the file from the catppuccin GitHub org for your app.
  3. Manual hex paste. Open your terminal's color settings, set the background to Base, the foreground to Text, and map the 16 ANSI slots. This works everywhere but it is the most tedious, and it is easy to fat-finger a swatch.
iTerm2 (macOS)

Download the Catppuccin .itermcolors file for your flavor, then go to iTerm2 > Settings > Profiles > Colors > Color Presets > Import, select the file, and apply it from the same dropdown.

Windows Terminal

Open settings.json, paste the flavor's color scheme object into the "schemes" array, then set "colorScheme": "Catppuccin Mocha" in your profile's defaults block.

Alacritty

Add [general] with an import list pointing at the downloaded catppuccin-mocha.toml, then reload. Alacritty hot-reloads config, so the theme appears without a restart.

Why a skinnable terminal beats hand-editing

Hand-editing is fine once. The pain shows up when you want to A/B Mocha against Macchiato at 11pm, or sync the theme to your prompt, your file tree, and your status bar all at once. A terminal that treats the theme as a first-class object lets you flip flavors instantly and keeps every panel in sync. That matters even more if you live in an AI coding loop all day, where readable diff colors and a calm background reduce real fatigue. We go deep on that in our best terminal for Claude Code writeup, and we compare the whole field in the best AI terminal comparison.

Pick the right flavor

Pick Mocha if: you want the classic, deepest dark mode and you work mostly at night. It is the safe default and the one most screenshots show.

Pick Macchiato or Frappe if: Mocha feels a touch too dark or too saturated. Macchiato is the balanced middle; Frappe is the softest, lowest-contrast dark.

Pick Latte if: you work in bright rooms or prefer light mode. It is a genuinely good light theme, not an afterthought.

Bottom line: Catppuccin Mocha is the right answer for most people, but the magic of the palette is having all four a click away. Use a one-click skin route if you can, fall back to the official port for your terminal, and only hand-paste hex if you have no other option.

FAQ

What is the difference between Catppuccin Mocha and Macchiato? Both are dark. Mocha is darker and slightly more saturated (Base #1e1e2e), while Macchiato is a touch lighter with a bluer base (#24273a). Mocha is the flagship; Macchiato is the gentler middle option.

Is Catppuccin free? Yes. Catppuccin is an open-source, community palette under a permissive license. The colors and the official terminal ports cost nothing.

Which Catppuccin flavor is best for eye strain? Frappe and Macchiato have the softest contrast among the dark flavors, which many people find easiest for long sessions. If you are in a bright room, Latte (light mode) often beats any dark theme for strain.

Can I use Catppuccin with Claude Code? Absolutely. Catppuccin is just a color scheme, so it works under any CLI tool including Claude Code. A skinnable terminal makes the diff and status colors line up nicely with your AI workflow.

Try it in one click

MOLTamp ships Catppuccin (all four flavors) as a built-in skin, so you can flip from Latte to Mocha without editing a single hex value, and pair it with matching widgets and visualizers while you are at it. MOLTamp is free to use and every feature works out of the box; a one-time $20 license just removes a small popup. Download it here and have Catppuccin running before your coffee cools.