OSC 4 — Set palette colour (and query)

Change one of the 256 palette colours, or query its current value.

Byte forms

Every common string-literal form so you can paste-and-search either direction.

\\x1b[\x1b]4;N;#RRGGBB\x07 (set) \x1b]4;N;?\x07 (query)

\\033[\033]4;N;...\007

\\e[\e]4;N;...\a

ESC [ESC ] 4 ; N ; COLOR BEL

hex1b 5d 34 3b <N> 3b ... 07

Description

Set the colour at index `N` (0..255) in the terminal's working palette. Indexes 0..7 are the basic colours (black / red / green / yellow / blue / magenta / cyan / white), 8..15 the bright variants, 16..231 the 6×6×6 colour cube, 232..255 the 24-step grayscale ramp. Colour syntax matches OSC 10/11: `#RRGGBB`, `#RGB`, `rgb:RRRR/GGGG/BBBB`, or X11 names. Replacing the colour with `?` (`\x1b]4;N;?\x07`) makes the terminal reply with the current value — base16-themes, pywal, and theme-detectors all use this query/set loop to harvest and rewrite the palette at startup. Reset a single index with OSC 104 (`\x1b]104;N\x07`); reset the whole palette with OSC 104 with no parameter.

Spec citation: xterm-ctlseqs (OSC 4)

Examples

bash

printf '\033]4;1;#ff5555\007'   # remap colour 1 (red) to #ff5555\nprintf '\033]4;1;?\007'        # query current colour 1

python

import sys; sys.stdout.write('\x1b]4;1;#ff5555\x07')

fmt.Print("\x1b]4;1;#ff5555\x07")

javascript

process.stdout.write('\x1b]4;1;#ff5555\x07')

printf("\x1b]4;1;#ff5555\x07");

Terminal support

xterm: yes
Linux console (fbcon): partial
macOS Terminal.app: partial
iTerm2: yes
Windows Terminal: yes
cmd.exe / ConPTY: no
kitty: yes
alacritty: yes
WezTerm: yes
Ghostty: yes
GNOME Terminal: yes
Konsole: yes
tmux: no
GNU screen: no

xterm	Linux console (fbcon)	macOS Terminal.app	iTerm2	Windows Terminal	cmd.exe / ConPTY	kitty	alacritty	WezTerm	Ghostty	GNOME Terminal	Konsole	tmux	GNU screen
yes	partial	partial	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	no

Related sequences

In the family cookbook

SGR cookbook · 5. OSC palette override — repaint the slot itself