git:20261008.6126d32 to git:20261009.562fe4c

# Council pane design

How the mod looks, and why. Every colour lives in `hooks/theme.ts`, and no other file holds a colour value, apart from the vendor colours the council's config supplies.

## Principles

- The council speaks inside Claude Code, so it borrows Claude's orange and the engine's own theme instead of bringing a palette of its own.

- Colour carries meaning, and each meaning has one colour. Text or a glyph always says the same thing, so no state depends on colour alone.

- Text a person reads meets 4.5:1 on a light and on a dark theme, with two exceptions: `info` is 4.4:1 on light, and the engine has no blue that does better; and the form's help uses `hint` at 2.2:1 by choice, so it recedes behind the fields. Glyphs and lines meet 3:1.

- A screen fits the terminal. A pane taller than the terminal hands the keyboard back to the prompt, so text stays short. Descriptions and help still wrap and never cut off: a text a person needs to read is shown whole.

## Colour

Most colours are engine theme keys. The engine resolves each one for the theme the person chose (light, dark, their colour-blind variants and the ANSI ones), so contrast holds without the mod knowing the theme. Contrast figures below are for the light and dark themes of Claude Code 2.1.282, against white and against `rgb(30,30,30)`.

| Token | Theme key | Light | Dark | Used for |

|---|---|---|---|---|

| `accent` | `claude` | 3.2 | 5.3 | Frames, rules, the progress bar, the `$` and `✎` marks. Never body text |

| `success` | `success` | 5.3 | 6.8 | Done, ended, a complete provider |

| `danger` | `error` | 6.7 | 6.1 | Failed, errors, a refused field |

| `warning` | `warning` | 4.7 | 10.2 | Running, live, querying, unsaved changes |

| `info` | `suggestion` | 4.4 | 8.9 | A cached provider, effort medium |

| `muted` | `inactive` | 5.7 | 5.9 | Secondary text that must stay readable, such as a branch or a worktree path; a seat the reader cancelled |

| `line` | `subtle` | 2.2 | 2.1 | Table bars and rules: decoration only |

| `hint` | `subtle` | 2.2 | 2.1 | The form's help lines: a deliberate exception to 4.5:1, chosen so help recedes behind the fields |

| `model` | `planMode` | 6.8 | 4.8 | Model names |

| `peak` | `merged` | 6.0 | 6.1 | The top of a scale (effort ultra) |

| `zebra` | `userMessageBackground` | | | Every other table row |

| `selected` | `selectionBg` | | | The row you are editing, and the row under the pointer |

Plain `dimColor` serves secondary text that is fine to fade: help rows, `when:` lines, counts and labels.

### Fixed colours, and why

- **Fills under white letters** (`FILL`): chips, the table header and status labels. A theme key would turn light on a dark theme and lose the white letters, so these stay fixed, each dark enough for white on both.

- `chip` `rgb(180,85,50)`, 4.9:1: a deeper Claude orange, because white on the orange itself is 3.1:1.

- `chipMark` `rgb(150,68,40)`, 6.7:1, the `✦` cell at the chip's start.

- `header` `rgb(88,88,88)`, 7.1:1.

- `saved` `rgb(46,120,72)` 5.4:1, `error` `rgb(178,58,52)` 5.9:1, `note` `rgb(150,100,20)` 5.1:1.

- **Data colours** tell things apart without meaning anything, and a theme has too few hues for that.

- Vendor colours come from the council's config and fill each provider's banner.

- **Shimmer** (`SHIMMER`): the warm letters that pass over a running chip, 3.9:1 and 4.4:1 on the chip fill. They move, and the label stays readable in white between passes.

### Effort

Effort grows warmer as it rises, and the two highest are bold as well: low `muted`, medium `info`, high `warning`, xhigh `danger`, max `danger` bold, ultra `peak` bold. `default` is dim. An effort Codex adds later draws as plain text.

## Type

- Bold uppercase labels name a thing: chips (`SPECIALISTS (2)`, `EDIT sec`, `STEPS`, `SYNTHESIS`) and table headers.

- Bold marks an identity: a specialist's or provider's name, the program in a command.

- Dim marks metadata: counts, labels, help, times.

- Italic is Codex's thinking, and nothing else.

## Glyphs

Each glyph has one meaning.

| Glyph | Meaning |

|---|---|

| `●` | A specialist that is on, a provider, or live when coloured `warning` |

| `✓` | Done |

| `✗` | Failed |

| `○` | Set aside by the person: a specialist switched off, a seat cancelled |

| `⋯` | Running |

| `▶` | The row you are editing |

| `↳` | A continuation of the row above |

| `✎` | A file edit |

| `$` | A command |

| `✦` | The council's mark |

| `≡` | The synthesis |

| `│` `─` `┼` | Table bars and rules |

## Components

- **Chip**: a bold uppercase label on the `chip` fill in `onFill` letters, one space of padding each side. It names the frame below it. A running chip shimmers.

- **Frame**: a rounded border in `accent` with one column of padding, under its chip.

- **Table**: a `header` fill with white bold labels, `line` bars between columns, a `line` rule between rows, `zebra` on every other row, `selected` on the row you are editing or the one under the pointer. Each column is as wide as its widest cell; only the last one gives way on a narrow pane, cut with `…`. One line per row: the details live in the form. A broken entry's second line, under the second column, shows what was stored.

- **Templates table**: on the empty screen only, under `+ Add specialist`: the table's header fill and zebra with two columns, `TEMPLATE` and `USE WHEN`; the name is a plain Button, the use-when dim and wrapped so it reads whole. No bars or rules, since they would stop at a wrapped row's first line; the shading tells the rows apart. Once specialists exist it folds behind a dim plain `Templates (N) ▸` button beside Add, `▾` when open.

- **Switched-off row**: keeps its place in the list, its text `muted` italic, a hollow `○` where an on row has `●`, and a word saying so (`off ·`), never colour alone. The chip counts them (`SPECIALISTS (3 · 1 off)`).

- **Status label**: `SAVED`, `ERROR` or `NOTE` on its fill, then the message in plain text.

- **Form**: each field under its label, the roster's own column name (`NAME`, `MODEL`, `EFFORT`, `USE WHEN`, then `SKILLS`) in `muted` bold, with anything about it on the right (the use-when counter, `optional`). Each value sits on a `zebra` well, the only sign of where to type; help is `hint` italic under it, wrapped and never cut; a blank line between fields. Buttons: `Save` and the dim `Discard` together, then apart from them the specialist's `Disable`/`Enable`, and the dim `Remove` last, so a Tab too many from Save never lands on it. No frame, and nothing beside a text field: Claude Code sizes a focused field to the whole pane, so anything beside it cuts the text being typed, and given the whole width the field wraps a long value onto the lines below. Accent rules above and below mark the form.

- **Enter hint**: the bare `⏎` (an empty `submitLabel`), leaving the field more room.