The Terminalizer

Randomize, preview, and hot-swap your Windows Terminal themes from a sleek web UI.

Features

• 515+ themes — browse, install, and apply in one click from the iTerm2 Color Schemes collection
• Live preview — see each theme rendered, including its full 16-color ANSI palette, before applying
• Randomize — one click to switch to a random theme
• Random favorite — jump to a random theme from your favorites
• Surprise me — install & apply a random theme from all 515+
• Auto-shuffle — cycle through themes on a timer (30s to 30m), all themes or favorites only
• Undo / redo — multi-step history, so you can step back and forth between themes
• Favorites — star the themes you love, shuffle from favorites only
• Font size & opacity — adjust terminal font size and window transparency (acrylic) from the UI
• Cursor & selection colors — override them per your taste, or reset to the scheme's own
• Apply to all profiles — change every profile at once, not just the default
• Export — copy the current scheme's JSON to your clipboard
• Search, sort & filter — filter by name, sort by A–Z / brightness / hue, filter dark vs light
• Themeable UI — gold ⇄ chrome "helmet" toggle (remembered across sessions)
• Live action terminal — the preview is a real, typeable command line. Type random, apply <name> (Tab-completes), fav, surprise, undo/redo, dark/light, sound, rarity, find <q>, clear, help; every action decodes in as themed log lines that show the actual colorScheme change written to your config
• Casino slot header — Randomize spins the "TERMINALIZER" title like a slot machine, decelerating and locking on the result; transient messages slot into it too
• Jackpot — landing an Epic or Legendary theme triggers a payoff: title burst, glyph confetti, coin chord, and a shake
• True rarity — tiers reflect how unusual a palette is versus the whole collection (not availability): each theme gets an HSL color signature and is ranked by distance to its nearest look-alikes. Legendary = top 3% most unusual. An in-app ⓘ explains exactly how it's computed
• Rarity filter & Rare+ shuffle — filter the list by tier, and restrict auto-shuffle to Rare/Epic/Legendary
• Synthesized sound — cyberpunk UI bleeps, ticks, a reactor hum, and a rarity-pitched lock chord (Web Audio, zero files; toggle in the HUD)
• Collection meta — discovered counter, achievements, and XP/level, saved to ~/.terminalizer/progress.json
• HUD + boot sequence — a "SYSTEM ONLINE" boot, corner brackets, a live status strip, and glitch-in theme names
• Grid ⇄ list views — denser cards with windowed rendering for 500+ themes, plus a compact list view

Keyboard Shortcuts

| Key | Action | | --- | --- | | Space | Randomize | | U | Undo | | R | Redo | | F | Favorite the current theme | | / | Focus search |

Install

npx the-terminalizer

Or install globally:

npm install -g the-terminalizer
the-terminalizer

It opens http://localhost:3456 in your browser automatically (set TERMINALIZER_NO_OPEN=1 to disable).

Requirements

• Windows Terminal (installed from Microsoft Store)
• Node.js 14+
• Works on Windows and WSL

Configuration

By default, The Terminalizer auto-detects your Windows Terminal settings.json. If detection fails, set the path manually:

TERMINAL_SETTINGS_PATH="/path/to/settings.json" the-terminalizer

Change the port:

PORT=8080 the-terminalizer

Don't auto-open the browser:

TERMINALIZER_NO_OPEN=1 the-terminalizer

How It Works

The Terminalizer reads and writes your Windows Terminal settings.json to swap color schemes in real time. Your favorites and theme cache are stored in ~/.terminalizer/, as is progress.json (your discovered themes, achievements, and XP). Before its first write, it saves a one-time backup of your original settings.json to ~/.terminalizer/settings.backup.json, and all writes are atomic (temp file + rename) so a crash can't corrupt your config. Edits are surgical — your comments and formatting in settings.json are preserved (except when "apply to all profiles" is on, which rewrites the file).

Auto-detects stable, Preview, and unpackaged Windows Terminal installs.

Security

The Terminalizer modifies your terminal configuration, so it is designed to stay on your machine:

• The server binds to 127.0.0.1 only — it is not reachable from your local network.
• State-changing requests are protected against CSRF (cross-site requests are rejected).
• Theme installs are restricted to the official iTerm2-Color-Schemes source on GitHub.

License

MIT