Add configurable CLI presentation themes (#248)

[harshthakur3]

Description

Adds user-configurable presentation themes to the interactive Skillware CLI.

Users can choose between pastel, ocean, and mono through the interactive menu. The selected theme is persisted in the global Skillware configuration, while a project-level configuration can override it. Missing, malformed, or unknown theme values fall back safely to pastel.

Fixes #248

Changes

• Added pastel, ocean, and mono built-in presentation themes.
• Added interactive theme selection through menu option 7 / theme.
• Added global theme persistence under presentation.theme.
• Preserved unrelated YAML settings when saving a theme.
• Added support for project-level theme overrides.
• Added graceful fallback to pastel for unknown or malformed values.
• Applied the selected palette consistently across:
  • splash screen and gradient
  • tables and borders
  • headings and categories
  • skill IDs and statuses
  • interactive menus and links
  • warnings and errors
• Updated skillware config show to display the effective theme.
• Updated CLI help text, documentation, example configuration, and changelog.
• Added configuration, persistence, fallback, interactive menu, and smoke-rendering tests.

Acceptance Criteria

• Theme from configuration is applied consistently.
  • Implemented through the theme registry and active-theme resolver in skillware/cli.py.
  • Covered by built-in palette and smoke-rendering tests in tests/test_cli.py.
• Users can change the theme without manually editing YAML.
  • Implemented through interactive menu option 7 / theme.
  • The selected theme is saved to the global configuration.
• Unknown themes fall back gracefully.
  • Implemented through presentation-theme normalization in skillware/core/config.py.
  • Covered by malformed and unknown theme tests in tests/test_config.py.
• CLI documentation and smoke tests are included.
  • Updated docs/usage/cli.md and .skillware.yaml.example.
  • Added smoke coverage for pastel, ocean, and mono.

Screenshots

The screenshots below demonstrate theme configuration, interactive selection, persistence, and rendering across all three built-in themes.

Configuration and available themes

Default pastel theme

The existing pastel appearance remains the default and graceful fallback.

Interactive theme selection

Users can select a theme through the interactive CLI without manually editing YAML.

Ocean theme configuration

The selected theme is saved under presentation.theme while unrelated configuration is preserved.

Ocean theme rendering

The ocean palette is applied consistently to the splash screen, headings, menu entries, and links.

Mono theme selection

The monochrome palette can also be selected and persisted through the interactive menu.

Mono theme rendering

The mono palette applies a consistent grayscale presentation across the CLI.

Testing

The following verification was completed locally:

• Full test suite: 421 tests passed
• Theme-specific CLI and configuration tests: 81 tests passed
• Black formatting check passed for the changed Python files.
• Flake8 passed for the changed Python files.
• git diff --check passed.
• Wheel-build test passed.

Tests cover:

• default pastel behavior
• all three built-in palettes
• global theme persistence
• preservation of unrelated configuration
• global and project precedence
• unknown and malformed theme fallback
• interactive menu dispatch
• immediate theme refresh
• smoke rendering for every built-in theme

Type of Change

• CLI — changes to skillware/cli.py, configuration, tests, and CLI documentation

Checklist

• Linked GitHub issue with Fixes #248.
• Scope matches the issue with no unrelated refactors.
• Black and Flake8 checks pass for the changed Python files.
• Relevant CLI, configuration, and full-suite tests pass locally.
• CHANGELOG.md was updated under [Unreleased].
• CLI documentation and example configuration were updated.
• No package version was changed.
• examples/README.md is not applicable because no runnable scripts changed.
• tests/test_registry_docs.py is not applicable because no skills, examples index, or agent-loop matrix changed.
• The new or updated skill section is not applicable because no files under skills/ changed.

Related Issues

Fixes #248

[rosspeili]

Thanks @harshthakur3, very strong work on this. The config merge (presentation.theme), three palettes, fallback to pastel, menu 8 / theme (with mail on 7 after main), docs, CHANGELOG, and tests all look good and match the issue.

One thing before merge: skillware/cli_mail.py still uses hardcoded pastel styles, so the mail submenu won’t follow ocean / mono. Please wire it to the active theme (shared palette helper or import from cli.py) so theming is consistent across the interactive CLI, as in the acceptance criteria.

After that, and if we confirm CI is green on the latest main and re-run the relevant suite locally, and once the mail submenu is themed, this should be good to merge <3

Thanks again for the thorough PR description and screenshots. Looks really good!

[harshthakur3]

Sure, I’ll look into it and get the mail submenu themed as well. Thanks for the review!

[harshthakur3]

Hey @rosspeili, sorry for the late update—this was a small change I could’ve handled much sooner, and I’m sorry for keeping you waiting.

I’ve synced with the latest main and moved the palettes into a shared theme helper. The mail submenu and direct mail commands now follow the active theme. I also added regression coverage, and the relevant tests are green.

Thanks for the clear feedback and your patience! 🙏