# How to enable REPL Syntax Highlighting in 1.13?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** repl\
**Created:** [September 10, 2026, 3:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340 "2026-09-10T15:22:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Nathan\_Boyer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nathan_boyer/32/14825_2.png) [@Nathan\_Boyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nathan_Boyer)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 3:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/1 "2026-09-10T15:22:16Z")

</div>

Julia 1.13 [News.md](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/blob/v1.13.0/NEWS.md) says:

> " The REPL now provides syntax highlighting for input as you type. See the REPL docs for more info about customization."

Julia 1.13 [REPL doc](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/stdlib/REPL/#Syntax-Highlighting) says:

> “The REPL provides syntax highlighting for input as you type. Syntax highlighting is enabled by default…”

But I’m not seeing any highlighting in 1.13:  
 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/5/d/5d21f14b2c529e7500a7bae06a07a7e7fa9a095e.png)

By contrast, this was my experience in 1.12 with OhMyREPL:  
 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/6/d/6d9f17e7f8fdc12805cfb579f7d6e2a8ececb317.png)

However, OhMyREPL.jl is [incompatible with 1.13](https://github.com/KristofferC/OhMyREPL.jl/issues/394) and [supposedly redundant](https://github.com/KristofferC/OhMyREPL.jl/issues/393) with it, but that has not been my experience during the beta and now release of 1.13. (I never did receive any official responses.) How do I get that functionality back?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![arnaud-ma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/arnaud-ma/32/211488_2.png) [@arnaud-ma](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/arnaud-ma)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 3:32pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/2 "2026-09-10T15:32:29Z")

</div>

Everything is in the Julia documentation: [The Julia REPL · The Julia Language](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/stdlib/REPL/#Syntax-Highlighting)

TLDR; this is a `faces.toml` file in `~/.julia/config/` and you can look at the possible properties at [JuliaSyntaxHighlighting · Julia Syntax Highlighting](https://julialang.github.io/JuliaSyntaxHighlighting.jl/dev/#stdlib-jsh-faces)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nathan\_Boyer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nathan_boyer/32/14825_2.png) [@Nathan\_Boyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nathan_Boyer)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/3 "2026-09-10T15:40:35Z")

</div>

![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/0/3/03bf0c5f19c728437dbb1fd4e2841982d177641f.gif "Aint Got Time GIFs | Tenor")

There aren’t any default configuration options provided?!

Also, if I have to manually set a static file, it won’t adapt if I change my terminal theme (background color), and I’ll have to start over.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![arnaud-ma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/arnaud-ma/32/211488_2.png) [@arnaud-ma](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/arnaud-ma)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 3:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/4 "2026-09-10T15:43:07Z")

</div>

There is an example here [The Julia REPL · The Julia Language](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/stdlib/REPL/#Example:-Monokai-color-theme-(click-to-expand)-452da874a2aba2b0)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nhz2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nhz2/32/44428_2.png) [@nhz2](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nhz2)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 3:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/5 "2026-09-10T15:44:06Z")

</div>

It would be cool if there was a Julia package that has a bunch of REPL color themes to preview and choose from.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Keno](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/keno/32/285_2.png) [@Keno](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Keno)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 3:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/6 "2026-09-10T15:44:53Z")

</div>

The highlighting is enabled by default, try e.g. `"foo"` to see string highlighting. The default theme just doesn’t have highlights in your example expression.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nathan\_Boyer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nathan_boyer/32/14825_2.png) [@Nathan\_Boyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nathan_Boyer)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 4:14pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/7 "2026-09-10T16:14:30Z")

</div>

The Monokai example in the docs is functional for now (though brighter than I’d like).

![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/7/7/7721a894ad3752fdf2928f997004f51bf217c1e1.png)

> **~/.julia/config/faces.toml**
>
> ```toml
> 
> # Monokai color theme for Julia syntax highlighting
> 
> [julia_macro]
> foreground = "#A6E22E"
> 
> [julia_symbol]
> foreground = "#AE81FF"
> 
> [julia_singleton_identifier]
> inherit = "julia_symbol"
> 
> [julia_type]
> foreground = "#66D9EF"
> 
> [julia_typedec]
> foreground = "#66D9EF"
> weight = "bold"
> 
> [julia_comment]
> foreground = "#75715E"
> italic = true
> 
> [julia_string]
> foreground = "#E6DB74"
> 
> [julia_regex]
> inherit = "julia_string"
> 
> [julia_backslash_literal]
> foreground = "#FD971F"
> inherit = "julia_string"
> 
> [julia_string_delim]
> foreground = "#E6DB74"
> weight = "bold"
> 
> [julia_cmdstring]
> inherit = "julia_string"
> 
> [julia_char]
> inherit = "julia_string"
> 
> [julia_char_delim]
> inherit = "julia_string_delim"
> 
> [julia_number]
> foreground = "#AE81FF"
> 
> [julia_bool]
> foreground = "#AE81FF"
> weight = "bold"
> 
> [julia_funcall]
> foreground = "#A6E22E"
> 
> [julia_broadcast]
> foreground = "#F92672"
> weight = "bold"
> 
> [julia_builtin]
> foreground = "#66D9EF"
> weight = "bold"
> 
> [julia_operator]
> foreground = "#F92672"
> 
> [julia_comparator]
> inherit = "julia_operator"
> 
> [julia_assignment]
> foreground = "#F92672"
> weight = "bold"
> 
> [julia_keyword]
> foreground = "#F92672"
> weight = "bold"
> 
> [julia_parentheses]
> foreground = "#F8F8F2"
> 
> [julia_unpaired_parentheses]
> background = "#F92672"
> foreground = "#F8F8F0"
> weight = "bold"
> 
> [julia_error]
> background = "#F92672"
> foreground = "#F8F8F0"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_paren_1]
> foreground = "#A6E22E"
> inherit = "julia_parentheses"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_paren_2]
> foreground = "#66D9EF"
> inherit = "julia_parentheses"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_paren_3]
> foreground = "#FD971F"
> inherit = "julia_parentheses"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_paren_4]
> inherit = "julia_rainbow_paren_1"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_paren_5]
> inherit = "julia_rainbow_paren_2"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_paren_6]
> inherit = "julia_rainbow_paren_3"
> 
> # Rainbow brackets
> [julia_rainbow_bracket_1]
> foreground = "#AE81FF"
> inherit = "julia_parentheses"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_bracket_2]
> foreground = "#E6DB74"
> inherit = "julia_parentheses"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_bracket_3]
> inherit = "julia_rainbow_bracket_1"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_bracket_4]
> inherit = "julia_rainbow_bracket_2"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_bracket_5]
> inherit = "julia_rainbow_bracket_1"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_bracket_6]
> inherit = "julia_rainbow_bracket_2"
> 
> # Rainbow curlies
> [julia_rainbow_curly_1]
> foreground = "#F92672"
> inherit = "julia_parentheses"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_curly_2]
> foreground = "#A6E22E"
> inherit = "julia_parentheses"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_curly_3]
> inherit = "julia_rainbow_curly_1"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_curly_4]
> inherit = "julia_rainbow_curly_2"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_curly_5]
> inherit = "julia_rainbow_curly_1"
> 
> [julia_rainbow_curly_6]
> inherit = "julia_rainbow_curly_2"
> 
> ```

* * *

I still wish I could just keep using OhMyREPL.jl though. It is much easier to use.

> ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/e/7/e7f44f13857faddeeb66ed77637753162d602b0b.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![danielmatz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/danielmatz/32/2285_2.png) [@danielmatz](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/danielmatz)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 4:49pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/8 "2026-09-10T16:49:14Z")

</div>

Is there a place where different color themes are being collected? If someone has already beaten me to setting up Solarized Light, that would be nice!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gwr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gwr/32/33632_2.png) [@gwr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gwr)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 7:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/9 "2026-09-10T19:13:03Z")

</div>

> [@Nathan\_Boyer](#):
>
> ```julia-auto
> [julia_cmdstring]
> inherit = "julia_string"
> 
> ```

It seems this needs to be replaced by

```toml
[julia_cmd]
inherit = "julia_string"

[julia_cmd_delim]
inherit = "julia_string_delim"

```

`julia_cmdstring` seems to have no effect.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tecosaur](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tecosaur/32/23206_2.png) [@tecosaur](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tecosaur)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 9:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/10 "2026-09-10T21:16:46Z")

</div>

I do happen to have

> **[DoomThemes.jl](https://code.tecosaur.net/tec/DoomThemes.jl)**
>
> DoomThemes.jl

Which I think satisfies

> [@nhz2](#):
>
> It would be cool if there was a Julia package that has a bunch of REPL color themes to preview and choose from.

Via `DoomThemes.list()`.

* * *

Two other things

> [@Nathan\_Boyer](#):
>
> There aren’t any default configuration options provided?!

1: There is a default configuration. You should see some colour if your terminal supports colour and doesn’t report something confusing.

> [@Nathan\_Boyer](#):
>
> Also, if I have to manually set a static file, it won’t adapt if I change my terminal theme (background color), and I’ll have to start over.

2: You can just use 4-bit ANSI named colours instead of hex codes.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nhz2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nhz2/32/44428_2.png) [@nhz2](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nhz2)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 2:13am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/11 "2026-09-11T02:13:23Z")

</div>

I can’t seem to get DoomThemes.jl to work, it completely freezes the REPL when I run for example: `DoomThemes.load!(:meltbus)`  
I’m using Konsole on Linux if that is relevant.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nathan\_Boyer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nathan_boyer/32/14825_2.png) [@Nathan\_Boyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nathan_Boyer)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 1:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/12 "2026-09-11T13:25:50Z")

</div>

OhMyREPL.jl was [updated today](https://github.com/KristofferC/OhMyREPL.jl/releases/tag/v0.6.0) to work with Julia 1.13+, so the original syntax highlighting is back without needing to generate my own `faces.toml` file!

That said, the number of available colorshemes is fairly small.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/d/b/db1973098d1fd83c5b1d6480d3f12990d4c21f8e.png)

> [@danielmatz](#):
>
> Is there a place where different color themes are being collected? If someone has already beaten me to setting up Solarized Light, that would be nice!

No Solarized, for example. So, I think a larger collection of easy to access REPL themes is still needed.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nathan\_Boyer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nathan_boyer/32/14825_2.png) [@Nathan\_Boyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nathan_Boyer)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 1:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/13 "2026-09-11T13:46:31Z")

</div>

DoomThemes.jl worked for me. However, it isn’t in the general registry, so you have to add it by url:  
`pkg> add https://code.tecosaur.net/tec/DoomThemes.jl.git`

![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/3/3/33a5a2b9725c54353bda5c6f07937628f592538c.png)

The theme list is larger, but still not large enough. Nothing to match the One Dark Pro VSCode extension for example. It’s also hard to search since there is no obvious ordering to the theme list.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mihalybaci](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mihalybaci/32/13528_2.png) [@mihalybaci](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mihalybaci)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 1:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/14 "2026-09-11T13:55:38Z")

</div>

I don’t know if I missed it in the docs somewhere, but what is the best way to permanently change the highlight style? The way I have it now is simply to add the line

```julia-auto
@eval colorscheme!("Dracula")

```

to my `startup.jl` file along with the standard OhMYREPL.jl startup script.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nathan\_Boyer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nathan_boyer/32/14825_2.png) [@Nathan\_Boyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nathan_Boyer)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 1:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/15 "2026-09-11T13:58:41Z")

</div>

That works for me without `@eval` 🤷‍♂️

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mihalybaci](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mihalybaci/32/13528_2.png) [@mihalybaci](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mihalybaci)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 2:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/16 "2026-09-11T14:00:15Z")

</div>

hmmmmmmm, when I set the colorscheme and restart Julia, the default theme switches back to the Monokai default. I will need to do some more investigation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kellertuer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kellertuer/32/220707_2.png) [@kellertuer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kellertuer)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 2:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/17 "2026-09-11T14:12:34Z")

</div>

Just `using OhMyREPL` yields Monokai, yes. You need to set the colorscheme in your startup, if you want something different, but you can to that without the eval upfront, at least in my startup just the `colorscheme!` command works just fine.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tecosaur](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tecosaur/32/23206_2.png) [@tecosaur](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tecosaur)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 11:23am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/18 "2026-09-13T11:23:23Z")

</div>

If you can collect any more info on what’s going on here, I’d be very interested to hear more.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nhz2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nhz2/32/44428_2.png) [@nhz2](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nhz2)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 3:52pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/19 "2026-09-13T15:52:27Z")

</div>

I think there is a timeout bug here: [https://code.tecosaur.net/tec/DoomThemes.jl/src/commit/d63d1acf5b5957abaacf1836b53ad3eb39c85235/src/termtheme.jl#L47](https://code.tecosaur.net/tec/DoomThemes.jl/src/commit/d63d1acf5b5957abaacf1836b53ad3eb39c85235/src/termtheme.jl#L47)

`start - time() < timeout` looks backwards. (it should also probably be using `time_ns` since `time` might not be monotonic)

This whole function is using undocumented internal base functions, so it is hard to know what is going on. There is probably a way to do what you are trying to do using tasks, channels, and timers.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tecosaur](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tecosaur/32/23206_2.png) [@tecosaur](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tecosaur)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 4:07pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-enable-repl-syntax-highlighting-in-1-13/139340/20 "2026-09-13T16:07:23Z")

</div>

Oh yea, that bit is impossible to do correctly with Julia and libuv. I’ve bothered Jameosn and a few others on this. It’s been a while, but I remember trying a whole bunch of alternative approaches.

The best way to do this is lazily as part of REPL, which we’ll start doing in 1.14 (see my PR: [Read the terminal colour scheme on REPL startup - Pull Request #59958 - JuliaLang/julia - GitHub](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/59958)).

In the meantime, you can use `DoomThemes.load(<theme>, false)` (`false` = don’t do anything with with the current terminal) and `DoomThemes.applytheme!` should work just fine.

I’ve also added pre-generated TOML files in a branch: [https://code.tecosaur.net/tec/DoomThemes.jl/src/branch/toml-themes](https://code.tecosaur.net/tec/DoomThemes.jl/src/branch/toml-themes)

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