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Reference > Settings & account

Appearance

Theme, text size, and interface options.

The Appearance page controls how the window and your terminal blocks look. Like every settings page, changes apply immediately and persist to ~/.mel/settings.json — see the Settings overview.

Window

Zoom

A dropdown that scales the entire UI. Available steps: 80%, 90%, 100%, 110%, 125%, 150%. The default is 100%. This is a real UI zoom factor — text, chrome, and spacing all scale together, so it's the right knob if Mel feels too small on a high-DPI display or too large on a laptop.

Blocks

These two toggles shape how command blocks render in the scrollback:

  • Show block dividers (on by default) — draws a thin hairline between consecutive blocks so each command's readout is visually separated. Turn it off for a completely flush scrollback.
  • Compact block header (off by default) — folds the directory and timestamp into the command row itself instead of giving each block a separate header line. The currently selected block always keeps its full header, so you never lose context on the block you're inspecting.

Panes

  • Dim inactive panes (off by default) — when your tab is split into multiple panes, panes without focus are rendered slightly darker. Useful when you run several sessions side by side and want your eye drawn to the one receiving keystrokes.

Notes

  • All three toggles are the standard pill switches; blue means on.
  • Appearance settings are global — they apply to every tab and pane, not per session.
  • If you prefer editing by hand, the backing fields in ~/.mel/settings.json are zoom, show_block_dividers, compact_block_header, and dim_inactive_panes. Use the </> Open settings file button in the settings nav to jump straight to the file.

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