Feature: Role-based color differentiation (user / agent / sub-backend / tools)

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Feature: Role-based color differentiation (user / agent / sub-backend / tools)

Problem

Currently, all messages in the TUI are rendered in a single color scheme.
When the user works with multiple backends (DeepSeek API, OpenClaw CLI,
Hermes, etc.) or sub-agents, it's hard to visually distinguish:

• User input vs DeepSeek agent response
• DeepSeek main response vs sub-backend output (OpenClaw / Hermes)
• Tool execution results (shell output)

This is friction in "TUI as multi-backend control panel" workflows.

Proposed solution

Add a [display.colors] section to config.toml with role-based ANSI color
mappings:

[display.colors]
user = "93"           # bright yellow
agent = "36"          # cyan
tool_output = "33"    # gold
subagent = "35"       # magenta (for sub-agents / delegated calls)
backend_openclaw = "35"
backend_hermes = "214"

Or more general:

[display.roles]
user = { fg = "bright yellow" }
agent = { fg = "cyan" }
tool = { fg = "yellow" }
subagent = { fg = "magenta" }

Use case

The user described their setup as:

"TUI is the central console connecting multiple backends —
DeepSeek as the main reasoning engine, OpenClaw via CLI for
tool execution (music generation, browser), Hermes for memory
persistence."

With color-coded backend sources, the user can see at a glance
which system produced which output.

Existing references

• Issue UI/UX improvement: Better color contrast and text readability for long sessions #1070 discusses color contrast / readability improvements
• Many terminal tools support ANSI 256-color customization
  (bat --theme, delta --syntax-theme, etc.)
• This proposal extends contrast improvements into semantic role coloring

Acceptance criteria

• config.toml supports per-role fg/bg ANSI 256-color values
• Falls back to current defaults if not configured
• Works across terminal emulators supporting 256-color or true color
• Future-proof: adding a backend only requires an additional color key

[Hmbown]

great idea - thank you.