[idea:theme-reference]reference2026-08-20

Theme reference

Key	Default	What it sets
`link-color`	`rgba(128, 0, 255, .12)`	The hover background on any rookery link, and the fallback `border-color` takes when you leave it unset.
`fold-color`	`rgba(0, 100, 255, .05)`	The hover background on a window block, unless that window sets `display-background: false`.
`name-color`	`gray`	The `[idea:etal]` name’s own text.
`date-color`	`gray`	An idea’s or a window’s date, where it is shown.
`border-color`	`link-color`	The left rule that an idea, a window and an outline all carry.
`rule-width`	`2px`	How thick that rule is. The card’s corner is arithmetic against it, so the tab the name straddles stays shut when you move it.
`pad`	`0.5em`	The padding every rookery block measures from—an idea’s box, a window’s, and the indent a nested one takes.
`label-font`	`monospace`	The face the `[idea:etal]` name is set in, and the outline’s ‘Contents’ title with it. Both are machinery rather than writing, so both leave the prose face behind.
`label-size`	`0.57rem`	The size of that name. Load-bearing beyond the label: the tab’s lift, a window’s summary and the footer’s padding are all measured against it, so the corner closes at whatever size you choose. `rem` rather than `em`, so it does not shrink again inside a window.
`tags-color`	`(:)`	One color, or a `(text:, background:)` pair, per tag—delivered as a rule on `.idea-tag-<tag>` so it reaches the pill, the outline row’s marker and a search result’s chip alike.

Reference

[idea:css-reference]CSS variable reference

You can override any value from the theme reference as a CSS variable, as well as other aspects of a rookery’s appearance.

Property	Default	What it sets
`--idea-tag-size`	`--idea-label-size`	A tag pill’s font size. Follows the name’s size unless you separate them.
`--idea-tag-radius`	`999px`	A pill’s corner radius.
`--idea-tag-color`, `--idea-tag-bg`	`--idea-name-color`, `rgba(128, 128, 128, .18)`	An untagged-by-`tags-color` pill’s text and background. Setting `tags-color` writes these per tag for you.
`--idea-tag-line`	`--idea-border-color`	The tick an outline row draws off the outline’s rule, where the row’s idea carries a tag.
`--idea-external-color`	`--idea-name-color`	The underline an outbound link takes on hover, in a references block or an idea page’s footer—so a link that leaves your rookery reads differently from one that stays in it.
`--idea-heading-margin-top`	`0.75em`	The space above an idea’s heading. Set this in your own stylesheet to return the heading to your site’s own vertical scale.
`--idea-row-pad-block`	`0.45rem`	An `#idea-row` row’s vertical padding. Published on purpose, and it inherits, so a cell that paints a background can stretch past it rather than reading as a chip sitting in the row.
`--idea-row-gutter`	`7.5em`	The width of a row grid’s first column.
`--idea-muted-color`	`gray`	The color of a de-emphasized row cell, and of a row date marked `soft:`.
`--idea-row-rule-color`	unset	The color of a row’s vertical rule. Read and never set by this package’s own stylesheet, precisely so a layered stylesheet can point it somewhere—a sibling package can run an urgency band down that bar.