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Colour Configuration

FindeRS provides coloured output for better readability. This page explains how to configure and control colours.

Default Behaviour

Colours are automatic by default:

  • On when outputting to a terminal (TTY)
  • Off when piping to another command or file

This “just works” for most use cases without any configuration.

Colour Scheme

When colours are enabled:

  • File paths: Green
  • Line numbers: Cyan
  • Match highlights: Bold white on blue background

Force Colours On

Use --colour to force colours on, even when piping:

finder -s "pattern" --colour | less -R

The -R flag tells less to display colours correctly.

Force Colours Off

Use --no-colour to force colours off:

finder -s "pattern" --no-colour

Useful for:

  • Saving output to files
  • Ensuring plain text in scripts
  • Terminal compatibility issues

Environment Variables

FindeRS respects standard colour environment variables.

NO_COLOR

Disables all colours when set (any value):

NO_COLOR=1 finder -s "pattern"

Learn more at no-colour.org.

CLICOLOR

Controls colour support:

CLICOLOR=0 finder -s "pattern"  # Disable colours
CLICOLOR=1 finder -s "pattern"  # Enable colours (with TTY detection)

CLICOLOR_FORCE

Forces colours on, even when not outputting to a terminal:

CLICOLOR_FORCE=1 finder -s "pattern"

Learn more at bixense.com/clicolours.

Priority Order

When multiple settings conflict, FindeRS uses this priority:

  1. CLI flags (--colour or --no-colour)
  2. NO_COLOR environment variable
  3. CLICOLOR_FORCE environment variable
  4. CLICOLOR environment variable
  5. Auto-detection (default)

Examples

Force colours for paging

finder -s "TODO" --colour | less -R

Disable colours for file output

finder -s "error" --no-colour > errors.txt

Respect NO_COLOR in scripts

#!/bin/bash
export NO_COLOR=1
finder -s "pattern"  # No colours

Troubleshooting

Colors don’t work in my terminal

  • Check your terminal supports ANSI colours
  • Try forcing colours: finder --colour
  • Check if NO_COLOR is set: echo $NO_COLOR

Colors show as weird characters

Your terminal doesn’t support ANSI escape codes. Use --no-colour.

Colors persist after piping

This is expected behavior. Use --no-colour if needed.

See Also