/style
Switch the active Claude Code output style from a picker
$ npx -y skills add smixs/awesome-claude-output-styles --agent claude-codeHow it fires
How this command gets triggered: by you, by Claude, or both.
- Fires itselfClaude auto-loads it when your prompt matches the work.
- You can call itInvoke it directly when you want it.
- Slash command
/style
Context preview
What this command does when you run it.
Switch the active Claude Code output style from a picker
Command definition
style.mddescription: Switch the active Claude Code output style from a picker
argument-hint: "[style name | default]"
allowed-tools: Glob, Read, Write, Edit, AskUserQuestion
disable-model-invocation: true
Switch the active output style. Argument (may be empty): `$1`
Do exactly these five steps and nothing else. No summaries of the repo, no suggestions, no extra file reads.
1. Find the installed styles
`Glob` both locations, expanding `~` to the user's home directory:
- user: `~/.claude/output-styles/*.md`
- project: `.claude/output-styles/*.md`, relative to the current directory
`Read` each file. Note its frontmatter `name:` and `description:`, and which of the two locations it came from. When the same `name:` exists in both, keep the project copy and drop the user copy — that is Claude Code's own precedence.
Note the style already active, so the picker can lead with it: read `outputStyle` from `.claude/settings.local.json` if that file exists, otherwise from `~/.claude/settings.json`.
If neither location has a single style file, say so in one line, point at `https://github.com/smixs/awesome-claude-output-styles#install`, and stop.
2. Decide the target
If `$1` is not empty, match it case-insensitively against the `name:` values and the filename stems. `default`, `none` and `off` all mean "remove the setting". No match: say so, list the valid names, stop.
If `$1` is empty, ask with `AskUserQuestion`, header `Style`, question "Which output style?". One option per style: label is its `name:`, description is its frontmatter `description:`, prefixed with `Project style.` when it came from the project directory, so the user can see which settings file is about to change.
The popup holds four options, and this collection ships twenty styles, so page them:
- Order: the active style first, then the rest alphabetically by `name:`. Stable
across runs. Never order by modification time — installing several styles at once gives them near-identical timestamps and the pages come out shuffled.
- Every page carries `Default` ("Claude Code's built-in style, no custom
instructions"), so switching off is always one click away.
- Three styles or fewer: one page holding all of them plus `Default`.
- More: each page holds two styles, `Default`, and `More styles…`. The last page
holds up to three styles plus `Default`.
- Whatever the user types under Other is matched exactly like `$1`.
3. Pick the settings file
Take it from where the chosen style lives, so a style is never activated in a project that does not have it:
- a user style → `~/.claude/settings.json`
- a project style → `.claude/settings.local.json`, which is personal and
git-ignored by convention, so the choice stays out of a teammate's checkout
4. Write it
Treat each settings file as JSON, never as lines: a line edit corrupts a minified or single-key file. `Read` the file and parse it first when it exists.
- A style was chosen: set the top-level `"outputStyle"` to that style's exact
`name:` value. Add the key when absent, change the value when present, leave every other key untouched. When the file is missing or empty, `Write` `{ "outputStyle": "<Name>" }`.
- `Default` was chosen: remove `"outputStyle"` from **both** settings files.
Clearing one leaves the other still setting a style, so "off" would not be off. When removing the key empties the object, write `{}` — an empty file is invalid JSON and Claude Code fails to load it. A file that is absent or has no `"outputStyle"` is left alone.
Keep the file valid JSON at every step.
5. Report
Two lines. What the style is now and which file you wrote. Then: it applies to the next session, so run `/clear` or restart Claude Code.
Read more
description: Switch the active Claude Code output style from a picker argument-hint: "[style name | default]" allowed-tools: Glob, Read, Write, Edit, AskUserQuestion disable-model-invocation: true
Switch the active output style. Argument (may be empty): `$1`
Do exactly these five steps and nothing else. No summaries of the repo, no suggestions, no extra file reads.
1. Find the installed styles
`Glob` both locations, expanding `~` to the user's home directory:
- user: `~/.claude/output-styles/*.md`
- project: `.claude/output-styles/*.md`, relative to the current directory
`Read` each file. Note its frontmatter `name:` and `description:`, and which of the two locations it came from. When the same `name:` exists in both, keep the project copy and drop the user copy — that is Claude Code's own precedence.
Note the style already active, so the picker can lead with it: read `outputStyle` from `.claude/settings.local.json` if that file exists, otherwise from `~/.claude/settings.json`.
If neither location has a single style file, say so in one line, point at `https://github.com/smixs/awesome-claude-output-styles#install`, and stop.
2. Decide the target
If `$1` is not empty, match it case-insensitively against the `name:` values and the filename stems. `default`, `none` and `off` all mean "remove the setting". No match: say so, list the valid names, stop.
If `$1` is empty, ask with `AskUserQuestion`, header `Style`, question "Which output style?". One option per style: label is its `name:`, description is its frontmatter `description:`, prefixed with `Project style.` when it came from the project directory, so the user can see which settings file is about to change.
The popup holds four options, and this collection ships twenty styles, so page them:
- Order: the active style first, then the rest alphabetically by `name:`. Stable
across runs. Never order by modification time — installing several styles at once gives them near-identical timestamps and the pages come out shuffled.
- Every page carries `Default` ("Claude Code's built-in style, no custom
instructions"), so switching off is always one click away.
- Three styles or fewer: one page holding all of them plus `Default`.
- More: each page holds two styles, `Default`, and `More styles…`. The last page
holds up to three styles plus `Default`.
- Whatever the user types under Other is matched exactly like `$1`.
3. Pick the settings file
Take it from where the chosen style lives, so a style is never activated in a project that does not have it:
- a user style → `~/.claude/settings.json`
- a project style → `.claude/settings.local.json`, which is personal and
git-ignored by convention, so the choice stays out of a teammate's checkout
4. Write it
Treat each settings file as JSON, never as lines: a line edit corrupts a minified or single-key file. `Read` the file and parse it first when it exists.
- A style was chosen: set the top-level `"outputStyle"` to that style's exact
`name:` value. Add the key when absent, change the value when present, leave every other key untouched. When the file is missing or empty, `Write` `{ "outputStyle": "<Name>" }`.
- `Default` was chosen: remove `"outputStyle"` from **both** settings files.
Clearing one leaves the other still setting a style, so "off" would not be off. When removing the key empties the object, write `{}` — an empty file is invalid JSON and Claude Code fails to load it. A file that is absent or has no `"outputStyle"` is left alone.
Keep the file valid JSON at every step.
5. Report
Two lines. What the style is now and which file you wrote. Then: it applies to the next session, so run `/clear` or restart Claude Code.
Make Claude talk like a human: 17 installable output styles for Claude Code, built on credited methodologies