---
title: Personalize PonyMux
description: Make serious work feel alive with themes, animated session pets, per-Terminal cursor effects, and small moments of celebration.
---

Personalization in PonyMux is meant to make a focused workspace feel human, not
to add another system to manage. The choices stay at the edges of the product:
they can express identity or activity while the Terminal itself remains familiar.


*PonyMux interface view: personalize.*


## Themes

Open **Settings → Appearance** to browse the available dark and light themes.
Each tile previews real terminal roles—prompt, agent output, emphasis, errors, and
warnings—so choosing a theme is closer to checking readability than picking a
color swatch.

Selecting a theme applies it immediately across the PonyMux interface and every
Terminal without restarting their processes. Choose **Follow System** to switch
automatically between the Apple System Colors light and dark themes as macOS
appearance changes.


*PonyMux interface view: appearance.*


## Pets

When agent integrations are connected, each live Claude Code or Codex session can
have a small animated companion above the PonyMux window. A pet is an ambient view
of the same activity shown by status indicators: it works while the agent is
running, waits when the agent needs you, rests while standing by, and reacts to an
error. Shell-only and ended sessions do not put a pet on stage.

Each Terminal receives a pet when it is created and keeps that companion. Click a
pet in the parade to jump to its Terminal, or use the Terminal's Inspector to pick
a different pet or hide it for that Terminal.

Use **Settings → General → Pets** to show or hide pets globally, choose the default
for new Terminals, and rescan the catalog. PonyMux includes its own pets and can
also read compatible pets supplied by ChatGPT or placed in `~/.codex/pets/`.

## Screen effects

Screen effects add a small animation to the Terminal cursor. PonyMux includes four
effects—Cursor Warp, Cursor Tail, Cursor Sweep, and Ripple Cursor—and they run as
part of the Terminal rendering rather than as an overlay on the app.

Choose the default for new Terminals in **Settings → Terminal → Screen Effect**.
To change an existing Terminal independently, open its action menu and choose
**Screen Effect**. The change applies immediately without restarting its shell or
agent session.

## Meaningful moments

[Reactions](/docs/organize#reactions) give a Terminal a small persistent marker and
a brief visual burst when added. They are useful for moments worth remembering or
celebrating without turning those moments into another formal workflow.

Together, themes, pets, effects, and reactions support the same idea described in
the [product philosophy](/docs/philosophy#serious-work-should-still-feel-alive):
serious work can stay calm and still feel alive.