OSC 4 — Palette Set / Query

Sequence	OSC 4 ; <index> ; rgb:R/G/B ST (set) · OSC 4 ; <index> ; ? ST (query)
Otty support	✓ (full 0–255 range)

Description

Sets or queries one entry of the terminal's 256-color palette — the same indices that SGR 38;5;<n> / SGR 48;5;<n> reference. Used by tools that ship their own color schemes (base16, dotfiles color managers) without touching the terminal config.

Range	Meaning
0–15	ANSI 16 (the standard palette colors)
16–231	6×6×6 RGB cube
232–255	24-step grayscale ramp

Color spec accepted

Same family as OSC 10/11/12: rgb:RR/GG/BB, rgb:R/G/B, rgb:RRRR/GGGG/BBBB, #RGB, #RRGGBB, #RRRGGGBBB, #RRRRGGGGBBBB.

Examples

# Make ANSI 1 (red) a bright orange-red
printf '\e]4;1;#ff5533\e\\'

# base16-style — apply a whole 16-color scheme in one pass
for i in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15; do
  printf '\e]4;%d;%s\e\\' "$i" "${TOKYONIGHT_PALETTE[$i]}"
done

# Query ANSI 4 (blue) — reply lands on stdin
printf '\e]4;4;?\e\\'

Reset

OSC 104 — printf '\e]104;1\e\\' resets index 1; bare printf '\e]104\e\\' resets all 256.

Related

• OSC 10/11/12/17/19 — named slots beyond the palette.
• OSC 104 — palette reset companion.
• CSI #P/Q/R — XTPUSHCOLORS
• Themes