NERV

A dark editor theme inspired by 80s/90s cyberpunk interfaces, Evangelion's NERV headquarters, and the green-tinted cinematography of Wong Kar-wai. Industrial control terminals meet the melancholic warmth of In the Mood for Love.

NERV Theme

The Aesthetic

Deep oceanic greens meet warning-sign orange. Phosphor glow on aging CRT monitors. The quiet hum of a command terminal in an underground facility. Film grain over midnight corridors.

Color Philosophy:

Background: Deep sea darkness (#0a1612) — the void behind the glass
Foreground: Muted sage (#8fb3a5) — easy on the eyes during extended operations
Accent: Signal orange (#e85d04) — urgent, alive, impossible to ignore
Functions: Subdued purple (#8a5a8a) — mysterious systems at work
Types: Industrial teal (#3a7a8c) — structural, foundational
Strings: Organic green (#4a8c5c) — data in motion

Installation

VS Code

Open VS Code
Go to Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X)
Search for "NERV Theme"
Click Install
Open Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P)
Select "Preferences: Color Theme" → "NERV"

Manual Installation:

# Copy the extension folder to your VS Code extensions directory
cp -r vscode-extension ~/.vscode/extensions/nerv-theme

Zed

Open Zed
Open Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X)
Search for "NERV"
Click Install

Manual Installation:

# Copy the theme to your Zed themes directory
mkdir -p ~/.config/zed/themes
cp zed-extension/themes/nerv.json ~/.config/zed/themes/

Then open Command Palette and select "theme: Select Theme" → "NERV".

Color Palette

Role	Hex
Background	`#0a1612`
Foreground	`#8fb3a5`
Accent	`#e85d04`
Functions	`#8a5a8a`
Types	`#3a7a8c`
Strings	`#4a8c5c`
Numbers	`#d4a017`
Comments	`#4a6a5d`

Inspiration

This theme draws from:

Neon Genesis Evangelion — NERV headquarters, MAGI supercomputer terminals
80s/90s cyberpunk — command centers, surveillance systems, industrial control rooms
Wong Kar-wai — the green-tinted melancholy of In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express
CRT phosphor aesthetics — the glow of late-night terminal sessions

The goal is capturing a feeling—the weight of solitude in a darkened room, information flowing across screens, the human operator at the center of vast systems.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to port NERV to additional editors or improve existing themes, please open a PR.

Credits

Created by Jane Manchun Wong, synthesized with Claude Code (Opus 4.5).

License

MIT License — See LICENSE for details.