---
title: How do I change the theme and layout?
question: theme and layout
area: settings
order: 2
surface: desktop
audience: beginner
keywords: [theme, dark mode, light mode, dracula, color, colour, appearance, layout, sidebar, sidebar size, active quadrants, git sidebar, preview placement, layouts, presets, startup view, default view]
related: [where-are-the-settings, per-project-vs-global-settings]
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# How do I change the theme and layout?

Open the gear (**⚙**) at the top-right of the coding workspace and pick from the dropdown, or open the full settings page and click **Appearance**. From there you can change the **Theme**, the **Sidebar size**, which **Active quadrants** show, the **Git sidebar** side, the **Preview placement**, and apply one-click **Layouts**. Changes apply straight away.

## Theme

The **Theme** row has three choices: **dark**, **dracula**, and **light**. New installs start on **dracula**. Click one to switch the whole app instantly. There is no separate "system" or "auto" theme; you pick one of the three.

## Sidebar size

**Sidebar size** sets how wide the sidebars are, with four choices: **none**, **narrow**, **medium**, and **wide**. Pick **none** to hide them and give your terminals the full width. New installs start on **medium**.

## Active quadrants

A quadrant is one of the terminal panels in the coding grid. **Active quadrants** shows a button for each quadrant in the tab you are on (**Q1**, **Q2**, **Q3**, **Q4**). A highlighted button means that quadrant is showing; click it to turn that quadrant off, and click again to bring it back.

If you turn them all off, the grid reads:

> No quadrants enabled — open ⚙ to turn some on.

For more on quadrants, see [What is a quadrant?](../quadrants/what-is-a-quadrant.md).

## Git sidebar

**Git sidebar** has two choices, **left** and **right**. This puts the git sidebar (changes, files, history, pull requests) on that side of the workspace. New installs put it on the **left**.

## Preview placement

**Preview placement** controls how the app preview appears next to your terminals. Two choices:

- **manual**: each terminal gets its own preview in its row partner, so you can have up to two previews at once.
- **follow**: a single preview that retargets to whichever terminal you last clicked. New installs use **follow**.

When **follow** is selected, a smaller sub-choice appears underneath:

- **Browser fixed on top**: the browser always stays in the top row, and only the column flips when you change focus. This keeps a stable visual frame. This is the default.
- **Browser follows active quadrant**: the browser sits in the focused terminal's row partner, so it moves around more but stays closer to what you are working on.

See [How do I open the preview to see my app?](../browser/how-do-i-open-the-preview-to-see-my-app.md).

## Layouts

**Layouts** are one-click presets that set several of the above at once (which quadrants show, sidebar size, preview placement, and which previews are open). There are three:

- **Preview pair**: "Q1 + Q3 terminals, Q2 + Q4 previews, sidebars on"
- **Quad terminals**: "All four quadrants, sidebars on, no previews"
- **Solo**: "Q1 terminal · Q2 preview · Q4 DevTools"

Click one and the layout changes in a single step. You can then fine-tune any individual control afterwards.

## Default startup view (full page only)

The full **Appearance** section has one control the dropdown does not: **Default startup view**. This picks which top-level view codus opens on launch. The useful choices are **coding**, **planner**, and **plans**; **Default** opens the coding workspace.

## How do I know it worked?

The change happens as you click, with no Save button and no restart. The theme swaps colours instantly; layout choices redraw the grid right away.

## Common problems

- **My theme did not stick after restart.** It is saved automatically. If it reverts, you may have two codus windows open that disagree; close the extra window and set it once more.
- **The "email" startup option does nothing useful.** In the current release the email view is turned off, so choosing **email** as your startup view opens the coding workspace instead. Pick **coding**, **planner**, or **plans**.