Spectre.Console Documentation

Spectre.Console uses an inline markup syntax to style text with colors, decorations, and hyperlinks. This reference covers the complete grammar and all available options.

Basic Syntax

Markup tags use square brackets: [style]text[/]

AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[red]Error message[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[bold]Important text[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[blue on white]Highlighted[/]");

The closing tag [/] returns to the default style. Every opening tag needs a matching close.

Color Formats

Named Colors

Use any of the 256 named colors directly:

AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[red]Red text[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[deepskyblue1]Sky blue text[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[grey]Muted text[/]");

See Color Reference for the complete list.

Hex Colors

Use #RRGGBB format for precise colors:

AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[#FF5733]Orange-red text[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[#00FF00]Bright green text[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[#7B68EE]Medium slate blue[/]");

RGB Colors

Use rgb(r,g,b) format with values from 0-255:

AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[rgb(255,87,51)]Orange-red text[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[rgb(0,255,0)]Bright green text[/]");

Background Colors

Use on to set the background color:

AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[white on red]White text on red background[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[black on #FFFF00]Black on yellow[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[on blue]Default text on blue background[/]");

Text Decorations

Apply text decorations to change how text appears:

Decoration	Example	Description
`bold`	`[bold]text[/]`	Bold/bright text
`dim`	`[dim]text[/]`	Dimmed/faint text
`italic`	`[italic]text[/]`	Italic text
`underline`	`[underline]text[/]`	Underlined text
`strikethrough`	`[strikethrough]text[/]`	Strikethrough text
`invert`	`[invert]text[/]`	Swap foreground/background
`conceal`	`[conceal]text[/]`	Hidden text (for passwords)
`slowblink`	`[slowblink]text[/]`	Slowly blinking text
`rapidblink`	`[rapidblink]text[/]`	Rapidly blinking text

Combining Styles

Separate multiple styles with spaces:

AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[bold red]Bold red text[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[italic underline blue]Styled text[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[bold yellow on darkblue]Warning banner[/]");

The order doesn't matter: [bold red] and [red bold] are equivalent.

Hyperlinks

Create clickable links with the link attribute:

// Link with URL as display text
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[link]https://spectreconsole.net[/]");
  
// Link with custom display text
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[link=https://spectreconsole.net]Spectre.Console Docs[/]");
  
// Link with styles
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[blue underline link=https://github.com]GitHub[/]");

Note

Hyperlinks require terminal support. Windows Terminal, iTerm2, and many modern terminals support them. Legacy terminals display the text without the link functionality.

Nesting Tags

Tags can be nested to apply additional styles:

AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[blue]Blue [bold]and bold[/] just blue[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[red]Error: [underline]file.txt[/] not found[/]");

Each [/] closes the most recent tag:

[blue]Blue text [bold]bold blue text[/] back to blue[/] default

Escaping Special Characters

Escaping Brackets

Double the brackets to display literal [ and ]:

AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("Array syntax: [[0]], [[1]], [[2]]");
// Output: Array syntax: [0], [1], [2]
  
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("Tags look like [[bold]]text[[/]]");
// Output: Tags look like [bold]text[/]

Escaping Dynamic Content

Use Markup.Escape() for user input or dynamic strings that might contain brackets:

string userInput = "Config [debug] enabled";
string safe = Markup.Escape(userInput);
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine($"[green]Status:[/] {safe}");

Without escaping, [debug] would be interpreted as a (invalid) style tag and throw an exception.

Using EscapeInterpolated

For interpolated strings, use MarkupLineInterpolated() which automatically escapes interpolated values:

string filename = "data[1].json";
int count = 42;
AnsiConsole.MarkupLineInterpolated($"[green]Processed[/] {filename}: {count} items");

This is safer and cleaner than manually escaping each value.

Removing Markup

Strip all markup tags from a string with Markup.Remove():

string styled = "[bold red]Error:[/] Something failed";
string plain = Markup.Remove(styled);
// Result: "Error: Something failed"

Useful for logging plain text versions or calculating display width.

Emoji Support

Use emoji shortcodes with colons:

AnsiConsole.MarkupLine(":check_mark: Task completed");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine(":warning: Proceed with caution");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine(":rocket: Deploying...");

See Emoji Reference for available shortcodes.

Common Pitfalls

Unclosed Tags

Every [style] needs a matching [/]:

// Wrong - unclosed tag
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[red]Error message");
  
// Correct
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[red]Error message[/]");

Unescaped Brackets

User input with brackets will cause parsing errors:

string input = "array[0]";
  
// Wrong - throws exception
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine($"Value: {input}");
  
// Correct - escape the input
AnsiConsole.MarkupLineInterpolated($"Value: {input}");
// Or
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine($"Value: {Markup.Escape(input)}");

Invalid Style Names

Misspelled or invalid style names throw exceptions:

// Wrong - "rde" is not a valid color
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[rde]Error[/]");
  
// Correct
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[red]Error[/]");

Case Sensitivity

Style names are case-insensitive:

// All equivalent
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[RED]text[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[Red]text[/]");
AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[red]text[/]");

Quick Reference Table

Syntax	Description
`[red]text[/]`	Foreground color
`[on blue]text[/]`	Background color
`[red on white]text[/]`	Foreground and background
`[bold]text[/]`	Decoration
`[bold red]text[/]`	Combined styles
`[#FF0000]text[/]`	Hex color
`[rgb(255,0,0)]text[/]`	RGB color
`[link=url]text[/]`	Hyperlink
`[[text]]`	Escaped brackets
`:emoji:`	Emoji shortcode

Markup Reference