---
key: set-your-workspace-colors
title: Set your workspace colours
audience: staff
section: administration
routes: ["/settings/org/branding"]
permissions: ["org.settings.branding.read"]
features: ["settings.org.general"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Colour the top bar and sidebar to match your brand, set separate light and dark looks, decide whether staff may override them, and save when the live preview looks right.
keywords: [brand colours, theme, top bar colour, sidebar colour, dark mode, company colours, look and feel, white label]
related: [save-branding-as-a-shared-preset, update-your-company-details]
---

In the sidebar, open **Administration**, then choose **Branding** under **Company**. The page address is `/settings/org/branding`.

## Before you start

- Anyone whose role can read branding settings can open the page and see the preview. To change anything, your admin has to give your role permission to write branding; otherwise the page says it is read-only.
- Nothing changes for your team until you press **Save changes**. Until then you are only previewing.

## Steps

1. Under **Workspace Theme**, pick the look you are editing: **Light variant** or **Dark variant**. Nova uses whichever matches the appearance each person has chosen.
2. Under **Top Bar**, choose a **Display style** of **Solid** or **Gradient**, then set **Top bar primary color**. A gradient also asks for **Top bar secondary color**, used at the right-hand end.
3. Under **Sidebar**, set **Sidebar background color** and **Sidebar text color**.
4. If your plan includes it, **App Theme Tokens** lets you recolour buttons, text, cards, inputs and borders too.
5. Check the **Live preview** on the right. The real top bar and sidebar change as you edit, and **Color contrast warnings** lists any pairing that is hard to read.
6. Once one variant looks right, press **Generate dark from light** (or **Generate light from dark**) to build the other one, then adjust it.
7. Press **Save changes**.

## What you see

- The four cards at the top summarise the state of **Workspace Theme**, **Shared Presets**, **Personal Overrides** and **Theme Overrides** for your plan.
- **Allow personal overrides** decides whether team members may use **My Branding** to keep their own colours in this organization. Click anywhere on the card to switch it; the label reads **Overrides allowed** or **Overrides blocked**.
- **Reset to Nova default** puts everything back to Nova's own colours. It takes effect straight away.
- The status line under the preview reads "Unsaved changes." until you save, then "All changes saved.".

## If something looks different

- The colour fields are locked: your role can only read branding. Ask your admin.
- **App Theme Tokens** says overrides are disabled: your plan does not include theme token overrides. Top bar and sidebar colours still work.
- **Generate dark from light** is missing: automatic variant generation is not in your plan. Set the dark colours by hand.
- You want a ready-made look instead of picking colours: see [[save-branding-as-a-shared-preset]] for the **Preset Library**.

[[route:/settings/org/branding|Open Branding]]