Customization Guide

Change the look and feel of oxide-chat without touching any code.

The chat interface ships pre-built and ready to use, so there are no stylesheets or scripts for you to edit. Instead, you customize the chat in two places:

1. The in-game Appearance settings — each player opens /chat customize and adjusts how chat looks for them.
2. The server-wide settings — chat type styling (colors, prefixes), starting defaults, category tabs, and more. On a running server an admin edits these live with /chat settings; config/main.lua supplies the starting values. See How Settings Are Stored for exactly how the file and the live panel relate.

In-Game Appearance Settings

Every player can personalize their own chat. Open the settings panel by typing /chat customize in chat (or clicking the gear icon in the chat header), then use the Appearance tab.

Style Presets

Each preset is a complete look for the message feed and input box. Players pick one from the Style dropdown; the change previews live before saving.

Other tabs let each player set the chat position on screen, font size, fade time, timestamps, and toggle per-type colors and visibility. See Features — Settings Panel for the full list.

Server-Wide Defaults

The values a player sees the very first time (before they change anything) come from Config.DefaultSettings. On a running server, edit these live in the admin panel (/chat settings → Players → Player Defaults). The config/main.lua values below are the factory starting point — see How Settings Are Stored.

Config.DefaultSettings = {
    position = 'top-left',
    fontSize = 14,

    appearance = {
        stylePreset = 'bubbles',       -- 'bubbles', 'discord', 'timeline', 'masonry', 'compact', 'cards', 'float', 'panel', 'retro', 'glass'
        backgroundOpacity = 75,        -- 0-100%
        chatWidth = 480,               -- 320-640px
        chatHeight = 320,              -- 160-600px
        messageDensity = 'comfortable',-- 'compact', 'comfortable', 'spacious'
        showTabBar = true,
    },
}

See Configuration — Default Player Settings for every default option and its accepted values.

Chat Type Styling

Every chat type on your server — regular messages, /me, OOC, announcements, private messages, and your custom radios — lives in a single list, and each one's color, prefix, and italic styling is set right there. On a running server, edit the list live in /chat settings (Messaging → Chat Types).

The built-in message kinds sit at the top of that list as built-in rows (builtin = true). You can restyle them — change the label, prefix, color, and italics — but you can't rename or remove them. The config/main.lua values below are the factory starting point:

Config.ChatChannels = {
    { builtin = true, id = 'ooc', label = 'OOC',
      prefix = 'OOC', color = '#C47A2C' },       -- Any hex color
    { builtin = true, id = 'me', label = '/me Actions',
      color = '#F4F5F7', italic = true },        -- Italicize the message
    { builtin = true, id = 'system', label = 'System Messages',
      prefix = 'SYSTEM', color = '#5F6670' },
    -- ...the other built-in rows, then your custom channels
}

Adding a Custom Chat Type

To give a new message type its own color and prefix, add a custom row to the chat types list. The easiest way is in-game: open /chat settings → Messaging → Chat Types, click Add, and fill in the styling and access fields — no file editing, no restart. The same row as a factory default in config/main.lua looks like this:

{
    command = 'taxi', label = 'Taxi Radio',
    prefix = 'TAXI', color = '#FFFF00', italic = false,
    scope = 'global', restrict = 'none',
}

A custom row's chat type ID can't be one of the built-in ones (me, do, ooc, pm, and so on). See the Admin Guide for a walkthrough of every field, and Exports & API for sending messages with your type from another resource.

Category Tabs

The tabs shown above the message list (All, Local, Job, PMs, etc.) are a server-wide setting. On a running server, edit them live in /chat settings (Messaging → Categories) — rename tabs, change which chat types each one shows, add new tabs, or turn the tab bar off. The config/main.lua values below are the factory starting point.

Config.CategoriesEnabled = true
Config.Categories = {
    { id = 'all',   label = 'All',   types = { '*' } },
    { id = 'local', label = 'Local', types = { 'me', 'do', 'whisper', 'shout' } },
    { id = 'job',   label = 'Job',   types = { 'police', 'ambulance', 'mechanic' } },
}

See Configuration — Chat Categories for the full reference.

Sharing Settings

Players can move their exact chat setup between characters or share it with friends:

Tips

1. Preview as you go — appearance changes in /chat customize apply live, so you can see the result immediately.
2. Check contrast — when picking chat type colors, make sure the text is easy to read against the background.
3. Clear your cache — if the chat looks broken after an update, clear your FiveM cache and reconnect:

   %localappdata%/FiveM/FiveM.app/data/cache/

4. Need a deeper visual change? The chat interface itself ships pre-built and cannot be edited on your end. If you need something the settings and config options don't cover, contact Oxide Studios support.

Next Steps