Config File

Place dendROS.yaml inside your package's config/ directory:

my_bringup/
├── config/
│   └── dendROS.yaml
├── launch/
│   └── main.launch.py
└── CMakeLists.txt

DendROS discovers the file automatically via ros2 pkg prefix or AMENT_PREFIX_PATH. No path configuration required.

Let dendros init do the scaffolding

Running dendros init generates this file from your launch files and patches your build system to install it. See dendros init.

Full example

groups:

  localization:
    color: "bold blue"
    label: "LOC"
    nodes:
      - slam_toolbox
      - robot_localization
      - "*/amcl"           # matches amcl under any namespace

  navigation:
    color: "bold green"
    label: "NAV"
    nodes:
      - nav2_*             # covers all nav2_* nodes

  hardware:
    color: "#CC8800"
    label: "HW"
    show_tag: false        # suppress badge for this group only
    color_mode: full_line  # per-group: color entire line
    tag_style: inverted    # per-group: colored background, empty letters
    nodes:
      - robot_state_publisher
      - joint_state_publisher

defaults:
  color_mode: "tag_only"
  show_group_tag: true
  tag_position: "after"
  tag_style: "normal"      # normal | inverted
  unmatched_color: null
  unmatched_tag: null
  dim_unmatched: false
  colorize_launch_msgs: true

Groups

Key	Required	Description
`color`	yes	Color for this group. See Colors.
`label`	no	Short badge text shown as `[LOC]`. Empty string = no badge.
`nodes`	yes	List of node name patterns.
`show_tag`	no	`false` suppresses the badge for this group only.
`color_mode`	no	Per-group override: `tag_only` or `full_line`.
`tag_style`	no	Per-group override: `normal` (colored text) or `inverted` (colored background).
`highlight`	no	List of keyword entries to highlight within this group's lines. See Keyword highlighting.

Node matching

The numeric suffix (-1, -2) is stripped before matching.

Pattern	Matches
`slam_toolbox`	`[slam_toolbox-1]`, `[slam_toolbox-2]`, …
`/my_ns/talker`	only nodes at that exact namespace path
`nav2_*`	`nav2_controller`, `nav2_planner`, …
`*/amcl`	`/robot/amcl`, `/my_ns/amcl`, …
`controller`	any node whose basename contains `controller`
`node_?`	`node_a`, `node_b`, …

Lookup order (first match wins): exact full-path → exact basename → wildcard full-path → wildcard basename.

Defaults section

Key	Default	Description
`color_mode`	`tag_only`	`tag_only` or `full_line`.
`show_group_tag`	`true`	Show `[TAG]` badges for this package.
`tag_position`	`after`	`after` → `[node-N] [TAG] …` · `before` → `[TAG] [node-N] …`.
`tag_style`	`normal`	`normal` (colored text) or `inverted` (colored background, empty letters).
`highlight`	`[]`	List of keyword entries applied to all matched nodes in this package. See Keyword highlighting.
`unmatched_color`	`null`	Color for unmatched nodes. `null` = pass through.
`unmatched_tag`	`null`	Badge for unmatched nodes (e.g. `"?"` → `[?]`). Requires `unmatched_color`.
`dim_unmatched`	`false`	Dim unmatched nodes. Only when `unmatched_color: null`.
`colorize_launch_msgs`	`true`	Colorize `[INFO] [node-N]: process started …` lifecycle lines.

color_mode

tag_only (default)full_line

Colors only the [node-N] prefix and [TAG] badge. ROS 2 severity colors are preserved — [WARN] stays yellow, [ERROR] stays red.

color_mode: tag_only

[slam_toolbox-1] [LOC] [INFO] [1234.1]: map loaded
[controller_server-1] [NAV] [WARN] [1234.2]: Costmap is empty

Colors the entire line in the group's color. Severity colors are overridden.

color_mode: full_line

[slam_toolbox-1] [LOC] [INFO] [1234.1]: map loaded
[controller_server-1] [NAV] [WARN] [1234.2]: Costmap is empty

Priority order (most specific wins): per-group color_mode: → per-package defaults.color_mode: → global dendros config.

Keyword highlighting

Keyword Highlighting

The highlight: (or also highlights:) key can appear under a group (applies only to that group's nodes) or under defaults: (applies to all matched nodes in the package). Keyword highlighting is the final colorization step — it runs after node-prefix coloring, badge insertion, and full-line coloring, so it never disrupts existing ANSI codes.

Keyword entry fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
`word`	string	required	Text to match. Treated as a literal string unless `regex: true`.
`color`	string	null	Highlight color. Accepts the same formats as `color:` on a group. `null` = use the node/group color.
`bold`	bool	false	Apply bold to the highlight (appends `;1` to the resolved code).
`inverted`	bool	false	Apply reverse-video to the highlight (colored background, empty letters).
`case_sensitive`	bool	false	Match case-sensitively.
`regex`	bool	false	Treat `word` as a regex pattern.

Keyword priority: group-level keywords take precedence over defaults-level keywords. When multiple keywords match the same text, the first entry in the list wins.

Example

groups:
  localization:
    color: "bold blue"
    label: "LOC"
    highlight:
      - word: "map loaded"      # use group color (bold blue), case-insensitive
        bold: true
      - word: "CRITICAL"
        color: "bold red"
        inverted: true          # colored background, empty letters
      - word: "pos: \\d+\\.\\d+"
        regex: true             # regex pattern
        color: "#FF8800"
    nodes:
      - slam_toolbox

defaults:
  highlight:
    - word: "WARN"              # applies to all matched nodes in this package
      color: "bold yellow"
    - word: "timeout"
      color: "bold red"