Accessibility Features Guide

Overview

FinFocus is designed to be accessible and usable in diverse environments, including those with limited color support, for users with visual impairments, or for automated processing.

This guide explains how to configure display modes, control color output, and use environment variables for persistent accessibility settings.

Target Audience: All Users

Prerequisites:

FinFocus CLI installed

Learning Objectives:

Disable color output for compatibility
Enable high-contrast mode for visibility
Use plain text mode for screen readers or logging
Persist settings via environment variables

Estimated Time: 5 minutes

Quick Start

Configure your preferred display mode instantly.

Step 1: Try Plain Mode

If you use a screen reader or prefer minimal styling:

finfocus cost projected --pulumi-json plan.json --plain

Step 2: Try High Contrast

If you need higher visibility:

finfocus cost projected --pulumi-json plan.json --high-contrast

Step 3: Set Persistent Defaults

Set environment variables in your shell profile (e.g., ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc) to make these settings permanent:

export FINFOCUS_PLAIN=1
# or
export NO_COLOR=1

Configuration Reference

Command Line Flags

These flags are accepted by overview, cost projected, cost actual, and cost recommendations.

Flag	Description	Effect
`--no-color`	Disable colored output	Selects plain text. Wins over `--color` and `--high-contrast`.
`--plain`	Enable plain text mode	Removes colors, borders, and interactive elements. Ideal for screen readers.
`--color`	Force colored output	Styles output when stdout is not a terminal. `--force-color` is the same switch.
`--high-contrast`	Enable high contrast	Brighter budget colors: OK 46, warning 226, critical 196, header 231.

--high-contrast recolors the budget box, including the provider, tag, and type breakdown. overview and cost recommendations accept it and ignore it.

cost projected prints its cost diff as a plain text table in every mode, so there the four flags change only the budget box printed after it. cost actual and cost recommendations follow the flags for their tables as well.

Environment Variables

Environment variables allow you to set preferences globally without typing flags every time.

Variable	Value	Description
`NO_COLOR`	any non-empty	Standard no-color variable. See no-color.org.
`FINFOCUS_PLAIN`	`1` or `true`	Forces plain text mode.
`FORCE_COLOR`	any non-empty value	Forces colored output (force-color.org). `0` and `false` leave it off, as in the supports-color package.
`FINFOCUS_HIGH_CONTRAST`	`1` or `true`	Forces high contrast mode. Invalid values are ignored.

An explicit flag wins over the environment. --plain and --no-color win over --color, --force-color, and --high-contrast. FINFOCUS_PLAIN and NO_COLOR win over FORCE_COLOR and FINFOCUS_HIGH_CONTRAST when those color modes were not set by a flag.

cost history view accepts --plain, and FINFOCUS_PLAIN selects its plain chart when no output format was asked for. An explicit --output json, a --format json, or AGENT_MODE=json keeps the JSON output, so a server or script started with FINFOCUS_PLAIN=1 still gets JSON when it asks for it. An explicit --plain flag still wins. --plain is not a parent cost flag, because cost history view already defines it.

An explicit --color or --high-contrast wins over NO_COLOR, so the whole output, table and budget box, is styled together.

Examples

Example 1: Plain Text Mode

Use Case: Screen readers or log file capture where ANSI codes cause issues.

Command:

finfocus cost projected --pulumi-json plan.json --plain

Output:

Budget: $500.00 (75% used)
$375.00 / $500.00

RESOURCE                          ADAPTER     MONTHLY   CURRENCY  NOTES
aws:ec2/instance:Instance         aws-spec    $375.00   USD       t3.xlarge

Budget display in plain text mode

Figure 1: Clean output without boxes or colors.

Example 2: No Color Mode

Use Case: Terminals that don’t support color or user preference.

Command:

finfocus cost projected --pulumi-json plan.json --no-color

Explanation:

--no-color selects the same plain text path as --plain. Borders and the interactive TUI are omitted, and status text keeps a bracketed label such as [OK] or [WARNING].

Troubleshooting

Issue: Colors still showing despite settings

Symptoms:

You set NO_COLOR=1 but still see colors.

Cause:

Some CI environments force color.
Flag usage might override environment variable.

Solution:

Ensure you aren’t passing --color or --force-color. Verify the environment variable is exported:

echo $NO_COLOR