diff --git a/.changeset/light-skins.md b/.changeset/light-skins.md
index 6e1f7a33..1244e69b 100644
--- a/.changeset/light-skins.md
+++ b/.changeset/light-skins.md
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
 ---
-"aicodeman": patch
+'aicodeman': patch
 ---
 
-Add four light UI and terminal skins—Paper Gray, Solarized Light, Catppuccin Latte, and Rosé Pine Dawn—with readable native controls, xterm palettes, and stateful mobile/response-viewer surfaces.
+Add four light UI and terminal skins: Paper Gray, Solarized Light, Catppuccin Latte, and Rosé Pine Dawn. The Skin picker now groups Light and Dark options, and each light skin ships a matching xterm ANSI palette plus `color-scheme: light` so native selects, date pickers and scrollbars stop rendering as dark OS widgets on a light page. Terminals set `minimumContrastRatio: 4.5` under a light skin (main terminal and teammate terminals both), which keeps CLI output that assumes a dark background readable, and `applyTerminalSkin()` now refreshes the zero-lag input overlay so typed-but-unflushed text does not keep the previous theme's colors.
+
+Elevated surfaces (modals, command palette, dropdowns, subagent and ultracode windows, file preview, attachment tray, mobile sheets) now resolve through shared `--floating-bg` / `--control-*` / `--banner-bg-*` / `--modal-backdrop` / `--elevated-shadow` tokens instead of hardcoded near-black rgba, so they follow whichever skin is active. On the Daylight skins this lifts modals slightly off the page background; OG Codeman pins its own near-black value to keep that palette neutral.
+
+Also defines twelve CSS compatibility aliases (`--bg-primary`, `--bg-secondary`, `--bg-tertiary`, `--text-primary`, `--text-secondary`, `--border-color`, `--accent-color`, `--success`, `--error`, `--danger`, `--font-mono`, `--shadow-lg`) that panels and overlays already referenced in about 79 places but which were never actually declared, so those rules silently resolved to nothing. Status badges and accent-tinted pills (search filter chips and result badges, session tab mode pills, respawn state, Ralph priority and circuit-breaker badges, tunnel and voice status, mobile case picker) no longer keep their pale light-on-dark ink under a light skin, where it measured 1.0 to 1.9:1 and made the search filter chips invisible.
+
+New static regression `test/skin-themes.test.ts` guards the four-way parity between the CSS token block, the xterm palette, the pre-paint allowlist and the Settings picker.
diff --git a/src/web/public/styles.css b/src/web/public/styles.css
index b06f6f03..83f61194 100644
--- a/src/web/public/styles.css
+++ b/src/web/public/styles.css
@@ -159,6 +159,10 @@ html[data-skin="og"] {
   --term-bg: #0d0d0d;
   --green: #22c55e; --yellow: #eab308; --red: #ef4444;
   --glass-bg: rgba(19, 19, 22, 0.85); --glass-border: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.06);
+  /* OG is a neutral near-black palette with no blue in it. Without this the
+     :root slate default would repaint every modal/palette/floating window
+     rgba(31,38,48,.96) and quietly break the skin's identity. */
+  --floating-bg: rgba(19, 19, 22, 0.96);
   /* daylight-only extras left at sane neutral defaults (unused — override block does not apply to og) */
   --accent-d: #3b82f6; --emerald: #3b82f6; --teal: #2563eb;
   --accent-soft: #22c55e; --accent-ink: #0b1220;
@@ -315,6 +319,43 @@ html:is([data-skin="paper-gray"], [data-skin="solarized-light"], [data-skin="cat
   border-color: var(--control-border-hover);
 }
 
+/* Status badges and accent-tinted pills bake in pale light-on-dark ink
+   (#cdddff, #9dc0ff, #ffc107, #fff, …) over a low-alpha tint. That reads at
+   1.0–1.9:1 once the tint sits on a light surface — the search filter chips
+   literally vanish. Re-point the ink at each skin's own dark tokens and keep
+   the tint as the category signal. */
+html:is([data-skin="paper-gray"], [data-skin="solarized-light"], [data-skin="catppuccin-latte"], [data-skin="rose-pine-dawn"]) :is(
+  .search-filter-chip.active,
+  .search-badge-session,
+  .history-view-all-btn,
+  .session-tab .tab-mode.gemini
+) {
+  color: var(--accent-d);
+}
+html:is([data-skin="paper-gray"], [data-skin="solarized-light"], [data-skin="catppuccin-latte"], [data-skin="rose-pine-dawn"]) :is(
+  .search-badge-file,
+  .tunnel-panel-btn.btn-start,
+  .voice-provider-status.active
+) {
+  color: var(--green);
+}
+html:is([data-skin="paper-gray"], [data-skin="solarized-light"], [data-skin="catppuccin-latte"], [data-skin="rose-pine-dawn"]) :is(
+  .ralph-task-priority.priority-p1,
+  .ralph-circuit-breaker.half-open
+) {
+  color: var(--yellow);
+}
+html:is([data-skin="paper-gray"], [data-skin="solarized-light"], [data-skin="catppuccin-latte"], [data-skin="rose-pine-dawn"]) :is(
+  .search-badge-event,
+  .respawn-state,
+  .history-detail-path,
+  .mobile-case-item,
+  .mobile-case-picker-header h3,
+  .btn-toolbar.btn-case-mobile:hover
+) {
+  color: var(--text);
+}
+
 * { box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0; padding: 0; }
 
 /* ========== Accessibility: Focus Styles ========== */