diff --git a/.utils/apply-color-parse-arg b/.utils/apply-color-parse-arg
index ffd7be4..bd18d5c 100644
--- a/.utils/apply-color-parse-arg
+++ b/.utils/apply-color-parse-arg
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# snippet to parse args in apply-color scripts
+# snippet for apply-color scripts
 
 [ -z "$1" ] && exit 1
 palette="$1"
@@ -22,7 +22,8 @@ function color_ansi {
     local g=$((16#${colorHex:2:2}))
     local b=$((16#${colorHex:4:2}))
 
-    echo "\033[38;2;${r};${g};${b}m"
+    # 24-bit true color ANSI escape code
+    printf "\033[38;2;%d;%d;%dm" $r $g $b
 }
 
 
diff --git a/fish/apply-color b/fish/apply-color
index 90113df..682ad06 100755
--- a/fish/apply-color
+++ b/fish/apply-color
@@ -7,26 +7,32 @@ path=$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")
 
 file="$path"/../posh_theme.omp.json
 
-targetTypes='["os", "session", "status"]'
+targetTypes=("os" "session" "status")
 
-python3 <<EOF
+if ! python3 - "$file" "$colorHex" "${targetTypes[@]}"; then {
+    log_error "Failed to edit ${file}"
+    exit 1
+} fi <<EOF
 import json
 import sys
 
 data = None
+file = sys.argv[1]
+colorHex = sys.argv[2]
+targetTypes = sys.argv[3:]
 
-with open("$file", "r") as f:
+with open(file, "r") as f:
     data = json.load(f)
 
     def processSegments(segments):
         for segment in segments:
-            if "type" in segment and segment["type"] in $targetTypes:
+            if "type" in segment and segment["type"] in targetTypes:
                 if "foreground" in segment:
-                    segment["foreground"] = "#$colorHex"
+                    segment["foreground"] = f"#{colorHex}"
 
     def processTransientPrompt(transientPrompt):
         if "foreground" in transientPrompt:
-            transientPrompt["foreground"] = "#$colorHex"
+            transientPrompt["foreground"] = f"#{colorHex}"
 
     def process(obj):
         if isinstance(obj, dict):
@@ -44,7 +50,7 @@ with open("$file", "r") as f:
     process(data)
 
 if data is not None:
-    with open("$file", "w") as f:
+    with open(file, "w") as f:
         json.dump(data, f, indent=4)
 EOF