diff --git a/README.asciidoc b/README.asciidoc
index 347b2840..3b9cd5a7 100644
--- a/README.asciidoc
+++ b/README.asciidoc
@@ -780,6 +780,8 @@ There are some builtins faces used by internal Kakoune functionalities:
  * `StatusLine`: face used for the status line
  * `StatusCursor`: face used for the status line cursor
  * `Prompt`: face used prompt displayed on the status line
+ * `MatchingChar`: face used by the show_matching highlighter
+ * `Search`: face used to highlight search results
 
 Advanced topics
 ---------------
diff --git a/colors/default.kak b/colors/default.kak
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..476b4d2b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/colors/default.kak
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+# Kakoune default color scheme
+
+# For Code
+face value red
+face type yellow
+face identifier green
+face string magenta
+face error default,red
+face keyword blue
+face operator yellow
+face attribute green
+face comment cyan
+face meta magenta
+
+# For markup
+face title blue
+face header cyan
+face bold red
+face italic yellow
+face mono green
+face block magenta
+face link cyan
+face bullet cyan
+face list yellow
+
+# builtin faces
+face Default default,default
+face PrimarySelection white,blue
+face SecondarySelection black,blue
+face PrimaryCursor black,white
+face SecondaryCursor black,white
+face LineNumbers default,default
+face LineNumberCursor default,default+r
+face MenuForeground white,blue
+face MenuBackground blue,white
+face Information black,yellow
+face Error black,red
+face StatusLine cyan,default
+face StatusCursor black,cyan
+face Prompt yellow,default
+face MatchingChar default,default+b
+face Search default,default+u
diff --git a/share/kak/kakrc b/share/kak/kakrc
index 3e91e3d5..e50a97b5 100644
--- a/share/kak/kakrc
+++ b/share/kak/kakrc
@@ -1,28 +1,3 @@
-# define color scheme
-#
-# For Code
-face value red
-face type yellow
-face identifier green
-face string magenta
-face error default,red
-face keyword blue
-face operator yellow
-face attribute green
-face comment cyan
-face meta magenta
-
-# For markup
-face title blue
-face header cyan
-face bold red
-face italic yellow
-face mono green
-face block magenta
-face link cyan
-face bullet cyan
-face list yellow
-
 def -shell-params runtime %{ %sh{
     while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
         echo "source '${kak_runtime}/$1'"
@@ -67,6 +42,9 @@ def -shell-params -docstring "colorscheme <name>: enable named colorscheme" \
     }
 
     localconfdir=${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-${HOME}/.config}/kak
+
+    echo "colorscheme default"
+
     if [ -d "${localconfdir}/autoload" ]; then
         autoload ${localconfdir}/autoload
     elif [ -d "${kak_runtime}/autoload" ]; then