The nerve agents are the most toxic among the chemical warfare agents.Many terrorist incidents with nerve agents have occurred in the world.Therefore，it is necessary to develop a portable field detection method for nerve agents.Compared with other methods for detecting nerve agents，the colorimetric method based on reaction color has many advantages，such as reaction visual phenomenon，low cost and rapid onsite detection.Herein，the principles of detection methods and chromogenic agents for detecting nerve agents based on the chromogenic reaction are reviewed，and an outlook for the future development of the colorimetric detection on nerve agents is proposed.