Legumes， including soybean （Glycine max）， peanut （Arachis hypogaea） and various pulses crops， play important roles in agriculture system because of their ability in nitrogen fixation. These crops also serve as vital sources of plant-based protein. Seed coat color represents rich variations and is caused by the expression of anthocyanin. This trait serves as an index for variety identification in intellectual property protection and provides more selection for production and marketing. Investigating the genetics and mechanism of seed color can accelerate the breeding process to meet diverse demands. However， up to now， these kinds of study are fairly few， especially in pulses crops， due to the lack of attention in the past decades. Here we summarized the classification of seed coat color in legumes， differences in quality， the environmental factors such as light， temperature and water that affect the seed coat colors， and the inheritance of this trait in different species. We also reviewed the related studies on gene mapping and gene cloning and analyzed the current situation and existing deficiencies of relevant research. We further proposed the research plan through applying modern biotechnologies and methodologies such as genomics， transcriptomics， and proteomics to study the expression mechanism of the seed coat color of legumes. We expect to provide valuable information for breeding and molecular biology on legume crops.