  Colored dark sectors where the dark matter particle is accompanied by colored
partners have recently attracted theoretical and phenomenological interest. We
explore the possibility that the dark sector consists of the dark matter
particle and a color-octet partner, where the interaction with the Standard
Model is governed by an effective operator involving gluons. The resulting
interactions resemble the color analogues of electric and magnetic dipole
moments. Although many phenomenological features of this kind of model only
depend on the group representation of the partner under SU(3)$_c$, we point out
that interesting collider signatures such as $R$-hadrons are indeed controlled
by the interaction operator between the dark and visible sector. We perform a
study of the current constraints and future reach of LHC searches, where the
complementarity between different possible signals is highlighted and
exploited.
