alacritty

Start a new Alacritty process and create a window

$ alacritty

$ alacritty --daemon

$ alacritty msg create-window

$ alacritty --working-directory [path/to/directory]

$ alacritty [[-e|--command]] [command]

$ alacritty --config-file [path/to/config.toml]

$ alacritty --live-config-reload --config-file [path/to/config.toml]

alacritty [OPTIONS] [COMMAND [ARGS]...]

-h, --help
    Prints help information.

-v, --version
    Prints version information.

-e, --command COMMAND...
    Executes the specified COMMAND within the Alacritty terminal, followed by its arguments.

-c, --config FILE
    Specifies a custom configuration FILE to load instead of the default.

-o, --option KEY=VALUE
    Overrides a configuration option specified by KEY with the given VALUE.

-T, --title TITLE
    Sets the window title for the Alacritty instance.

-W, --working-directory DIR
    Sets the initial working directory to DIR for the terminal session.

-C, --class CLASS
    Sets the X11 window class and GTK application ID. Useful for window managers.

-d, --display DISPLAY
    Specifies the X11 DISPLAY to connect to (Linux/X11 only).

Alacritty is a modern, cross-platform terminal emulator written in Rust, focusing on performance and simplicity. It leverages your GPU for rendering, providing incredibly low input latency and a smooth experience, making it one of the fastest terminal emulators available.

Designed with a minimalist approach, Alacritty intentionally omits features like tabs, splits, or complex scrollback history. Instead, it encourages users to pair it with a terminal multiplexer such as tmux or zellij for advanced session management. Its configuration is handled entirely through a YAML file, allowing for deep customization of appearance, key bindings, and behavior without a graphical interface.

Alacritty is designed to be lean; it does not offer built-in features such as tabs, splits, or graphical configuration interfaces. Users are expected to leverage external tools like tmux or zellij for session management and configure Alacritty solely via its YAML configuration file. While highly performant, it might use more GPU resources compared to purely CPU-rendered terminals.

Alacritty's configuration is managed entirely through a YAML file, typically located at ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml on Linux and macOS. This file allows extensive customization of fonts, colors, key bindings, scrollback, and other behaviors. Changes to the configuration file are applied live without needing to restart the terminal.

The primary design goal of Alacritty is performance. It achieves this by utilizing your system's GPU for rendering text, rather than the CPU. This GPU acceleration leads to significantly reduced input latency and smoother scrolling, especially when displaying large amounts of text or animations, providing a snappier feel compared to traditional CPU-bound terminals.

Alacritty is a truly cross-platform application, providing native builds and consistent performance across Linux, macOS, and Windows. This makes it an ideal choice for users who work across multiple operating systems and desire a unified terminal experience.

Alacritty was initiated by Joe Wilm in 2017 with the goal of creating the fastest terminal emulator possible, leveraging modern GPU rendering capabilities. Written in Rust, it quickly gained traction among developers seeking a highly performant and responsive terminal. Its development emphasizes stability, performance, and cross-platform compatibility, making it a popular choice across Linux, macOS, and Windows. Alacritty's minimalist philosophy has remained central throughout its evolution, focusing on doing one thing exceptionally well: emulating a terminal.

tmux(1), zellij(1), st(1), gnome-terminal(1), konsole(1), xterm(1)