ghostty

GPU-accelerated terminal emulator with modern features

TLDR

Start Ghostty terminal emulator

$ ghostty

Run a command in a new terminal window

$ ghostty -e [command]

Start with a specific working directory

$ ghostty --working-directory=[/path/to/directory]

Use a custom configuration file

$ ghostty --config-file=[path/to/config]

Start in fullscreen mode

$ ghostty --fullscreen

Set custom window title

$ ghostty --title="[My Terminal]"

Override a configuration option

$ ghostty -o [font-size=14]

List available actions for keybindings

$ ghostty +list-actions

SYNOPSIS

ghostty [-e command] [-o option=value] [--config-file file] [--working-directory path] [options]

Ghostty is a fast, feature-rich terminal emulator that uses GPU acceleration for rendering. It combines the speed of minimal terminals with advanced features while maintaining native platform integration.
The terminal supports true color (24-bit), Unicode with ligatures and emoji, images (Sixel, iTerm2, Kitty protocols), hyperlinks, and advanced text rendering with font fallback. It provides tabs, splits, and multiple windows with fully customizable keybindings.

PARAMETERS

-e command

Execute command instead of the default shell.

-o option=value

Override a configuration option.

--config-file path

Use alternate configuration file.

--working-directory path

Set initial working directory.

--fullscreen

Start in fullscreen mode.

--title string

Set window title.

--class string

Set window class (Wayland/X11).

--help

Show help information.

--version

Show version information.

+list-actions

List available actions for keybindings.

+list-colors

List available color names.

+list-fonts

List available fonts.

+list-keybinds

List current keybindings.

+list-themes

List available themes.

+show-config

Show current configuration.

CONFIGURATION

~/.config/ghostty/config (Linux)

Main configuration file with key-value pairs for all settings including fonts, colors, keybindings, and behavior.

~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config (macOS)

Main configuration file on macOS systems.

CAVEATS

Requires GPU with OpenGL 3.3+ (Linux) or Metal (macOS). Some legacy terminal applications may have compatibility issues. Currently supports macOS and Linux only.

HISTORY

Ghostty was created by Mitchell Hashimoto (founder of HashiCorp) and publicly released in December 2024 after several years of development. The project is open source and written in Zig.