Ghostty Configuration

Ghostty is a modern terminal emulator. Configuration lives in $HOME/.config/ghostty/config.

Config Syntax

# Key-value pairs separated by equals signs
font-family = Iosevka
font-size = 14

# Spacing around = doesn't matter
key=value
key = value

# Lines starting with # are comments
# Comments cannot be inline (would be part of value)
background = #282c34

# Empty value resets to default
key =

# Repeatable options (keybind, palette, font-family fallbacks)
keybind = ctrl+shift+c=copy_to_clipboard
keybind = ctrl+shift+v=paste_from_clipboard

Common Configuration Options

Option	Default	Description
font-family	(system)	Primary font, repeatable for fallbacks
font-size	13	Font size in points
theme	(none)	Color theme name
background	#282c34	Background color
foreground	#ffffff	Foreground color
background-opacity	1	Window transparency (0-1)
cursor-style	block	block, bar, underline
scrollback-limit	10000000	Scrollback buffer lines
window-padding-x	(none)	Horizontal padding in pixels
window-padding-y	(none)	Vertical padding in pixels
keybind	(defaults)	Custom keybinding (repeatable)

macOS-Specific Options

Option	Default	Description
macos-option-as-alt	(none)	Use Option as Alt: left, right, true
macos-titlebar-style	transparent	transparent, native, tabs
macos-non-native-fullscreen	false	Use non-native fullscreen

Linux-Specific Options

Option	Default	Description
gtk-titlebar	true	Show GTK titlebar
gtk-tabs-location	top	Tab bar location

Keybindings

Format: keybind = <trigger>=<action>

Triggers

• Modifiers: ctrl, alt, shift, super (Cmd on macOS)
• Combine with +: ctrl+shift+c
• Key names: a-z, 0-9, enter, tab, escape, space, up, down, left, right

Common Actions

• copy_to_clipboard / paste_from_clipboard
• new_tab / close_surface
• new_split:right / new_split:down
• goto_split:left / goto_split:right / goto_split:up / goto_split:down
• increase_font_size:1 / decrease_font_size:1 / reset_font_size
• scroll_page_up / scroll_page_down
• text:\x1b[A (send raw escape sequence)

Unbind a Default

keybind = ctrl+shift+c=unbind

Getting Full Documentation

# List all options with defaults and docs
ghostty +show-config --default --docs

# List available fonts
ghostty +list-fonts

Workflow

• Create/open $HOME/.config/ghostty/config
• Add or modify configuration options
• Reload config: Cmd+Shift+, (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+, (Linux)

Example Config

# Font
font-family = JetBrains Mono
font-size = 14

# Appearance
theme = Catppuccin Mocha
background-opacity = 0.95
cursor-style = bar

# Window
window-padding-x = 8
window-padding-y = 8

# macOS
macos-option-as-alt = true
macos-titlebar-style = tabs

# Keybindings
keybind = super+t=new_tab
keybind = super+shift+enter=new_split:right
keybind = super+alt+left=goto_split:left
keybind = super+alt+right=goto_split:right