Ghostty

Ghostty is an open-source terminal emulator. It provides a native GUI experience across different operating systems, focusing on high performance and a wide range of features. The software is available as a standalone desktop application or as an embeddable library for other developers to use in their own projects.

Users deploy Ghostty as a native application on macOS or Linux. On macOS, it is built with SwiftUI and uses Metal for rendering, while the Linux version is built with GTK. It is designed for developers and power users who require a fast terminal that adheres to industry standards while supporting modern extensions. The application aims to feel like a first-party tool on every platform it supports rather than a generic cross-platform port.

Key features

• GPU acceleration using Metal on macOS and OpenGL on Linux
• Support for Kitty graphics and image protocols
• Multi-window management with tabbing and split panes
• Native integration with AppleScript and AppIntents on macOS
• Systemd integration for cgroup isolation and session management on Linux
• High performance via a multi-threaded architecture and SIMD instructions
• Compliance with ECMA-48 and xterm control sequences
• Embeddable terminal functionality via the libghostty C and Zig library

The project is written primarily in Zig and utilizes a dedicated architecture with separate threads for reading, writing, and rendering. This design allows it to maintain performance levels comparable to other fast terminals while offering a more native user interface and a settings GUI. The inclusion of libghostty allows other developers to integrate terminal parsing and state management into their own third-party applications across macOS, Linux, Windows, and WebAssembly. This library is zero-dependency and provides a stable way to handle terminal state and style parsing.

Ghostty positions itself as a bridge between minimalist, high-speed terminals and feature-heavy native applications, ensuring that users do not have to choose between speed and a native platform experience.