Terminal Setup Notes (macOS): Kitty → Ghostty Exploration

Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been using kitty as my main terminal for a while. It’s fast, stable, and very capable — but I’ve realized I don’t actually enjoy tweaking terminal configs or maintaining a highly customized setup.

So I’m exploring simpler alternatives with good defaults.

Current direction: Ghostty

Trying out: Ghostty
https://ghostty.org/

Why:

Clean macOS-native feel
GPU-accelerated and fast
Tabs + splits built in
Designed for sane defaults (low configuration overhead)
Keyboard-first workflow works well out of the box
My only config change: Remapped tab switching shortcut (default ][ to alt-[/] for easier access on a Swedish keyboard layout).

Goal:
Less time configuring terminal → more time working.

Why the switch

Simplified setup: I found myself spending less time tweaking and more time working.
Perceived responsiveness: Both are fast, but Ghostty felt marginally snappier in heavy-usage scenarios.
Clean design: The aesthetic and functional minimalism resonated more with my current preferences.

What I’m moving away from (for now)

kitty

https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/

What I liked:

Very fast, GPU-accelerated rendering
Highly configurable via a single kitty.conf
Excellent font rendering — ligatures, custom fonts
Extensible with Kitten modules (tabs, scrollback, multiplexing)
Stable and mature

Why I’m moving on:

Too much customization surface area
I don’t actually enjoy tuning it

Other tools I’ve looked at

Warp

https://warp.dev/

Warp feels like a “terminal reinvented” (more IDE-like, block-based UI, AI features). It’s interesting, but feels a bit too opinionated and visually heavy for my taste.

Other Terminal Emulators (briefly noted)

While Kitty and Ghostty are modern GPU-accelerated terminals, it’s worth acknowledging other terminal emulators that have been foundational or offer different philosophies.

https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.6/doc/man/man1/xterm.1.xhtml

The classic X Window System terminal emulator. While not as feature-rich or graphically advanced as modern options, xterm (and its derivatives like urxvt, st, etc.) represent the minimalist, highly customizable end of the spectrum. They often prioritize resource efficiency and adherence to traditional Unix principles. Good for when you need something simple and rock-solid, but usually requires more effort to get a pleasant default experience.

Current philosophy

I’m optimizing for:

minimal clutter
fast keyboard workflow
good defaults (not deep config systems)
fewer moving parts

Current setup direction

Terminal: Ghostty
Tabs: built-in (no extra tooling yet)
Multiplexing: not using tmux/Zellij for now
Keeping things intentionally simple

Open question

If Ghostty tabs feel too minimal in real use, I may revisit:

Zellij (for structured sessions)
tmux (unlikely unless necessary)

For now, keeping it simple on purpose.

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