Why I Use Ghostty as My Terminal on macOS

I switched from iTerm2 to Ghostty a month ago and I’m not going back. For those who haven’t heard of it, Ghostty is a relatively new terminal emulator built from scratch in Zig with GPU-accelerated rendering. I first noticed the difference during a long Claude Code session, iTerm2 was lagging as output streamed in, and I figured there had to be something faster. This post is a practical walkthrough of why I switched and my full config, so you can try it yourself.

My current Ghostty setup running Claude Code.

Why Ghostty

The main reason is speed. Ghostty uses your GPU to render text instead of the CPU, and you can feel the difference. During Claude Code sessions where output is streaming fast and non-stop, Ghostty stays smooth. iTerm2 would lag and stutter during the same workload. It also starts up almost instantly and uses less memory, it just feels lighter overall.

Out of the box, Ghostty comes with Nerd Font support and hundreds of built-in themes, so you don’t have to configure much to get a good setup. And when you do want to customize, it’s a single plain text config file at ~/.config/ghostty/config. No settings GUI, no menus to dig through. You edit the file, hit Cmd+, to reload, and you’re done.

My Config

Here’s my full Ghostty config. I’ll walk through each section so you know what it does and why I set it that way.

Typography

font-family = JetBrainsMonoNerdFont
font-size = 14
font-thicken = true
adjust-cell-height = 2

JetBrains Mono is my go-to monospace font. The Nerd Font variant gives me all the icons I need for file trees and terminal tools. font-thicken makes the text a bit bolder on Retina displays, and adjust-cell-height = 2 adds a little breathing room between lines so long sessions are easier on the eyes.

Theme

theme = catppuccin-mocha

I use Catppuccin Mocha, a dark theme with soft, pastel colors that’s easy to look at for hours. Ghostty also supports auto light/dark switching with theme = light:Catppuccin Latte,dark:Catppuccin Mocha if you prefer that, but I just keep it dark.

Window

background-opacity = 0.92
background-blur-radius = 20
window-padding-x = 10
window-padding-y = 8
window-save-state = always
window-theme = auto
minimum-contrast = 1.3
macos-titlebar-style = tabs

A slight transparency with blur gives the terminal a clean, modern look without being distracting. window-save-state = always means Ghostty remembers my window positions and tabs between sessions, so I pick up right where I left off. macos-titlebar-style = tabs keeps things compact by putting tabs in the title bar instead of taking up extra space.

Cursor and Mouse

cursor-style = bar
cursor-style-blink = true
cursor-opacity = 0.8
mouse-hide-while-typing = true
copy-on-select = clipboard

Bar cursor because I find it cleaner than a block. copy-on-select = clipboard is a small thing but saves a lot of Cmd+C presses, just highlight text and it’s copied.

Notifications and Security

desktop-notifications = true
clipboard-paste-protection = true
clipboard-paste-bracketed-safe = true
shell-integration = detect
scrollback-limit = 25000000

Desktop notifications are handy when a long-running command finishes. Clipboard paste protection warns you before pasting something suspicious into the terminal, which is a nice safety net. The big one here is scrollback-limit = 25000000, I set this high specifically for Claude Code sessions, where the output can get very long and I want to be able to scroll back through everything.

Splits

keybind = cmd+d=new_split:right
keybind = cmd+shift+d=new_split:down
keybind = cmd+w=close_surface

If you want to have a new surface without opening a separate window, Ghostty supports splitting. Cmd+D splits to the right, Cmd+Shift+D splits down, and Cmd+W closes the current split.

Tabs and Utilities

keybind = cmd+t=new_tab
keybind = cmd+shift+left=previous_tab
keybind = cmd+shift+right=next_tab
keybind = cmd+plus=increase_font_size:1
keybind = cmd+minus=decrease_font_size:1
keybind = cmd+zero=reset_font_size
keybind = cmd+comma=reload_config

Standard tab and font size shortcuts. Cmd+, to reload the config is one I use constantly while tweaking settings.

The Quick Terminal

One of my favorite features is the quick terminal, a dropdown terminal that slides in from the top of your screen with a single hotkey.

quick-terminal-position = top
quick-terminal-screen = mouse
quick-terminal-autohide = true
quick-terminal-animation-duration = 0.15
keybind = global:ctrl+grave_accent=toggle_quick_terminal

I press Ctrl+backtick from anywhere on my Mac and a terminal drops down from the top of the screen. The animation is set to 0.15 seconds so it feels instant. I use it constantly for quick git commands, checking a file, or running a one-liner without switching away from whatever I’m working on. It’s like having a scratch terminal always one keystroke away.

One Gripe

It’s not perfect. I’ve noticed that after long sessions, the keyboard shortcuts sometimes stop working properly. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, the fix is just opening a new terminal window. Minor, but worth mentioning.

One Month In

I’ve been using Ghostty for about a month now and I don’t see myself going back to iTerm2. It’s fast, lightweight, and the config is dead simple. If you spend a lot of time in the terminal, especially if you’re running Claude Code, give it a try. You can grab it at ghostty.org and drop the config below into ~/.config/ghostty/config to get started. ✌️

Full Config

Here’s the complete config in one block so you can copy and paste it directly:

# Typography

font-family = JetBrainsMonoNerdFont
font-size = 14
font-thicken = true
adjust-cell-height = 2

# Theme

theme = catppuccin-mocha

# Window

background-opacity = 0.92
background-blur-radius = 20
window-padding-x = 10
window-padding-y = 8
window-save-state = always
window-theme = auto
minimum-contrast = 1.3
macos-titlebar-style = tabs

# Cursor & Mouse

cursor-style = bar
cursor-style-blink = true
cursor-opacity = 0.8
mouse-hide-while-typing = true
copy-on-select = clipboard

# Quick Terminal

quick-terminal-position = top
quick-terminal-screen = mouse
quick-terminal-autohide = true
quick-terminal-animation-duration = 0.15
keybind = global:ctrl+grave_accent=toggle_quick_terminal

# Notifications & Security

desktop-notifications = true
clipboard-paste-protection = true
clipboard-paste-bracketed-safe = true
shell-integration = detect
scrollback-limit = 25000000

# Splits
keybind = cmd+d=new_split:right
keybind = cmd+shift+d=new_split:down
keybind = cmd+w=close_surface

# Tabs

keybind = cmd+t=new_tab
keybind = cmd+shift+left=previous_tab
keybind = cmd+shift+right=next_tab

# Font Size

keybind = cmd+plus=increase_font_size:1
keybind = cmd+minus=decrease_font_size:1
keybind = cmd+zero=reset_font_size

# Utilities
keybind = cmd+comma=reload_config