kitty Terminal

kitty is a fast, feature-rich, GPU-based terminal emulator that offloads rendering to the GPU for smooth performance.

Features #

• GPU acceleration - Renders text using the GPU for better performance
• Tabs and windows - Built-in multiplexing without needing tmux
• Unicode support - Excellent support for emojis and international characters
• Image support - Display images directly in the terminal
• ** kittens** - Extend functionality with Python scripts

Setup #

Install via package manager:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install kitty

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S kitty

# macOS
brew install kitty

Or via mise:

mise install kitty

Configuration #

Config file: ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

Key settings from my config:

# Font
font_family      JetBrains Mono
font_size        12.0

# Opacity
background_opacity 0.95

# Cursor
cursor_shape     block
cursor_blink_interval 0

# Scrollback
scrollback_lines 10000

Key Bindings #

kittens #

kittens are small Python programs that extend kitty:

# SSH with kitty enhancements
kitty +kitten ssh hostname

# Diff files with image support
kitty +kitten diff file1 file2

# Transfer files over SSH
kitty +kitten transfer file.txt remote:

Integration with tmux #

While kitty has its own multiplexing, I often use it with tmux for session persistence:

# Start kitty with tmux
kitty tmux

See Also #

kitty

If you live in the terminal, kitty is made for YOU! The fast, feature-rich, GPU based terminal emulator. Fast Uses GPU and SIMD vector CPU instructions for best in class performance, Uses threaded ...

kitty · sw.kovidgoyal.net