Tag: Ghostty

Theming Ghostty
While superfluous to some, the ability to customize my computing environment has always been important to me. In fact, I can’t remember a time where I didn’t customize some aspect of my computer.

It’s how I learned about computing, whether I was creating a bespoke desktop wallpaper background or making the Trash icon look like Oscar the Grouch.

Ghostty offers a wealth of customization options by way of themes, which give your terminal a very specific look and feel. Theme settings can be overridden at a granular level to match exactly what you’re after. Translation: if you have a very specific font or color tweak you’d like to implement, it’s as easy as adding a line or two in your Ghostty configuration file. (Users can even make their own Ghostty theme from scratch.)

Below is a screenshot of my Ghostty configuration file, where I’ve assigned the Dracula+ theme and increased the font size for improved readability.

Ghostty’s theme options can be accessed from within the terminal, by typing the following:
```
ghostty +list-themes
```
As of this post, there are hundreds of themes to choose from. Themes are organized alphabetically on the left, with a detailed preview of the selected theme on the right.

Pick a theme from the list by using the up / down arrow keys. Pressing Return on a specific theme will show instructions for activating it.
```
theme = Dracula+
```
I don’t change themes very often, but when I do, I want the process to be easy. Since I hate remembering esoteric commands, I created an alias called themes in my .zshrc file.
```
alias themes='ghostty +list-themes'
```
Now I can browse Ghostty themes whenever the mood strikes, without having to remember the command that gets me there.

-Krishna
August 15, 2026
Make Alfred Use Ghostty Instead of Terminal.app
When it comes to macOS Launchers, I’m on Team Alfred. For me, it’s the Swiss Army knife of macOS utilities.

Alfred does much more than launching applications. One of my favorite features is the ability to run a terminal command directly through its interface.

By default, typing a terminal command within Alfred opens Apple’s Terminal.app and executes the command there.

I use Ghostty instead. Would it be possible to have Alfred make the switch?

Absolutely. Here’s how.

Open:

Alfred Preferences > Features > Terminal

Under Application, choose Custom.

Replace the existing AppleScript code with this:
```
on alfred_script(q)
    tell application "Ghostty"
        activate

        set cfg to new surface configuration
        set win to new window with configuration cfg
        set term to focused terminal of selected tab of win

        input text q to term
        send key "enter" to term
    end tell
end alfred_script
```
On first run, macOS may ask whether Alfred is allowed to control Ghostty. Grant the permission and you’re set.

From that point forward, every terminal command you run through Alfred will execute it inside Ghostty instead of Terminal.app.

-Krishna
August 8, 2026
Ghostty is the Mostty

For those who are interested, my latest post for OWC Rocket Yard shares more detail about Ghostty, a modern terminal replacement for macOS. I have Ghostty installed on all three of my Macs, and working within its environment has been a delight. So much so that I can’t fathom the thought of using Apple’s staid Terminal app.

The image below shows a comparison between Ghostty (top) vs Apple’s Terminal (bottom). Notice how sharp and crisp the text appears in Ghostty, compared to Terminal. Unlike the Terminal, Ghostty does a great job of displaying content within smaller window sizes.

-Krishna

June 9, 2026
My Top Three Terminal Command Line Tools

Using Ghostty has been a pleasant experience. It feels modern and clean, making the Terminal.app seem dated by comparison. Similarly, adding Homebrew has made the command line experience much more enjoyable. One big benefit with Homebrew is that I can quickly install and remove apps right from the shell.

Some of my favorite command line apps are:

1) eza. (This command is a modern replacement for ls.) My favorite command is eza’s built-in tree command, which lets me view the structure of my folder hierarchy.

2) btop is a more modern and visually parsable implementation of the classic top command. Invoking btop lets me glance at Mac’s memory, CPU usage, battery charge level and more.

3) bat is a modern spin on the venerable cat command. I use bat for quickly viewing the contents of a text file from the command line. Below is the output when running cat.

And now, the same result when running bat. The information appears in a much clearer format, complete with line numbers and color coding.

With Homebrew installed, these apps were all easily added by typing:

brew install <app>

This go around, I’m reallly focusing on keeping an organized, annotated and manageable .zshrc file.

-Krishna

May 28, 2026
FrugalMac: Essential Mac Apps for Productivity

Working within the confines of macOS’s first party offerings has been frustrating. In an earlier post, I lamented about window management inconsistencies that lead me to install Rectangle.

MarsEdit – this application has become essential to my blogging workflow. Blogging with MarsEdit is easy, and if it’s easy, I can do it more often.

NetNewsWire – with my new Mac, I’ve limited the number of RSS feeds I follow. This isn’t to say I won’t add any new feeds at some point in the future. With NetNewsWire, I can easily keep up with my favorite blogs. It’s fast and free. It also offers iCloud syncing, but I’m not ready for that just yet.

1Password – I haven’t found a better password management application, so I’m sticking with this Electron app for now. Apple’s Password app, while serviceable, doesn’t have a key feature I really need (saving attachments). There was a time when 1Password was best in class as a native Mac app.

macShot – a powerful, free screenshot and screen recording utility that competes quite favorably against the subscription-based CleanShot X. I haven’t spent too much time using this app, save for making the screenshots that accompany this post. I plan to test its screen recording capabilities soon. If it succeeds on that front, I may be able to ditch CleanShot X once and for all.

Remember to turn off Screenshot keyboard shortcuts if you plan to use them with macShot.

Hyperkey – a simple, free app that turns the (rarely used) Caps Lock key into a Hyper key. Pressing Caps Lock with Hyperkey is like pressing Shift Option Command Control simultaneously, without the awkward finger gymnastics.

Ghostty – My post on Apple’s Terminal software led to a suggestion on Mastodon to check out this advanced terminal application. So far, in my very brief usage, it feels modern and fast. Without my current command line utilities, I really can’t gauge how it will perform over time. (On this new laptop, I have also installed Homebrew because I need a proper package manager.)

BBEdit – a proper text editor that blows the doors off of TextEdit. I have paid for earlier versions of BBEdit, but I want to see if the free version will suffice for my usage.

Still left to install: a proper Mac launcher app. I’m leaning towards Alfred, but I want to examine other options before committing.

-Krishna

May 27, 2026