Provided by: kitty_0.32.2-1ubuntu0.4_amd64 
Name
kitty.conf - Configuration file for kitty
Overview
kitty is highly customizable, everything from keyboard shortcuts, to rendering frames-per-second. See
below for an overview of all customization possibilities.
You can open the config file within kitty by pressing ctrl+shift+f2 (⌘+, on macOS). A kitty.conf with
commented default configurations and descriptions will be created if the file does not exist. You can
reload the config file within kitty by pressing ctrl+shift+f5 (⌃+⌘+, on macOS) or sending kitty the
SIGUSR1 signal with kill -SIGUSR1 $KITTY_PID. You can also display the current configuration by pressing
ctrl+shift+f6 (⌥+⌘+, on macOS).
kitty looks for a config file in the OS config directories (usually ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf) but you
can pass a specific path via the kitty --config option or use the KITTY_CONFIG_DIRECTORY environment
variable. See kitty --config for full details.
Comments can be added to the config file as lines starting with the # character. This works only if the #
character is the first character in the line.
Lines can be split by starting the next line with the \ character. All leading whitespace and the \
character are removed.
You can include secondary config files via the include directive. If you use a relative path for include,
it is resolved with respect to the location of the current config file. Note that environment variables
are expanded, so ${USER}.conf becomes name.conf if USER=name. A special environment variable KITTY_OS is
available, to detect the operating system. It is linux, macos or bsd. Also, you can use globinclude to
include files matching a shell glob pattern and envinclude to include configuration from environment
variables. For example:
include other.conf
# Include *.conf files from all subdirs of kitty.d inside the kitty config dir
globinclude kitty.d/**/*.conf
# Include the *contents* of all env vars starting with KITTY_CONF_
envinclude KITTY_CONF_*
NOTE:
Syntax highlighting for kitty.conf in vim is available via vim-kitty.
Fonts
kitty has very powerful font management. You can configure individual font faces and even specify special
fonts for particular characters.
font_family, bold_font, italic_font, bold_italic_font
font_family monospace
bold_font auto
italic_font auto
bold_italic_font auto
You can specify different fonts for the bold/italic/bold-italic variants. To get a full list of
supported fonts use the kitty +list-fonts command. By default they are derived automatically, by the
OSes font system. When bold_font or bold_italic_font is set to auto on macOS, the priority of bold fonts
is semi-bold, bold, heavy. Setting them manually is useful for font families that have many weight
variants like Book, Medium, Thick, etc. For example:
font_family Operator Mono Book
bold_font Operator Mono Medium
italic_font Operator Mono Book Italic
bold_italic_font Operator Mono Medium Italic
font_size
font_size 11.0
Font size (in pts)
force_ltr
force_ltr no
kitty does not support BIDI (bidirectional text), however, for RTL scripts, words are automatically
displayed in RTL. That is to say, in an RTL script, the words "HELLO WORLD" display in kitty as "WORLD
HELLO", and if you try to select a substring of an RTL-shaped string, you will get the character that
would be there had the string been LTR. For example, assuming the Hebrew word ירושלים, selecting the
character that on the screen appears to be ם actually writes into the selection buffer the character י.
kitty's default behavior is useful in conjunction with a filter to reverse the word order, however, if
you wish to manipulate RTL glyphs, it can be very challenging to work with, so this option is provided to
turn it off. Furthermore, this option can be used with the command line program GNU FriBidi to get BIDI
support, because it will force kitty to always treat the text as LTR, which FriBidi expects for
terminals.
symbol_map
Has no default values. Example values are shown below:
symbol_map U+E0A0-U+E0A3,U+E0C0-U+E0C7 PowerlineSymbols
Map the specified Unicode codepoints to a particular font. Useful if you need special rendering for some
symbols, such as for Powerline. Avoids the need for patched fonts. Each Unicode code point is specified
in the form U+<code point in hexadecimal>. You can specify multiple code points, separated by commas and
ranges separated by hyphens. This option can be specified multiple times. The syntax is:
symbol_map codepoints Font Family Name
narrow_symbols
Has no default values. Example values are shown below:
narrow_symbols U+E0A0-U+E0A3,U+E0C0-U+E0C7 1
Usually, for Private Use Unicode characters and some symbol/dingbat characters, if the character is
followed by one or more spaces, kitty will use those extra cells to render the character larger, if the
character in the font has a wide aspect ratio. Using this option you can force kitty to restrict the
specified code points to render in the specified number of cells (defaulting to one cell). This option
can be specified multiple times. The syntax is:
narrow_symbols codepoints [optionally the number of cells]
disable_ligatures
disable_ligatures never
Choose how you want to handle multi-character ligatures. The default is to always render them. You can
tell kitty to not render them when the cursor is over them by using cursor to make editing easier, or
have kitty never render them at all by using always, if you don't like them. The ligature strategy can be
set per-window either using the kitty remote control facility or by defining shortcuts for it in
kitty.conf, for example:
map alt+1 disable_ligatures_in active always
map alt+2 disable_ligatures_in all never
map alt+3 disable_ligatures_in tab cursor
Note that this refers to programming ligatures, typically implemented using the calt OpenType feature.
For disabling general ligatures, use the font_features option.
font_features
Has no default values. Example values are shown below:
font_features none
Choose exactly which OpenType features to enable or disable. This is useful as some fonts might have
features worthwhile in a terminal. For example, Fira Code includes a discretionary feature, zero, which
in that font changes the appearance of the zero (0), to make it more easily distinguishable from Ø. Fira
Code also includes other discretionary features known as Stylistic Sets which have the tags ss01 through
ss20.
For the exact syntax to use for individual features, see the HarfBuzz documentation.
Note that this code is indexed by PostScript name, and not the font family. This allows you to define
very precise feature settings; e.g. you can disable a feature in the italic font but not in the regular
font.
On Linux, font features are first read from the FontConfig database and then this option is applied, so
they can be configured in a single, central place.
To get the PostScript name for a font, use kitty +list-fonts --psnames:
$ kitty +list-fonts --psnames | grep Fira
Fira Code
Fira Code Bold (FiraCode-Bold)
Fira Code Light (FiraCode-Light)
Fira Code Medium (FiraCode-Medium)
Fira Code Regular (FiraCode-Regular)
Fira Code Retina (FiraCode-Retina)
The part in brackets is the PostScript name.
Enable alternate zero and oldstyle numerals:
font_features FiraCode-Retina +zero +onum
Enable only alternate zero in the bold font:
font_features FiraCode-Bold +zero
Disable the normal ligatures, but keep the calt feature which (in this font) breaks up monotony:
font_features TT2020StyleB-Regular -liga +calt
In conjunction with force_ltr, you may want to disable Arabic shaping entirely, and only look at their
isolated forms if they show up in a document. You can do this with e.g.:
font_features UnifontMedium +isol -medi -fina -init
modify_font
Modify font characteristics such as the position or thickness of the underline and strikethrough. The
modifications can have the suffix px for pixels or % for percentage of original value. No suffix means
use pts. For example:
modify_font underline_position -2
modify_font underline_thickness 150%
modify_font strikethrough_position 2px
Additionally, you can modify the size of the cell in which each font glyph is rendered and the baseline
at which the glyph is placed in the cell. For example:
modify_font cell_width 80%
modify_font cell_height -2px
modify_font baseline 3
Note that modifying the baseline will automatically adjust the underline and strikethrough positions by
the same amount. Increasing the baseline raises glyphs inside the cell and decreasing it lowers them.
Decreasing the cell size might cause rendering artifacts, so use with care.
box_drawing_scale
box_drawing_scale 0.001, 1, 1.5, 2
The sizes of the lines used for the box drawing Unicode characters. These values are in pts. They will be
scaled by the monitor DPI to arrive at a pixel value. There must be four values corresponding to thin,
normal, thick, and very thick lines.
undercurl_style
undercurl_style thin-sparse
The style with which undercurls are rendered. This option takes the form (thin|thick)-(sparse|dense).
Thin and thick control the thickness of the undercurl. Sparse and dense control how often the curl
oscillates. With sparse the curl will peak once per character, with dense twice.
text_composition_strategy
text_composition_strategy platform
Control how kitty composites text glyphs onto the background color. The default value of platform tries
for text rendering as close to "native" for the platform kitty is running on as possible.
A value of legacy uses the old (pre kitty 0.28) strategy for how glyphs are composited. This will make
dark text on light backgrounds look thicker and light text on dark backgrounds thinner. It might also
make some text appear like the strokes are uneven.
You can fine tune the actual contrast curve used for glyph composition by specifying up to two
space-separated numbers for this setting.
The first number is the gamma adjustment, which controls the thickness of dark text on light backgrounds.
Increasing the value will make text appear thicker. The default value for this is 1.0 on Linux and 1.7
on macOS. Valid values are 0.01 and above. The result is scaled based on the luminance difference
between the background and the foreground. Dark text on light backgrounds receives the full impact of the
curve while light text on dark backgrounds is affected very little.
The second number is an additional multiplicative contrast. It is percentage ranging from 0 to 100. The
default value is 0 on Linux and 30 on macOS.
If you wish to achieve similar looking thickness in light and dark themes, a good way to experiment is
start by setting the value to 1.0 0 and use a dark theme. Then adjust the second parameter until it
looks good. Then switch to a light theme and adjust the first parameter until the perceived thickness
matches the dark theme.
text_fg_override_threshold
text_fg_override_threshold 0
The minimum accepted difference in luminance between the foreground and background color, below which
kitty will override the foreground color. It is percentage ranging from 0 to 100. If the difference in
luminance of the foreground and background is below this threshold, the foreground color will be set to
white if the background is dark or black if the background is light. The default value is 0, which means
no overriding is performed. Useful when working with applications that use colors that do not contrast
well with your preferred color scheme.
WARNING: Some programs use characters (such as block characters) for graphics display and may expect to
be able to set the foreground and background to the same color (or similar colors). If you see
unexpected stripes, dots, lines, incorrect color, no color where you expect color, or any kind of graphic
display problem try setting text_fg_override_threshold to 0 to see if this is the cause of the problem.
Cursor customization
cursor
cursor #cccccc
Default cursor color. If set to the special value none the cursor will be rendered with a "reverse video"
effect. It's color will be the color of the text in the cell it is over and the text will be rendered
with the background color of the cell. Note that if the program running in the terminal sets a cursor
color, this takes precedence. Also, the cursor colors are modified if the cell background and foreground
colors have very low contrast. Note that some themes set this value, so if you want to override it, place
your value after the lines where the theme file is included.
cursor_text_color
cursor_text_color #111111
The color of text under the cursor. If you want it rendered with the background color of the cell
underneath instead, use the special keyword: background. Note that if cursor is set to none then this
option is ignored. Note that some themes set this value, so if you want to override it, place your value
after the lines where the theme file is included.
cursor_shape
cursor_shape block
The cursor shape can be one of block, beam, underline. Note that when reloading the config this will be
changed only if the cursor shape has not been set by the program running in the terminal. This sets the
default cursor shape, applications running in the terminal can override it. In particular, shell
integration in kitty sets the cursor shape to beam at shell prompts. You can avoid this by setting
shell_integration to no-cursor.
cursor_beam_thickness
cursor_beam_thickness 1.5
The thickness of the beam cursor (in pts).
cursor_underline_thickness
cursor_underline_thickness 2.0
The thickness of the underline cursor (in pts).
cursor_blink_interval
cursor_blink_interval -1
The interval to blink the cursor (in seconds). Set to zero to disable blinking. Negative values mean use
system default. Note that the minimum interval will be limited to repaint_delay.
cursor_stop_blinking_after
cursor_stop_blinking_after 15.0
Stop blinking cursor after the specified number of seconds of keyboard inactivity. Set to zero to never
stop blinking.
Scrollback
scrollback_lines
scrollback_lines 2000
Number of lines of history to keep in memory for scrolling back. Memory is allocated on demand. Negative
numbers are (effectively) infinite scrollback. Note that using very large scrollback is not recommended
as it can slow down performance of the terminal and also use large amounts of RAM. Instead, consider
using scrollback_pager_history_size. Note that on config reload if this is changed it will only affect
newly created windows, not existing ones.
scrollback_pager
scrollback_pager less --chop-long-lines --RAW-CONTROL-CHARS +INPUT_LINE_NUMBER
Program with which to view scrollback in a new window. The scrollback buffer is passed as STDIN to this
program. If you change it, make sure the program you use can handle ANSI escape sequences for colors and
text formatting. INPUT_LINE_NUMBER in the command line above will be replaced by an integer representing
which line should be at the top of the screen. Similarly CURSOR_LINE and CURSOR_COLUMN will be replaced
by the current cursor position or set to 0 if there is no cursor, for example, when showing the last
command output.
scrollback_pager_history_size
scrollback_pager_history_size 0
Separate scrollback history size (in MB), used only for browsing the scrollback buffer with pager. This
separate buffer is not available for interactive scrolling but will be piped to the pager program when
viewing scrollback buffer in a separate window. The current implementation stores the data in UTF-8, so
approximately 10000 lines per megabyte at 100 chars per line, for pure ASCII, unformatted text. A value
of zero or less disables this feature. The maximum allowed size is 4GB. Note that on config reload if
this is changed it will only affect newly created windows, not existing ones.
scrollback_fill_enlarged_window
scrollback_fill_enlarged_window no
Fill new space with lines from the scrollback buffer after enlarging a window.
wheel_scroll_multiplier
wheel_scroll_multiplier 5.0
Multiplier for the number of lines scrolled by the mouse wheel. Note that this is only used for low
precision scrolling devices, not for high precision scrolling devices on platforms such as macOS and
Wayland. Use negative numbers to change scroll direction. See also wheel_scroll_min_lines.
wheel_scroll_min_lines
wheel_scroll_min_lines 1
The minimum number of lines scrolled by the mouse wheel. The scroll multiplier only takes effect after it
reaches this number. Note that this is only used for low precision scrolling devices like wheel mice that
scroll by very small amounts when using the wheel. With a negative number, the minimum number of lines
will always be added.
touch_scroll_multiplier
touch_scroll_multiplier 1.0
Multiplier for the number of lines scrolled by a touchpad. Note that this is only used for high precision
scrolling devices on platforms such as macOS and Wayland. Use negative numbers to change scroll
direction.
Mouse
mouse_hide_wait
mouse_hide_wait 3.0
Hide mouse cursor after the specified number of seconds of the mouse not being used. Set to zero to
disable mouse cursor hiding. Set to a negative value to hide the mouse cursor immediately when typing
text. Disabled by default on macOS as getting it to work robustly with the ever-changing sea of bugs that
is Cocoa is too much effort.
url_color, url_style
url_color #0087bd
url_style curly
The color and style for highlighting URLs on mouse-over. url_style can be one of: none, straight, double,
curly, dotted, dashed.
open_url_with
open_url_with default
The program to open clicked URLs. The special value default will first look for any URL handlers defined
via the Scripting the mouse click facility and if non are found, it will use the Operating System's
default URL handler (open on macOS and xdg-open on Linux).
url_prefixes
url_prefixes file ftp ftps gemini git gopher http https irc ircs kitty mailto news sftp ssh
The set of URL prefixes to look for when detecting a URL under the mouse cursor.
detect_urls
detect_urls yes
Detect URLs under the mouse. Detected URLs are highlighted with an underline and the mouse cursor becomes
a hand over them. Even if this option is disabled, URLs are still clickable. See also the
underline_hyperlinks option to control how hyperlinks (as opposed to plain text URLs) are displayed.
url_excluded_characters
Additional characters to be disallowed from URLs, when detecting URLs under the mouse cursor. By default,
all characters that are legal in URLs are allowed. Additionally, newlines are allowed (but stripped).
This is to accommodate programs such as mutt that add hard line breaks even for continued lines. \n can
be added to this option to disable this behavior. Special characters can be specified using backslash
escapes, to specify a backslash use a double backslash.
show_hyperlink_targets
show_hyperlink_targets no
When the mouse hovers over a terminal hyperlink, show the actual URL that will be activated when the
hyperlink is clicked.
underline_hyperlinks
underline_hyperlinks hover
Control how hyperlinks are underlined. They can either be underlined on mouse hover, always (i.e.
permanently underlined) or never which means that kitty will not apply any underline styling to
hyperlinks. Uses the url_style and url_color settings for the underline style. Note that reloading the
config and changing this value to/from always will only affect text subsequently received by kitty.
copy_on_select
copy_on_select no
Copy to clipboard or a private buffer on select. With this set to clipboard, selecting text with the
mouse will cause the text to be copied to clipboard. Useful on platforms such as macOS that do not have
the concept of primary selection. You can instead specify a name such as a1 to copy to a private kitty
buffer. Map a shortcut with the paste_from_buffer action to paste from this private buffer. For example:
copy_on_select a1
map shift+cmd+v paste_from_buffer a1
Note that copying to the clipboard is a security risk, as all programs, including websites open in your
browser can read the contents of the system clipboard.
paste_actions
paste_actions quote-urls-at-prompt,confirm
A comma separated list of actions to take when pasting text into the terminal. The supported paste
actions are:
quote-urls-at-prompt:
If the text being pasted is a URL and the cursor is at a shell prompt, automatically quote the URL
(needs shell_integration).
replace-dangerous-control-codes
Replace dangerous control codes from pasted text, without confirmation.
replace-newline
Replace the newline character from pasted text, without confirmation.
confirm:
Confirm the paste if the text to be pasted contains any terminal control codes as this can be
dangerous, leading to code execution if the shell/program running in the terminal does not
properly handle these.
confirm-if-large
Confirm the paste if it is very large (larger than 16KB) as pasting large amounts of text into
shells can be very slow.
filter:
Run the filter_paste() function from the file paste-actions.py in the kitty config directory on
the pasted text. The text returned by the function will be actually pasted.
no-op: Has no effect.
strip_trailing_spaces
strip_trailing_spaces never
Remove spaces at the end of lines when copying to clipboard. A value of smart will do it when using
normal selections, but not rectangle selections. A value of always will always do it.
select_by_word_characters
select_by_word_characters @-./_~?&=%+#
Characters considered part of a word when double clicking. In addition to these characters any character
that is marked as an alphanumeric character in the Unicode database will be matched.
select_by_word_characters_forward
Characters considered part of a word when extending the selection forward on double clicking. In addition
to these characters any character that is marked as an alphanumeric character in the Unicode database
will be matched.
If empty (default) select_by_word_characters will be used for both directions.
click_interval
click_interval -1.0
The interval between successive clicks to detect double/triple clicks (in seconds). Negative numbers will
use the system default instead, if available, or fallback to 0.5.
focus_follows_mouse
focus_follows_mouse no
Set the active window to the window under the mouse when moving the mouse around. On macOS, this will
also cause the OS Window under the mouse to be focused automatically when the mouse enters it.
pointer_shape_when_grabbed
pointer_shape_when_grabbed arrow
The shape of the mouse pointer when the program running in the terminal grabs the mouse.
default_pointer_shape
default_pointer_shape beam
The default shape of the mouse pointer.
pointer_shape_when_dragging
pointer_shape_when_dragging beam
The default shape of the mouse pointer when dragging across text.
Mouse actions
Mouse buttons can be mapped to perform arbitrary actions. The syntax is:
mouse_map button-name event-type modes action
Where button-name is one of left, middle, right, b1 ... b8 with added keyboard modifiers. For example:
ctrl+shift+left refers to holding the Ctrl+Shift keys while clicking with the left mouse button. The
value b1 ... b8 can be used to refer to up to eight buttons on a mouse.
event-type is one of press, release, doublepress, triplepress, click, doubleclick. modes indicates
whether the action is performed when the mouse is grabbed by the program running in the terminal, or not.
The values are grabbed or ungrabbed or a comma separated combination of them. grabbed refers to when the
program running in the terminal has requested mouse events. Note that the click and double click events
have a delay of click_interval to disambiguate from double and triple presses.
You can run kitty with the kitty --debug-input command line option to see mouse events. See the builtin
actions below to get a sense of what is possible.
If you want to unmap a button, map it to nothing. For example, to disable opening of URLs with a plain
click:
mouse_map left click ungrabbed
See all the mappable actions including mouse actions here.
NOTE:
Once a selection is started, releasing the button that started it will automatically end it and no
release event will be dispatched.
clear_all_mouse_actions
clear_all_mouse_actions no
Remove all mouse action definitions up to this point. Useful, for instance, to remove the default mouse
actions.
Click the link under the mouse or move the cursor
mouse_map left click ungrabbed mouse_handle_click selection link prompt
First check for a selection and if one exists do nothing. Then check for a link under the mouse cursor
and if one exists, click it. Finally check if the click happened at the current shell prompt and if so,
move the cursor to the click location. Note that this requires shell integration to work.
Click the link under the mouse or move the cursor even when grabbed
mouse_map shift+left click grabbed,ungrabbed mouse_handle_click selection link prompt
Same as above, except that the action is performed even when the mouse is grabbed by the program running
in the terminal.
Click the link under the mouse cursor
mouse_map ctrl+shift+left release grabbed,ungrabbed mouse_handle_click link
Variant with Ctrl+Shift is present because the simple click based version has an unavoidable delay of
click_interval, to disambiguate clicks from double clicks.
Discard press event for link click
mouse_map ctrl+shift+left press grabbed discard_event
Prevent this press event from being sent to the program that has grabbed the mouse, as the corresponding
release event is used to open a URL.
Paste from the primary selection
mouse_map middle release ungrabbed paste_from_selection
Start selecting text
mouse_map left press ungrabbed mouse_selection normal
Start selecting text in a rectangle
mouse_map ctrl+alt+left press ungrabbed mouse_selection rectangle
Select a word
mouse_map left doublepress ungrabbed mouse_selection word
Select a line
mouse_map left triplepress ungrabbed mouse_selection line
Select line from point
mouse_map ctrl+alt+left triplepress ungrabbed mouse_selection line_from_point
Select from the clicked point to the end of the line. If you would like to select the word at the point
and then extend to the rest of the line, change line_from_point to word_and_line_from_point.
Extend the current selection
mouse_map right press ungrabbed mouse_selection extend
If you want only the end of the selection to be moved instead of the nearest boundary, use move-end
instead of extend.
Paste from the primary selection even when grabbed
mouse_map shift+middle release ungrabbed,grabbed paste_selection
mouse_map shift+middle press grabbed discard_event
Start selecting text even when grabbed
mouse_map shift+left press ungrabbed,grabbed mouse_selection normal
Start selecting text in a rectangle even when grabbed
mouse_map ctrl+shift+alt+left press ungrabbed,grabbed mouse_selection rectangle
Select a word even when grabbed
mouse_map shift+left doublepress ungrabbed,grabbed mouse_selection word
Select a line even when grabbed
mouse_map shift+left triplepress ungrabbed,grabbed mouse_selection line
Select line from point even when grabbed
mouse_map ctrl+shift+alt+left triplepress ungrabbed,grabbed mouse_selection line_from_point
Select from the clicked point to the end of the line even when grabbed. If you would like to select the
word at the point and then extend to the rest of the line, change line_from_point to
word_and_line_from_point.
Extend the current selection even when grabbed
mouse_map shift+right press ungrabbed,grabbed mouse_selection extend
Show clicked command output in pager
mouse_map ctrl+shift+right press ungrabbed mouse_show_command_output
Requires shell integration to work.
Performance tuning
repaint_delay
repaint_delay 10
Delay between screen updates (in milliseconds). Decreasing it, increases frames-per-second (FPS) at the
cost of more CPU usage. The default value yields ~100 FPS which is more than sufficient for most uses.
Note that to actually achieve 100 FPS, you have to either set sync_to_monitor to no or use a monitor with
a high refresh rate. Also, to minimize latency when there is pending input to be processed, this option
is ignored.
input_delay
input_delay 3
Delay before input from the program running in the terminal is processed (in milliseconds). Note that
decreasing it will increase responsiveness, but also increase CPU usage and might cause flicker in full
screen programs that redraw the entire screen on each loop, because kitty is so fast that partial screen
updates will be drawn.
sync_to_monitor
sync_to_monitor yes
Sync screen updates to the refresh rate of the monitor. This prevents screen tearing when scrolling.
However, it limits the rendering speed to the refresh rate of your monitor. With a very high speed
mouse/high keyboard repeat rate, you may notice some slight input latency. If so, set this to no.
Terminal bell
enable_audio_bell
enable_audio_bell yes
The audio bell. Useful to disable it in environments that require silence.
visual_bell_duration
visual_bell_duration 0.0
The visual bell duration (in seconds). Flash the screen when a bell occurs for the specified number of
seconds. Set to zero to disable.
visual_bell_color
visual_bell_color none
The color used by visual bell. Set to none will fall back to selection background color. If you feel that
the visual bell is too bright, you can set it to a darker color.
window_alert_on_bell
window_alert_on_bell yes
Request window attention on bell. Makes the dock icon bounce on macOS or the taskbar flash on linux.
bell_on_tab
bell_on_tab "🔔 "
Some text or a Unicode symbol to show on the tab if a window in the tab that does not have focus has a
bell. If you want to use leading or trailing spaces, surround the text with quotes. See
tab_title_template for how this is rendered.
For backwards compatibility, values of yes, y and true are converted to the default bell symbol and no,
n, false and none are converted to the empty string.
command_on_bell
command_on_bell none
Program to run when a bell occurs. The environment variable KITTY_CHILD_CMDLINE can be used to get the
program running in the window in which the bell occurred.
bell_path
bell_path none
Path to a sound file to play as the bell sound. If set to none, the system default bell sound is used.
Must be in a format supported by the operating systems sound API, such as WAV or OGA on Linux
(libcanberra) or AIFF, MP3 or WAV on macOS (NSSound)
linux_bell_theme
linux_bell_theme __custom
The XDG Sound Theme kitty will use to play the bell sound. Defaults to the custom theme name used by
GNOME and Budgie, falling back to the default freedesktop theme if it does not exist. This option may be
removed if Linux ever provides desktop-agnostic support for setting system sound themes.
Window layout
remember_window_size, initial_window_width, initial_window_height
remember_window_size yes
initial_window_width 640
initial_window_height 400
If enabled, the OS Window size will be remembered so that new instances of kitty will have the same size
as the previous instance. If disabled, the OS Window will initially have size configured by
initial_window_width/height, in pixels. You can use a suffix of "c" on the width/height values to have
them interpreted as number of cells instead of pixels.
enabled_layouts
enabled_layouts *
The enabled window layouts. A comma separated list of layout names. The special value all means all
layouts. The first listed layout will be used as the startup layout. Default configuration is all layouts
in alphabetical order. For a list of available layouts, see the Layouts.
window_resize_step_cells, window_resize_step_lines
window_resize_step_cells 2
window_resize_step_lines 2
The step size (in units of cell width/cell height) to use when resizing kitty windows in a layout with
the shortcut ctrl+shift+r. The cells value is used for horizontal resizing, and the lines value is used
for vertical resizing.
window_border_width
window_border_width 0.5pt
The width of window borders. Can be either in pixels (px) or pts (pt). Values in pts will be rounded to
the nearest number of pixels based on screen resolution. If not specified, the unit is assumed to be
pts. Note that borders are displayed only when more than one window is visible. They are meant to
separate multiple windows.
draw_minimal_borders
draw_minimal_borders yes
Draw only the minimum borders needed. This means that only the borders that separate the window from a
neighbor are drawn. Note that setting a non-zero window_margin_width overrides this and causes all
borders to be drawn.
window_margin_width
window_margin_width 0
The window margin (in pts) (blank area outside the border). A single value sets all four sides. Two
values set the vertical and horizontal sides. Three values set top, horizontal and bottom. Four values
set top, right, bottom and left.
single_window_margin_width
single_window_margin_width -1
The window margin to use when only a single window is visible (in pts). Negative values will cause the
value of window_margin_width to be used instead. A single value sets all four sides. Two values set the
vertical and horizontal sides. Three values set top, horizontal and bottom. Four values set top, right,
bottom and left.
window_padding_width
window_padding_width 0
The window padding (in pts) (blank area between the text and the window border). A single value sets all
four sides. Two values set the vertical and horizontal sides. Three values set top, horizontal and
bottom. Four values set top, right, bottom and left.
single_window_padding_width
single_window_padding_width -1
The window padding to use when only a single window is visible (in pts). Negative values will cause the
value of window_padding_width to be used instead. A single value sets all four sides. Two values set the
vertical and horizontal sides. Three values set top, horizontal and bottom. Four values set top, right,
bottom and left.
placement_strategy
placement_strategy center
When the window size is not an exact multiple of the cell size, the cell area of the terminal window will
have some extra padding on the sides. You can control how that padding is distributed with this option.
Using a value of center means the cell area will be placed centrally. A value of top-left means the
padding will be only at the bottom and right edges.
active_border_color
active_border_color #00ff00
The color for the border of the active window. Set this to none to not draw borders around the active
window.
inactive_border_color
inactive_border_color #cccccc
The color for the border of inactive windows.
bell_border_color
bell_border_color #ff5a00
The color for the border of inactive windows in which a bell has occurred.
inactive_text_alpha
inactive_text_alpha 1.0
Fade the text in inactive windows by the specified amount (a number between zero and one, with zero being
fully faded).
hide_window_decorations
hide_window_decorations no
Hide the window decorations (title-bar and window borders) with yes. On macOS, titlebar-only and
titlebar-and-corners can be used to only hide the titlebar and the rounded corners. Whether this works
and exactly what effect it has depends on the window manager/operating system. Note that the effects of
changing this option when reloading config are undefined. When using titlebar-only, it is useful to also
set window_margin_width and placement_strategy to prevent the rounded corners from clipping text. Or use
titlebar-and-corners.
window_logo_path
window_logo_path none
Path to a logo image. Must be in PNG format. Relative paths are interpreted relative to the kitty config
directory. The logo is displayed in a corner of every kitty window. The position is controlled by
window_logo_position. Individual windows can be configured to have different logos either using the
launch action or the remote control facility.
window_logo_position
window_logo_position bottom-right
Where to position the window logo in the window. The value can be one of: top-left, top, top-right, left,
center, right, bottom-left, bottom, bottom-right.
window_logo_alpha
window_logo_alpha 0.5
The amount the logo should be faded into the background. With zero being fully faded and one being fully
opaque.
resize_debounce_time
resize_debounce_time 0.1 0.5
The time to wait (in seconds) before asking the program running in kitty to resize and redraw the screen
during a live resize of the OS window, when no new resize events have been received, i.e. when resizing
is either paused or finished. On platforms such as macOS, where the operating system sends events
corresponding to the start and end of a live resize, the second number is used for redraw-after-pause
since kitty can distinguish between a pause and end of resizing. On such systems the first number is
ignored and redraw is immediate after end of resize. On other systems only the first number is used so
that kitty is "ready" quickly after the end of resizing, while not also continuously redrawing, to save
energy.
resize_in_steps
resize_in_steps no
Resize the OS window in steps as large as the cells, instead of with the usual pixel accuracy. Combined
with initial_window_width and initial_window_height in number of cells, this option can be used to keep
the margins as small as possible when resizing the OS window. Note that this does not currently work on
Wayland.
visual_window_select_characters
visual_window_select_characters 1234567890ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
The list of characters for visual window selection. For example, for selecting a window to focus on with
ctrl+shift+f7. The value should be a series of unique numbers or alphabets, case insensitive, from the
set 0-9A-Z`-=[];',./\. Specify your preference as a string of characters.
confirm_os_window_close
confirm_os_window_close -1
Ask for confirmation when closing an OS window or a tab with at least this number of kitty windows in it
by window manager (e.g. clicking the window close button or pressing the operating system shortcut to
close windows) or by the close_tab action. A value of zero disables confirmation. This confirmation also
applies to requests to quit the entire application (all OS windows, via the quit action). Negative values
are converted to positive ones, however, with shell_integration enabled, using negative values means
windows sitting at a shell prompt are not counted, only windows where some command is currently running.
Note that if you want confirmation when closing individual windows, you can map the
close_window_with_confirmation action.
Tab bar
tab_bar_edge
tab_bar_edge bottom
The edge to show the tab bar on, top or bottom.
tab_bar_margin_width
tab_bar_margin_width 0.0
The margin to the left and right of the tab bar (in pts).
tab_bar_margin_height
tab_bar_margin_height 0.0 0.0
The margin above and below the tab bar (in pts). The first number is the margin between the edge of the
OS Window and the tab bar. The second number is the margin between the tab bar and the contents of the
current tab.
tab_bar_style
tab_bar_style fade
The tab bar style, can be one of:
fade Each tab's edges fade into the background color. (See also tab_fade)
slant Tabs look like the tabs in a physical file.
separator
Tabs are separated by a configurable separator. (See also tab_separator)
powerline
Tabs are shown as a continuous line with "fancy" separators. (See also tab_powerline_style)
custom A user-supplied Python function called draw_tab is loaded from the file tab_bar.py in the kitty
config directory. For examples of how to write such a function, see the functions named
draw_tab_with_* in kitty's source code: kitty/tab_bar.py. See also this discussion for examples
from kitty users.
hidden The tab bar is hidden. If you use this, you might want to create a mapping for the select_tab
action which presents you with a list of tabs and allows for easy switching to a tab.
tab_bar_align
tab_bar_align left
The horizontal alignment of the tab bar, can be one of: left, center, right.
tab_bar_min_tabs
tab_bar_min_tabs 2
The minimum number of tabs that must exist before the tab bar is shown.
tab_switch_strategy
tab_switch_strategy previous
The algorithm to use when switching to a tab when the current tab is closed. The default of previous will
switch to the last used tab. A value of left will switch to the tab to the left of the closed tab. A
value of right will switch to the tab to the right of the closed tab. A value of last will switch to the
right-most tab.
tab_fade
tab_fade 0.25 0.5 0.75 1
Control how each tab fades into the background when using fade for the tab_bar_style. Each number is an
alpha (between zero and one) that controls how much the corresponding cell fades into the background,
with zero being no fade and one being full fade. You can change the number of cells used by
adding/removing entries to this list.
tab_separator
tab_separator " ┇"
The separator between tabs in the tab bar when using separator as the tab_bar_style.
tab_powerline_style
tab_powerline_style angled
The powerline separator style between tabs in the tab bar when using powerline as the tab_bar_style, can
be one of: angled, slanted, round.
tab_activity_symbol
tab_activity_symbol none
Some text or a Unicode symbol to show on the tab if a window in the tab that does not have focus has some
activity. If you want to use leading or trailing spaces, surround the text with quotes. See
tab_title_template for how this is rendered.
tab_title_max_length
tab_title_max_length 0
The maximum number of cells that can be used to render the text in a tab. A value of zero means that no
limit is applied.
tab_title_template
tab_title_template "{fmt.fg.red}{bell_symbol}{activity_symbol}{fmt.fg.tab}{title}"
A template to render the tab title. The default just renders the title with optional symbols for bell and
activity. If you wish to include the tab-index as well, use something like: {index}:{title}. Useful if
you have shortcuts mapped for goto_tab N. If you prefer to see the index as a superscript, use
{sup.index}. All data available is:
title The current tab title.
index The tab index usable with goto_tab N shortcuts.
layout_name
The current layout name.
num_windows
The number of windows in the tab.
num_window_groups
The number of window groups (a window group is a window and all of its overlay windows) in the
tab.
tab.active_wd
The working directory of the currently active window in the tab (expensive, requires syscall). Use
active_oldest_wd to get the directory of the oldest foreground process rather than the newest.
tab.active_exe
The name of the executable running in the foreground of the currently active window in the tab
(expensive, requires syscall). Use active_oldest_exe for the oldest foreground process.
max_title_length
The maximum title length available.
Note that formatting is done by Python's string formatting machinery, so you can use, for instance,
{layout_name[:2].upper()} to show only the first two letters of the layout name, upper-cased. If you want
to style the text, you can use styling directives, for example:
{fmt.fg.red}red{fmt.fg.tab}normal{fmt.bg._00FF00}greenbg{fmt.bg.tab}. Similarly, for bold and italic:
{fmt.bold}bold{fmt.nobold}normal{fmt.italic}italic{fmt.noitalic}. Note that for backward compatibility,
if {bell_symbol} or {activity_symbol} are not present in the template, they are prepended to it.
active_tab_title_template
active_tab_title_template none
Template to use for active tabs. If not specified falls back to tab_title_template.
active_tab_foreground, active_tab_background, active_tab_font_style, inactive_tab_foreground,
inactive_tab_background, inactive_tab_font_style
active_tab_foreground #000
active_tab_background #eee
active_tab_font_style bold-italic
inactive_tab_foreground #444
inactive_tab_background #999
inactive_tab_font_style normal
Tab bar colors and styles.
tab_bar_background
tab_bar_background none
Background color for the tab bar. Defaults to using the terminal background color.
tab_bar_margin_color
tab_bar_margin_color none
Color for the tab bar margin area. Defaults to using the terminal background color for margins above and
below the tab bar. For side margins the default color is chosen to match the background color of the
neighboring tab.
Color scheme
foreground, background
foreground #dddddd
background #000000
The foreground and background colors.
background_opacity
background_opacity 1.0
The opacity of the background. A number between zero and one, where one is opaque and zero is fully
transparent. This will only work if supported by the OS (for instance, when using a compositor under
X11). Note that it only sets the background color's opacity in cells that have the same background color
as the default terminal background, so that things like the status bar in vim, powerline prompts, etc.
still look good. But it means that if you use a color theme with a background color in your editor, it
will not be rendered as transparent. Instead you should change the default background color in your kitty
config and not use a background color in the editor color scheme. Or use the escape codes to set the
terminals default colors in a shell script to launch your editor. Be aware that using a value less than
1.0 is a (possibly significant) performance hit. When using a low value for this setting, it is desirable
that you set the background color to a color the matches the general color of the desktop background, for
best text rendering. If you want to dynamically change transparency of windows, set
dynamic_background_opacity to yes (this is off by default as it has a performance cost). Changing this
option when reloading the config will only work if dynamic_background_opacity was enabled in the original
config.
background_blur
background_blur 0
Set to a positive value to enable background blur (blurring of the visuals behind a transparent window)
on platforms that support it. Only takes effect when background_opacity is less than one. On macOS, this
will also control the blur radius (amount of blurring). Setting it to too high a value will cause severe
performance issues and/or rendering artifacts. Usually, values up to 64 work well. Note that this might
cause performance issues, depending on how the platform implements it, so use with care. Currently
supported on macOS and KDE under X11.
background_image
background_image none
Path to a background image. Must be in PNG format.
background_image_layout
background_image_layout tiled
Whether to tile, scale or clamp the background image. The value can be one of tiled, mirror-tiled,
scaled, clamped, centered or cscaled. The scaled and cscaled values scale the image to the window size,
with cscaled preserving the image aspect ratio.
background_image_linear
background_image_linear no
When background image is scaled, whether linear interpolation should be used.
dynamic_background_opacity
dynamic_background_opacity no
Allow changing of the background_opacity dynamically, using either keyboard shortcuts (ctrl+shift+a>m and
ctrl+shift+a>l) or the remote control facility. Changing this option by reloading the config is not
supported.
background_tint
background_tint 0.0
How much to tint the background image by the background color. This option makes it easier to read the
text. Tinting is done using the current background color for each window. This option applies only if
background_opacity is set and transparent windows are supported or background_image is set.
background_tint_gaps
background_tint_gaps 1.0
How much to tint the background image at the window gaps by the background color, after applying
background_tint. Since this is multiplicative with background_tint, it can be used to lighten the tint
over the window gaps for a separated look.
dim_opacity
dim_opacity 0.4
How much to dim text that has the DIM/FAINT attribute set. One means no dimming and zero means fully
dimmed (i.e. invisible).
selection_foreground, selection_background
selection_foreground #000000
selection_background #fffacd
The foreground and background colors for text selected with the mouse. Setting both of these to none will
cause a "reverse video" effect for selections, where the selection will be the cell text color and the
text will become the cell background color. Setting only selection_foreground to none will cause the
foreground color to be used unchanged. Note that these colors can be overridden by the program running in
the terminal.
The color table
The 256 terminal colors. There are 8 basic colors, each color has a dull and bright version, for the
first 16 colors. You can set the remaining 240 colors as color16 to color255.
color0, color8
color0 #000000
color8 #767676
black
color1, color9
color1 #cc0403
color9 #f2201f
red
color2, color10
color2 #19cb00
color10 #23fd00
green
color3, color11
color3 #cecb00
color11 #fffd00
yellow
color4, color12
color4 #0d73cc
color12 #1a8fff
blue
color5, color13
color5 #cb1ed1
color13 #fd28ff
magenta
color6, color14
color6 #0dcdcd
color14 #14ffff
cyan
color7, color15
color7 #dddddd
color15 #ffffff
white
mark1_foreground
mark1_foreground black
Color for marks of type 1
mark1_background
mark1_background #98d3cb
Color for marks of type 1 (light steel blue)
mark2_foreground
mark2_foreground black
Color for marks of type 2
mark2_background
mark2_background #f2dcd3
Color for marks of type 1 (beige)
mark3_foreground
mark3_foreground black
Color for marks of type 3
mark3_background
mark3_background #f274bc
Color for marks of type 3 (violet)
Advanced
shell
shell .
The shell program to execute. The default value of . means to use whatever shell is set as the default
shell for the current user. Note that on macOS if you change this, you might need to add --login and
--interactive to ensure that the shell starts in interactive mode and reads its startup rc files.
Environment variables are expanded in this setting.
editor
editor .
The terminal based text editor (such as vim or nano) to use when editing the kitty config file or similar
tasks.
The default value of . means to use the environment variables VISUAL and EDITOR in that order. If these
variables aren't set, kitty will run your shell ($SHELL -l -i -c env) to see if your shell startup rc
files set VISUAL or EDITOR. If that doesn't work, kitty will cycle through various known editors (vim,
emacs, etc.) and take the first one that exists on your system.
close_on_child_death
close_on_child_death no
Close the window when the child process (shell) exits. With the default value no, the terminal will
remain open when the child exits as long as there are still processes outputting to the terminal (for
example disowned or backgrounded processes). When enabled with yes, the window will close as soon as the
child process exits. Note that setting it to yes means that any background processes still using the
terminal can fail silently because their stdout/stderr/stdin no longer work.
remote_control_password
Allow other programs to control kitty using passwords. This option can be specified multiple times to add
multiple passwords. If no passwords are present kitty will ask the user for permission if a program tries
to use remote control with a password. A password can also optionally be associated with a set of allowed
remote control actions. For example:
remote_control_password "my passphrase" get-colors set-colors focus-window focus-tab
Only the specified actions will be allowed when using this password. Glob patterns can be used too, for
example:
remote_control_password "my passphrase" set-tab-* resize-*
To get a list of available actions, run:
kitten @ --help
A set of actions to be allowed when no password is sent can be specified by using an empty password. For
example:
remote_control_password "" *-colors
Finally, the path to a python module can be specified that provides a function is_cmd_allowed that is
used to check every remote control command. For example:
remote_control_password "my passphrase" my_rc_command_checker.py
Relative paths are resolved from the kitty configuration directory. See Customizing authorization with
your own program for details.
allow_remote_control
allow_remote_control no
Allow other programs to control kitty. If you turn this on, other programs can control all aspects of
kitty, including sending text to kitty windows, opening new windows, closing windows, reading the content
of windows, etc. Note that this even works over SSH connections. The default setting of no prevents any
form of remote control. The meaning of the various values are:
password
Remote control requests received over both the TTY device and the socket are confirmed based on
passwords, see remote_control_password.
socket-only
Remote control requests received over a socket are accepted unconditionally. Requests received
over the TTY are denied. See listen_on.
socket Remote control requests received over a socket are accepted unconditionally. Requests received
over the TTY are confirmed based on password.
no Remote control is completely disabled.
yes Remote control requests are always accepted.
listen_on
listen_on none
Listen to the specified socket for remote control connections. Note that this will apply to all kitty
instances. It can be overridden by the kitty --listen-on command line option. For UNIX sockets, such as
unix:${TEMP}/mykitty or unix:@mykitty (on Linux). Environment variables are expanded and relative paths
are resolved with respect to the temporary directory. If {kitty_pid} is present, then it is replaced by
the PID of the kitty process, otherwise the PID of the kitty process is appended to the value, with a
hyphen. For TCP sockets such as tcp:localhost:0 a random port is always used even if a non-zero port
number is specified. See the help for kitty --listen-on for more details. Note that this will be ignored
unless allow_remote_control is set to either: yes, socket or socket-only. Changing this option by
reloading the config is not supported.
env
Specify the environment variables to be set in all child processes. Using the name with an equal sign
(e.g. env VAR=) will set it to the empty string. Specifying only the name (e.g. env VAR) will remove the
variable from the child process' environment. Note that environment variables are expanded recursively,
for example:
env VAR1=a
env VAR2=${HOME}/${VAR1}/b
The value of VAR2 will be <path to home directory>/a/b.
watcher
Path to python file which will be loaded for Watching launched windows. Can be specified more than once
to load multiple watchers. The watchers will be added to every kitty window. Relative paths are resolved
relative to the kitty config directory. Note that reloading the config will only affect windows created
after the reload.
exe_search_path
Control where kitty finds the programs to run. The default search order is: First search the system wide
PATH, then ~/.local/bin and ~/bin. If still not found, the PATH defined in the login shell after sourcing
all its startup files is tried. Finally, if present, the PATH specified by the env option is tried.
This option allows you to prepend, append, or remove paths from this search order. It can be specified
multiple times for multiple paths. A simple path will be prepended to the search order. A path that
starts with the + sign will be append to the search order, after ~/bin above. A path that starts with the
- sign will be removed from the entire search order. For example:
exe_search_path /some/prepended/path
exe_search_path +/some/appended/path
exe_search_path -/some/excluded/path
update_check_interval
update_check_interval 24
The interval to periodically check if an update to kitty is available (in hours). If an update is found,
a system notification is displayed informing you of the available update. The default is to check every
24 hours, set to zero to disable. Update checking is only done by the official binary builds. Distro
packages or source builds do not do update checking. Changing this option by reloading the config is not
supported.
startup_session
startup_session none
Path to a session file to use for all kitty instances. Can be overridden by using the kitty --session
=none command line option for individual instances. See Startup Sessions in the kitty documentation for
details. Note that relative paths are interpreted with respect to the kitty config directory.
Environment variables in the path are expanded. Changing this option by reloading the config is not
supported.
clipboard_control
clipboard_control write-clipboard write-primary read-clipboard-ask read-primary-ask
Allow programs running in kitty to read and write from the clipboard. You can control exactly which
actions are allowed. The possible actions are: write-clipboard, read-clipboard, write-primary,
read-primary, read-clipboard-ask, read-primary-ask. The default is to allow writing to the clipboard and
primary selection and to ask for permission when a program tries to read from the clipboard. Note that
disabling the read confirmation is a security risk as it means that any program, even the ones running on
a remote server via SSH can read your clipboard. See also clipboard_max_size.
clipboard_max_size
clipboard_max_size 512
The maximum size (in MB) of data from programs running in kitty that will be stored for writing to the
system clipboard. A value of zero means no size limit is applied. See also clipboard_control.
file_transfer_confirmation_bypass
The password that can be supplied to the file transfer kitten to skip the transfer confirmation prompt.
This should only be used when initiating transfers from trusted computers, over trusted networks or
encrypted transports, as it allows any programs running on the remote machine to read/write to the local
filesystem, without permission.
allow_hyperlinks
allow_hyperlinks yes
Process hyperlink escape sequences (OSC 8). If disabled OSC 8 escape sequences are ignored. Otherwise
they become clickable links, that you can click with the mouse or by using the hints kitten. The special
value of ask means that kitty will ask before opening the link when clicked.
shell_integration
shell_integration enabled
Enable shell integration on supported shells. This enables features such as jumping to previous prompts,
browsing the output of the previous command in a pager, etc. on supported shells. Set to disabled to turn
off shell integration, completely. It is also possible to disable individual features, set to a space
separated list of these values: no-rc, no-cursor, no-title, no-cwd, no-prompt-mark, no-complete, no-sudo.
See Shell integration for details.
allow_cloning
allow_cloning ask
Control whether programs running in the terminal can request new windows to be created. The canonical
example is clone-in-kitty. By default, kitty will ask for permission for each clone request. Allowing
cloning unconditionally gives programs running in the terminal (including over SSH) permission to execute
arbitrary code, as the user who is running the terminal, on the computer that the terminal is running on.
clone_source_strategies
clone_source_strategies venv,conda,env_var,path
Control what shell code is sourced when running clone-in-kitty in the newly cloned window. The supported
strategies are:
venv Source the file $VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/activate. This is used by the Python stdlib venv module and
allows cloning venvs automatically.
conda Run conda activate $CONDA_DEFAULT_ENV. This supports the virtual environments created by conda.
env_var
Execute the contents of the environment variable KITTY_CLONE_SOURCE_CODE with eval.
path Source the file pointed to by the environment variable KITTY_CLONE_SOURCE_PATH.
This option must be a comma separated list of the above values. Only the first valid match, in the order
specified, is sourced.
notify_on_cmd_finish
notify_on_cmd_finish never
Show a desktop notification when a long-running command finishes (needs shell_integration). The possible
values are:
never Never send a notification.
unfocused
Only send a notification when the window does not have keyboard focus.
invisible
Only send a notification when the window both is unfocused and not visible to the user, for
example, because it is in an inactive tab or its OS window is not currently active.
always Always send a notification, regardless of window state.
There are two optional arguments:
First, the minimum duration for what is considered a long running command. The default is 5 seconds.
Specify a second argument to set the duration. For example: invisible 15. Do not set the value too
small, otherwise a command that launches a new OS Window and exits will spam a notification.
Second, the action to perform. The default is notify. The possible values are:
notify Send a desktop notification.
bell Ring the terminal bell.
command
Run a custom command. All subsequent arguments are the cmdline to run.
Some more examples:
# Send a notification when a command takes more than 5 seconds in an unfocused window
notify_on_cmd_finish unfocused
# Send a notification when a command takes more than 10 seconds in a invisible window
notify_on_cmd_finish invisible 10.0
# Ring a bell when a command takes more than 10 seconds in a invisible window
notify_on_cmd_finish invisible 10.0 bell
# Run 'notify-send' when a command takes more than 10 seconds in a invisible window
notify_on_cmd_finish invisible 10.0 command notify-send job finished
term
term xterm-kitty
The value of the TERM environment variable to set. Changing this can break many terminal programs, only
change it if you know what you are doing, not because you read some advice on "Stack Overflow" to change
it. The TERM variable is used by various programs to get information about the capabilities and behavior
of the terminal. If you change it, depending on what programs you run, and how different the terminal you
are changing it to is, various things from key-presses, to colors, to various advanced features may not
work. Changing this option by reloading the config will only affect newly created windows.
forward_stdio
forward_stdio no
Forward STDOUT and STDERR of the kitty process to child processes as file descriptors 3 and 4. This is
useful for debugging as it allows child processes to print to kitty's STDOUT directly. For example, echo
hello world >&3 in a shell will print to the parent kitty's STDOUT. When enabled, this also sets the
KITTY_STDIO_FORWARDED=3 environment variable so child processes know about the forwarding.
menu_map
Specify entries for various menus in kitty. Currently only the global menubar on macOS is supported. For
example:
menu_map global "Actions::Launch something special" launch --hold --type=os-window sh -c "echo hello world"
This will create a menu entry named "Launch something special" in an "Actions" menu in the macOS global
menubar. Sub-menus can be created by adding more levels separated by the :: characters.
Os specific tweaks
wayland_titlebar_color
wayland_titlebar_color system
The color of the kitty window's titlebar on Wayland systems with client side window decorations such as
GNOME. A value of system means to use the default system color, a value of background means to use the
background color of the currently active window and finally you can use an arbitrary color, such as
#12af59 or red.
macos_titlebar_color
macos_titlebar_color system
The color of the kitty window's titlebar on macOS. A value of system means to use the default system
color, light or dark can also be used to set it explicitly. A value of background means to use the
background color of the currently active window and finally you can use an arbitrary color, such as
#12af59 or red. WARNING: This option works by using a hack when arbitrary color (or background) is
configured, as there is no proper Cocoa API for it. It sets the background color of the entire window and
makes the titlebar transparent. As such it is incompatible with background_opacity. If you want to use
both, you are probably better off just hiding the titlebar with hide_window_decorations.
macos_option_as_alt
macos_option_as_alt no
Use the Option key as an Alt key on macOS. With this set to no, kitty will use the macOS native
Option+Key to enter Unicode character behavior. This will break any Alt+Key keyboard shortcuts in your
terminal programs, but you can use the macOS Unicode input technique. You can use the values: left, right
or both to use only the left, right or both Option keys as Alt, instead. Note that kitty itself always
treats Option the same as Alt. This means you cannot use this option to configure different kitty
shortcuts for Option+Key vs. Alt+Key. Also, any kitty shortcuts using Option/Alt+Key will take priority,
so that any such key presses will not be passed to terminal programs running inside kitty. Changing this
option by reloading the config is not supported.
macos_hide_from_tasks
macos_hide_from_tasks no
Hide the kitty window from running tasks on macOS (⌘+Tab and the Dock). Changing this option by
reloading the config is not supported.
macos_quit_when_last_window_closed
macos_quit_when_last_window_closed no
Have kitty quit when all the top-level windows are closed on macOS. By default, kitty will stay running,
even with no open windows, as is the expected behavior on macOS.
macos_window_resizable
macos_window_resizable yes
Disable this if you want kitty top-level OS windows to not be resizable on macOS.
macos_thicken_font
macos_thicken_font 0
Draw an extra border around the font with the given width, to increase legibility at small font sizes on
macOS. For example, a value of 0.75 will result in rendering that looks similar to sub-pixel antialiasing
at common font sizes. Note that in modern kitty, this option is obsolete (although still supported).
Consider using text_composition_strategy instead.
macos_traditional_fullscreen
macos_traditional_fullscreen no
Use the macOS traditional full-screen transition, that is faster, but less pretty.
macos_show_window_title_in
macos_show_window_title_in all
Control where the window title is displayed on macOS. A value of window will show the title of the
currently active window at the top of the macOS window. A value of menubar will show the title of the
currently active window in the macOS global menu bar, making use of otherwise wasted space. A value of
all will show the title in both places, and none hides the title. See macos_menubar_title_max_length for
how to control the length of the title in the menu bar.
macos_menubar_title_max_length
macos_menubar_title_max_length 0
The maximum number of characters from the window title to show in the macOS global menu bar. Values less
than one means that there is no maximum limit.
macos_custom_beam_cursor
macos_custom_beam_cursor no
Use a custom mouse cursor for macOS that is easier to see on both light and dark backgrounds. Nowadays,
the default macOS cursor already comes with a white border. WARNING: this might make your mouse cursor
invisible on dual GPU machines. Changing this option by reloading the config is not supported.
macos_colorspace
macos_colorspace srgb
The colorspace in which to interpret terminal colors. The default of srgb will cause colors to match
those seen in web browsers. The value of default will use whatever the native colorspace of the display
is. The value of displayp3 will use Apple's special snowflake display P3 color space, which will result
in over saturated (brighter) colors with some color shift. Reloading configuration will change this value
only for newly created OS windows.
linux_display_server
linux_display_server auto
Choose between Wayland and X11 backends. By default, an appropriate backend based on the system state is
chosen automatically. Set it to x11 or wayland to force the choice. Changing this option by reloading the
config is not supported.
Keyboard shortcuts
Keys are identified simply by their lowercase Unicode characters. For example: a for the A key, [ for the
left square bracket key, etc. For functional keys, such as Enter or Escape, the names are present at
Functional key definitions. For modifier keys, the names are ctrl (control, ⌃), shift (⇧), alt (opt,
option, ⌥), super (cmd, command, ⌘).
Simple shortcut mapping is done with the map directive. For full details on advanced mapping including
modal and per application maps, see Making your keyboard dance. Some quick examples to illustrate common
tasks:
# unmap a keyboard shortcut, passing it to the program running in kitty
map kitty_mod+space
# completely ignore a keyboard event
map ctrl+alt+f1 discard_event
# combine multiple actions
map kitty_mod+e combine : new_window : next_layout
# multi-key shortcuts
map ctrl+x>ctrl+y>z action
The full list of actions that can be mapped to key presses is available here.
kitty_mod
kitty_mod ctrl+shift
Special modifier key alias for default shortcuts. You can change the value of this option to alter all
default shortcuts that use kitty_mod.
clear_all_shortcuts
clear_all_shortcuts no
Remove all shortcut definitions up to this point. Useful, for instance, to remove the default shortcuts.
action_alias
Has no default values. Example values are shown below:
action_alias launch_tab launch --type=tab --cwd=current
Define action aliases to avoid repeating the same options in multiple mappings. Aliases can be defined
for any action and will be expanded recursively. For example, the above alias allows you to create
mappings to launch a new tab in the current working directory without duplication:
map f1 launch_tab vim
map f2 launch_tab emacs
Similarly, to alias kitten invocation:
action_alias hints kitten hints --hints-offset=0
kitten_alias
Has no default values. Example values are shown below:
kitten_alias hints hints --hints-offset=0
Like action_alias above, but specifically for kittens. Generally, prefer to use action_alias. This option
is a legacy version, present for backwards compatibility. It causes all invocations of the aliased kitten
to be substituted. So the example above will cause all invocations of the hints kitten to have the
--hints-offset=0 option applied.
Clipboard
Copy to clipboard
map ctrl+shift+c copy_to_clipboard
map cmd+c copy_to_clipboard 🍎
There is also a copy_or_interrupt action that can be optionally mapped to Ctrl+C. It will copy only if
there is a selection and send an interrupt otherwise. Similarly, copy_and_clear_or_interrupt will copy
and clear the selection or send an interrupt if there is no selection.
Paste from clipboard
map ctrl+shift+v paste_from_clipboard
map cmd+v paste_from_clipboard 🍎
Paste from selection
map ctrl+shift+s paste_from_selection
map shift+insert paste_from_selection
Pass selection to program
map ctrl+shift+o pass_selection_to_program
You can also pass the contents of the current selection to any program with pass_selection_to_program. By
default, the system's open program is used, but you can specify your own, the selection will be passed as
a command line argument to the program. For example:
map kitty_mod+o pass_selection_to_program firefox
You can pass the current selection to a terminal program running in a new kitty window, by using the
@selection placeholder:
map kitty_mod+y new_window less @selection
Scrolling
Scroll line up
map ctrl+shift+up scroll_line_up
map ctrl+shift+k scroll_line_up
map opt+cmd+page_up scroll_line_up 🍎
map cmd+up scroll_line_up 🍎
Scroll line down
map ctrl+shift+down scroll_line_down
map ctrl+shift+j scroll_line_down
map opt+cmd+page_down scroll_line_down 🍎
map cmd+down scroll_line_down 🍎
Scroll page up
map ctrl+shift+page_up scroll_page_up
map cmd+page_up scroll_page_up 🍎
Scroll page down
map ctrl+shift+page_down scroll_page_down
map cmd+page_down scroll_page_down 🍎
Scroll to top
map ctrl+shift+home scroll_home
map cmd+home scroll_home 🍎
Scroll to bottom
map ctrl+shift+end scroll_end
map cmd+end scroll_end 🍎
Scroll to previous shell prompt
map ctrl+shift+z scroll_to_prompt -1
Use a parameter of 0 for scroll_to_prompt to scroll to the last jumped to or the last clicked position.
Requires shell integration to work.
Scroll to next shell prompt
map ctrl+shift+x scroll_to_prompt 1
Browse scrollback buffer in pager
map ctrl+shift+h show_scrollback
You can pipe the contents of the current screen and history buffer as STDIN to an arbitrary program using
launch --stdin-source. For example, the following opens the scrollback buffer in less in an overlay
window:
map f1 launch --stdin-source=@screen_scrollback --stdin-add-formatting --type=overlay less +G -R
For more details on piping screen and buffer contents to external programs, see The launch command.
Browse output of the last shell command in pager
map ctrl+shift+g show_last_command_output
You can also define additional shortcuts to get the command output. For example, to get the first
command output on screen:
map f1 show_first_command_output_on_screen
To get the command output that was last accessed by a keyboard action or mouse action:
map f1 show_last_visited_command_output
You can pipe the output of the last command run in the shell using the launch action. For example, the
following opens the output in less in an overlay window:
map f1 launch --stdin-source=@last_cmd_output --stdin-add-formatting --type=overlay less +G -R
To get the output of the first command on the screen, use @first_cmd_output_on_screen. To get the output
of the last jumped to command, use @last_visited_cmd_output.
Requires shell integration to work.
Window management
New window
map ctrl+shift+enter new_window
map cmd+enter new_window 🍎
You can open a new kitty window running an arbitrary program, for example:
map kitty_mod+y launch mutt
You can open a new window with the current working directory set to the working directory of the current
window using:
map ctrl+alt+enter launch --cwd=current
You can open a new window that is allowed to control kitty via the kitty remote control facility with
launch --allow-remote-control. Any programs running in that window will be allowed to control kitty.
For example:
map ctrl+enter launch --allow-remote-control some_program
You can open a new window next to the currently active window or as the first window, with:
map ctrl+n launch --location=neighbor
map ctrl+f launch --location=first
For more details, see The launch command.
New OS window
map ctrl+shift+n new_os_window
map cmd+n new_os_window 🍎
Works like new_window above, except that it opens a top-level OS window. In particular you can use
new_os_window_with_cwd to open a window with the current working directory.
Close window
map ctrl+shift+w close_window
map shift+cmd+d close_window 🍎
Next window
map ctrl+shift+] next_window
Previous window
map ctrl+shift+[ previous_window
Move window forward
map ctrl+shift+f move_window_forward
Move window backward
map ctrl+shift+b move_window_backward
Move window to top
map ctrl+shift+` move_window_to_top
Start resizing window
map ctrl+shift+r start_resizing_window
map cmd+r start_resizing_window 🍎
First window
map ctrl+shift+1 first_window
map cmd+1 first_window 🍎
Second window
map ctrl+shift+2 second_window
map cmd+2 second_window 🍎
Third window
map ctrl+shift+3 third_window
map cmd+3 third_window 🍎
Fourth window
map ctrl+shift+4 fourth_window
map cmd+4 fourth_window 🍎
Fifth window
map ctrl+shift+5 fifth_window
map cmd+5 fifth_window 🍎
Sixth window
map ctrl+shift+6 sixth_window
map cmd+6 sixth_window 🍎
Seventh window
map ctrl+shift+7 seventh_window
map cmd+7 seventh_window 🍎
Eighth window
map ctrl+shift+8 eighth_window
map cmd+8 eighth_window 🍎
Ninth window
map ctrl+shift+9 ninth_window
map cmd+9 ninth_window 🍎
Tenth window
map ctrl+shift+0 tenth_window
Visually select and focus window
map ctrl+shift+f7 focus_visible_window
Display overlay numbers and alphabets on the window, and switch the focus to the window when you press
the key. When there are only two windows, the focus will be switched directly without displaying the
overlay. You can change the overlay characters and their order with option
visual_window_select_characters.
Visually swap window with another
map ctrl+shift+f8 swap_with_window
Works like focus_visible_window above, but swaps the window.
Tab management
Next tab
map ctrl+shift+right next_tab
map shift+cmd+] next_tab 🍎
map ctrl+tab next_tab
Previous tab
map ctrl+shift+left previous_tab
map shift+cmd+[ previous_tab 🍎
map ctrl+shift+tab previous_tab
New tab
map ctrl+shift+t new_tab
map cmd+t new_tab 🍎
Close tab
map ctrl+shift+q close_tab
map cmd+w close_tab 🍎
Close OS window
map shift+cmd+w close_os_window 🍎
Move tab forward
map ctrl+shift+. move_tab_forward
Move tab backward
map ctrl+shift+, move_tab_backward
Set tab title
map ctrl+shift+alt+t set_tab_title
map shift+cmd+i set_tab_title 🍎
You can also create shortcuts to go to specific tabs, with 1 being the first tab, 2 the second tab and -1
being the previously active tab, and any number larger than the last tab being the last tab:
map ctrl+alt+1 goto_tab 1
map ctrl+alt+2 goto_tab 2
Just as with new_window above, you can also pass the name of arbitrary commands to run when using new_tab
and new_tab_with_cwd. Finally, if you want the new tab to open next to the current tab rather than at the
end of the tabs list, use:
map ctrl+t new_tab !neighbor [optional cmd to run]
Layout management
Next layout
map ctrl+shift+l next_layout
You can also create shortcuts to switch to specific layouts:
map ctrl+alt+t goto_layout tall
map ctrl+alt+s goto_layout stack
Similarly, to switch back to the previous layout:
map ctrl+alt+p last_used_layout
There is also a toggle_layout action that switches to the named layout or back to the previous layout if
in the named layout. Useful to temporarily "zoom" the active window by switching to the stack layout:
map ctrl+alt+z toggle_layout stack
Font sizes
You can change the font size for all top-level kitty OS windows at a time or only the current one.
Increase font size
map ctrl+shift+equal change_font_size all +2.0
map ctrl+shift+plus change_font_size all +2.0
map ctrl+shift+kp_add change_font_size all +2.0
map cmd+plus change_font_size all +2.0 🍎
map cmd+equal change_font_size all +2.0 🍎
map shift+cmd+equal change_font_size all +2.0 🍎
Decrease font size
map ctrl+shift+minus change_font_size all -2.0
map ctrl+shift+kp_subtract change_font_size all -2.0
map cmd+minus change_font_size all -2.0 🍎
map shift+cmd+minus change_font_size all -2.0 🍎
Reset font size
map ctrl+shift+backspace change_font_size all 0
map cmd+0 change_font_size all 0 🍎
To setup shortcuts for specific font sizes:
map kitty_mod+f6 change_font_size all 10.0
To setup shortcuts to change only the current OS window's font size:
map kitty_mod+f6 change_font_size current 10.0
Select and act on visible text
Use the hints kitten to select text and either pass it to an external program or insert it into the
terminal or copy it to the clipboard.
Open URL
map ctrl+shift+e open_url_with_hints
Open a currently visible URL using the keyboard. The program used to open the URL is specified in
open_url_with.
Insert selected path
map ctrl+shift+p>f kitten hints --type path --program -
Select a path/filename and insert it into the terminal. Useful, for instance to run git commands on a
filename output from a previous git command.
Open selected path
map ctrl+shift+p>shift+f kitten hints --type path
Select a path/filename and open it with the default open program.
Insert selected line
map ctrl+shift+p>l kitten hints --type line --program -
Select a line of text and insert it into the terminal. Useful for the output of things like: ls -1.
Insert selected word
map ctrl+shift+p>w kitten hints --type word --program -
Select words and insert into terminal.
Insert selected hash
map ctrl+shift+p>h kitten hints --type hash --program -
Select something that looks like a hash and insert it into the terminal. Useful with git, which uses SHA1
hashes to identify commits.
Open the selected file at the selected line
map ctrl+shift+p>n kitten hints --type linenum
Select something that looks like filename:linenum and open it in vim at the specified line number.
Open the selected hyperlink
map ctrl+shift+p>y kitten hints --type hyperlink
Select a hyperlink (i.e. a URL that has been marked as such by the terminal program, for example, by ls
--hyperlink=auto).
The hints kitten has many more modes of operation that you can map to different shortcuts. For a full
description see hints kitten.
Miscellaneous
Show documentation
map ctrl+shift+f1 show_kitty_doc overview
Toggle fullscreen
map ctrl+shift+f11 toggle_fullscreen
map ctrl+cmd+f toggle_fullscreen 🍎
Toggle maximized
map ctrl+shift+f10 toggle_maximized
Toggle macOS secure keyboard entry
map opt+cmd+s toggle_macos_secure_keyboard_entry 🍎
Unicode input
map ctrl+shift+u kitten unicode_input
map ctrl+cmd+space kitten unicode_input 🍎
Edit config file
map ctrl+shift+f2 edit_config_file
map cmd+, edit_config_file 🍎
Open the kitty command shell
map ctrl+shift+escape kitty_shell window
Open the kitty shell in a new window / tab / overlay / os_window to control kitty using commands.
Increase background opacity
map ctrl+shift+a>m set_background_opacity +0.1
Decrease background opacity
map ctrl+shift+a>l set_background_opacity -0.1
Make background fully opaque
map ctrl+shift+a>1 set_background_opacity 1
Reset background opacity
map ctrl+shift+a>d set_background_opacity default
Reset the terminal
map ctrl+shift+delete clear_terminal reset active
map opt+cmd+r clear_terminal reset active 🍎
You can create shortcuts to clear/reset the terminal. For example:
# Reset the terminal
map f1 clear_terminal reset active
# Clear the terminal screen by erasing all contents
map f1 clear_terminal clear active
# Clear the terminal scrollback by erasing it
map f1 clear_terminal scrollback active
# Scroll the contents of the screen into the scrollback
map f1 clear_terminal scroll active
# Clear everything up to the line with the cursor
map f1 clear_terminal to_cursor active
If you want to operate on all kitty windows instead of just the current one, use all instead of active.
Some useful functions that can be defined in the shell rc files to perform various kinds of clearing of
the current window:
clear-only-screen() {
printf "\e[H\e[2J"
}
clear-screen-and-scrollback() {
printf "\e[H\e[3J"
}
clear-screen-saving-contents-in-scrollback() {
printf "\e[H\e[22J"
}
For instance, using these escape codes, it is possible to remap Ctrl+L to both scroll the current screen
contents into the scrollback buffer and clear the screen, instead of just clearing the screen. For ZSH,
in ~/.zshrc, add:
ctrl_l() {
builtin print -rn -- $'\\r\e[0J\e[H\e[22J' >"$TTY"
builtin zle .reset-prompt
builtin zle -R
}
zle -N ctrl_l
bindkey '^l' ctrl_l
Clear up to cursor line
map cmd+k clear_terminal to_cursor active 🍎
Reload kitty.conf
map ctrl+shift+f5 load_config_file
map ctrl+cmd+, load_config_file 🍎
Reload kitty.conf, applying any changes since the last time it was loaded. Note that a handful of options
cannot be dynamically changed and require a full restart of kitty. Particularly, when changing shortcuts
for actions located on the macOS global menu bar, a full restart is needed. You can also map a keybinding
to load a different config file, for example:
map f5 load_config /path/to/alternative/kitty.conf
Note that all options from the original kitty.conf are discarded, in other words the new configuration
replace the old ones.
Debug kitty configuration
map ctrl+shift+f6 debug_config
map opt+cmd+, debug_config 🍎
Show details about exactly what configuration kitty is running with and its host environment. Useful for
debugging issues.
Send arbitrary text on key presses
You can tell kitty to send arbitrary (UTF-8) encoded text to the client program when pressing specified
shortcut keys. For example:
map ctrl+alt+a send_text all Special text
This will send "Special text" when you press the Ctrl+Alt+A key combination. The text to be sent decodes
ANSI C escapes so you can use escapes like \e to send control codes or \u21fb to send Unicode characters
(or you can just input the Unicode characters directly as UTF-8 text). You can use kitten show_key to get
the key escape codes you want to emulate.
The first argument to send_text is the keyboard modes in which to activate the shortcut. The possible
values are normal, application, kitty or a comma separated combination of them. The modes normal and
application refer to the DECCKM cursor key mode for terminals, and kitty refers to the kitty extended
keyboard protocol. The special value all means all of them.
Some more examples:
# Output a word and move the cursor to the start of the line (like typing and pressing Home)
map ctrl+alt+a send_text normal Word\e[H
map ctrl+alt+a send_text application Word\eOH
# Run a command at a shell prompt (like typing the command and pressing Enter)
map ctrl+alt+a send_text normal,application some command with arguments\r
Open kitty Website
map shift+cmd+/ open_url https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/ 🍎
Hide macOS kitty application
map cmd+h hide_macos_app 🍎
Hide macOS other applications
map opt+cmd+h hide_macos_other_apps 🍎
Minimize macOS window
map cmd+m minimize_macos_window 🍎
Quit kitty
map cmd+q quit 🍎
Sample kitty.conf
You can edit a fully commented sample kitty.conf by pressing the ctrl+shift+f2 shortcut in kitty. This
will generate a config file with full documentation and all settings commented out. If you have a
pre-existing kitty.conf, then that will be used instead, delete it to see the sample file.
A default configuration file can also be generated by running:
kitty +runpy 'from kitty.config import *; print(commented_out_default_config())'
This will print the commented out default config file to STDOUT.
All mappable actions
See the list of all the things you can make kitty can do.
Mappable actions
The actions described below can be mapped to any key press or mouse action using the map and mouse_map
directives in kitty.conf. For configuration examples, see the default shortcut links for each action. To
read about keyboard mapping in more detail, see Making your keyboard dance.
Copy/paste
clear_selection
Clear the current selection
copy_and_clear_or_interrupt
Copy the selected text from the active window to the clipboard and clear selection, if no selection, send
SIGINT (aka ctrl+c)
copy_ansi_to_clipboard
Copy the selected text from the active window to the clipboard with ANSI formatting codes
copy_or_interrupt
Copy the selected text from the active window to the clipboard, if no selection, send SIGINT (aka ctrl+c)
copy_to_clipboard
Copy the selected text from the active window to the clipboard
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+c
pass_selection_to_program
Pass the selected text from the active window to the specified program
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+o
paste
Paste the specified text into the current window. ANSI C escapes are decoded.
show_first_command_output_on_screen
Show output from the first shell command on screen in a pager like less
Requires Shell integration to work
show_last_command_output
Show output from the last shell command in a pager like less
Requires Shell integration to work
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+g
show_last_non_empty_command_output
Show the last non-empty output from a shell command in a pager like less
Requires Shell integration to work
show_last_visited_command_output
Show the first command output below the last scrolled position via scroll_to_prompt
or the last mouse clicked command output in a pager like less
Requires Shell integration to work
show_scrollback
Show scrollback in a pager like less
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+h
copy_to_buffer
Copy the selection from the active window to the specified buffer
See Multiple copy/paste buffers for details.
paste_from_buffer
Paste from the specified buffer to the active window
See Multiple copy/paste buffers for details.
paste_from_clipboard
Paste from the clipboard to the active window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+v
paste_from_selection
Paste from the primary selection, if present, otherwise the clipboard to the active window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+s
Debugging
dump_lines_with_attrs
Show a dump of the current lines in the scrollback + screen with their line attributes
close_shared_ssh_connections
Close all shared SSH connections
See share_connections for details.
debug_config
Show the effective configuration kitty is running with
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+f6
show_kitty_env_vars
Show the environment variables that the kitty process sees
Layouts
goto_layout
Switch to the named layout
In case there are multiple layouts with the same name and different options, specify the full layout
definition or a unique prefix of the full definition.
For example:
map f1 goto_layout tall
map f2 goto_layout fat:bias=20
last_used_layout
Go to the previously used layout
layout_action
Perform a layout specific action. See Arrange windows for details
next_layout
Go to the next enabled layout. Can optionally supply an integer to jump by the specified number.
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+l
toggle_layout
Toggle the named layout
Switches to the named layout if another layout is current, otherwise switches to the last used layout.
Useful to "zoom" a window temporarily by switching to the stack layout. For example:
map f1 toggle_layout stack
Marks
remove_marker
Remove a previously created marker
scroll_to_mark
Scroll to the next or previous mark of the specified type
toggle_marker
Toggle the current marker on/off
create_marker
Create a new marker
Miscellaneous
send_key
Send the specified keys to the active window.
Note that the key will be sent only if the current keyboard mode of the program running in the terminal
supports it. Both key press and key release are sent. First presses for all specified keys and then
releases in reverse order. To send a pattern of press and release for multiple keys use the combine
action. For example:
map f1 send_key ctrl+x alt+y
map f1 combine : send_key ctrl+x : send_key alt+y
send_text
Send the specified text to the active window
See send_text for details.
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+alt+h
show_kitty_doc
Display the specified kitty documentation, preferring a local copy, if found.
For example:
# show the config docs
map f1 show_kitty_doc conf
# show the ssh kitten docs
map f1 show_kitty_doc kittens/ssh
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+f1
signal_child
Send the specified SIGNAL to the foreground process in the active window
For example:
map f1 signal_child SIGTERM
clear_terminal
Clear the terminal
See reset_terminal for details. For example:
# Reset the terminal
map f1 clear_terminal reset active
# Clear the terminal screen by erasing all contents
map f1 clear_terminal clear active
# Clear the terminal scrollback by erasing it
map f1 clear_terminal scrollback active
# Scroll the contents of the screen into the scrollback
map f1 clear_terminal scroll active
# Clear everything up to the line with the cursor
map f1 clear_terminal to_cursor active
Default shortcuts using this action: cmd+k, ctrl+shift+delete
combine
Combine multiple actions and map to a single keypress
The syntax is:
map key combine <separator> action1 <separator> action2 <separator> action3 ...
For example:
map kitty_mod+e combine : new_window : next_layout
disable_ligatures_in
Turn on/off ligatures in the specified window
See disable_ligatures for details
discard_event
Discard this event completely ignoring it
edit_config_file
Edit the kitty.conf config file in your favorite text editor
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+f2
hide_macos_app
Hide macOS kitty application
Default shortcuts using this action: cmd+h
hide_macos_other_apps
Hide macOS other applications
Default shortcuts using this action: opt+cmd+h
input_unicode_character
Input an arbitrary unicode character. See Unicode input for details.
kitten
Run the specified kitten. See Custom kittens for details
Default shortcuts using this action:
• Hints - ctrl+shift+p>h Insert selected hash
• Hints - ctrl+shift+p>l Insert selected line
• Hints - ctrl+shift+p>f Insert selected path
• Hints - ctrl+shift+p>w Insert selected word
• Hints - ctrl+shift+p>shift+f Open selected path
• Hints - ctrl+shift+p>n Open the selected file at the selected line
• Hints - ctrl+shift+p>y Open the selected hyperlink
• Unicode input - ctrl+shift+u Unicode input
kitty_shell
Run the kitty shell to control kitty with commands
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+escape
launch
Launch the specified program in a new window/tab/etc.
See The launch command for details
load_config_file
Reload the config file
If mapped without arguments reloads the default config file, otherwise loads the specified config files,
in order. Loading a config file replaces all config options. For example:
map f5 load_config_file /path/to/some/kitty.conf
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+f5
minimize_macos_window
Minimize macOS window
Default shortcuts using this action: cmd+m
open_url
Open the specified URL
Default shortcuts using this action: shift+cmd+/
open_url_with_hints
Click a URL using the keyboard
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+e
pop_keyboard_mode
End the current keyboard mode switching to the previous mode.
push_keyboard_mode
Switch to the specified keyboard mode, pushing it onto the stack of keyboard modes.
remote_control
Run a remote control command without needing to allow remote control
For example:
map f1 remote_control set-spacing margin=30
See Mapping key presses to remote control commands for details.
remote_control_script
Run a remote control script without needing to allow remote control
For example:
map f1 remote_control_script arg1 arg2 ...
See Mapping key presses to remote control commands for details.
set_colors
Change colors in the specified windows
For details, see kitten @ set-colors. For example:
map f5 set_colors --configured /path/to/some/config/file/colors.conf
show_error
Show an error message with the specified title and text
sleep
Sleep for the specified time period. Suffix can be s for seconds, m, for minutes, h for hours and d for
days. The time can be fractional.
toggle_macos_secure_keyboard_entry
Toggle macOS secure keyboard entry
Default shortcuts using this action: opt+cmd+s
no_op
Unbind a shortcut
Mapping a shortcut to no_op causes kitty to not intercept the key stroke anymore, instead passing it to
the program running inside it.
Mouse actions
mouse_click_url
Click the URL under the mouse
mouse_click_url_or_select
Click the URL under the mouse only if the screen has no selection
mouse_handle_click
Handle a mouse click
Try to perform the specified actions one after the other till one of them is successful. Supported
actions are:
selection - check for a selection and if one exists abort processing
link - if a link exists under the mouse, click it
prompt - if the mouse click happens at a shell prompt move the cursor to the mouse location
For examples, see Mouse actions
mouse_select_command_output
Select clicked command output
Requires Shell integration to work
mouse_selection
Manipulate the selection based on the current mouse position
For examples, see Mouse actions
mouse_show_command_output
Show clicked command output in a pager like less
Requires Shell integration to work
paste_selection
Paste the current primary selection
paste_selection_or_clipboard
Paste the current primary selection or the clipboard if no selection is present
Scrolling
scroll_end
Scroll to the bottom of the scrollback buffer when in main screen
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+end
scroll_home
Scroll to the top of the scrollback buffer when in main screen
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+home
scroll_line_down
Scroll down by one line when in main screen
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+down
scroll_line_up
Scroll up by one line when in main screen
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+up
scroll_page_down
Scroll down by one page when in main screen
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+page_down
scroll_page_up
Scroll up by one page when in main screen
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+page_up
scroll_prompt_to_bottom
Scroll prompt to the bottom of the screen, filling in extra lines from the scrollback buffer, when in
main screen
scroll_prompt_to_top
Scroll prompt to the top of the screen, filling screen with empty lines, when in main screen
scroll_to_prompt
Scroll to the previous/next shell command prompt
Allows easy jumping from one command to the next. Requires working Shell integration. Takes a single,
optional, number as argument which is the number of prompts to jump, negative values jump up and positive
values jump down. A value of zero will jump to the last prompt visited by this action. For example:
map ctrl+p scroll_to_prompt -1 # jump to previous
map ctrl+n scroll_to_prompt 1 # jump to next
map ctrl+o scroll_to_prompt 0 # jump to last visited
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+x, ctrl+shift+z
Tab management
close_other_tabs_in_os_window
Close all the tabs in the current OS window other than the currently active tab
close_tab
Close the current tab
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+q
detach_tab
Detach a tab, moving it to another OS Window
See detaching windows for details.
goto_tab
Go to the specified tab, by number, starting with 1
Zero and negative numbers go to previously active tabs
move_tab_backward
Move the active tab backward
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+,
move_tab_forward
Move the active tab forward
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+.
new_tab
Create a new tab
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+t
new_tab_with_cwd
Create a new tab with working directory for the window in it set to the same as the active window
next_tab
Make the next tab active
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+right
previous_tab
Make the previous tab active
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+left
select_tab
Interactively select a tab to switch to
set_tab_title
Change the title of the active tab interactively, by typing in the new title.
If you specify an argument to this action then that is used as the title instead of asking for it. Use
the empty string ("") to reset the title to default. Use a space (" ") to indicate that the prompt should
not be pre-filled. For example:
# interactive usage
map f1 set_tab_title
# set a specific title
map f2 set_tab_title some title
# reset to default
map f3 set_tab_title ""
# interactive usage without prefilled prompt
map f3 set_tab_title " "
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+alt+t
Window management
set_window_title
Change the title of the active window interactively, by typing in the new title.
If you specify an argument to this action then that is used as the title instead of asking for it. Use
the empty string ("") to reset the title to default. Use a space (" ") to indicate that the prompt should
not be pre-filled. For example:
# interactive usage
map f1 set_window_title
# set a specific title
map f2 set_window_title some title
# reset to default
map f3 set_window_title ""
# interactive usage without prefilled prompt
map f3 set_window_title " "
close_other_windows_in_tab
Close all windows in the tab other than the currently active window
eighth_window
Focus the eighth window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+8
fifth_window
Focus the fifth window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+5
first_window
Focus the first window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+1
focus_visible_window
Focus a visible window by pressing the number of the window. Window numbers are displayed
over the windows for easy selection in this mode. See visual_window_select_characters.
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+f7
fourth_window
Focus the fourth window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+4
move_window
Move the window in the specified direction
For example:
map ctrl+left move_window left
map ctrl+down move_window bottom
move_window_backward
Move active window backward (swap it with the previous window)
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+b
move_window_forward
Move active window forward (swap it with the next window)
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+f
move_window_to_top
Move active window to the top (make it the first window)
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+`
neighboring_window
Focus the neighboring window in the current tab
For example:
map ctrl+left neighboring_window left
map ctrl+down neighboring_window bottom
next_window
Focus the next window in the current tab
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+]
ninth_window
Focus the ninth window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+9
nth_window
Focus the nth window if positive or the previously active windows if negative. When the number is larger
than the number of windows focus the last window. For example:
# focus the previously active window
map ctrl+p nth_window -1
# focus the first window
map ctrl+1 nth_window 0
previous_window
Focus the previous window in the current tab
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+[
reset_window_sizes
Reset window sizes undoing any dynamic resizing of windows
resize_window
Resize the active window by the specified amount
See Resizing windows for details.
second_window
Focus the second window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+2
seventh_window
Focus the seventh window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+7
sixth_window
Focus the sixth window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+6
swap_with_window
Swap the current window with another window in the current tab, selected visually. See
visual_window_select_characters
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+f8
tenth_window
Focus the tenth window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+0
third_window
Focus the third window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+3
change_font_size
Change the font size for the current or all OS Windows
See Font sizes for details.
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+minus, ctrl+shift+equal, ctrl+shift+backspace
close_os_window
Close the currently active OS Window
Default shortcuts using this action: shift+cmd+w
close_other_os_windows
Close all other OS Windows other than the OS Window containing the currently active window
close_window
Close the currently active window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+w
close_window_with_confirmation
Close window with confirmation
Asks for confirmation before closing the window. If you don't want the confirmation when the window is
sitting at a shell prompt (requires Shell integration), use:
map f1 close_window_with_confirmation ignore-shell
detach_window
Detach a window, moving it to another tab or OS Window
See detaching windows for details.
new_os_window
New OS Window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+n
new_os_window_with_cwd
New OS Window with the same working directory as the currently active window
new_window
Create a new window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+enter
new_window_with_cwd
Create a new window with working directory same as that of the active window
nth_os_window
Focus the nth OS window if positive or the previously active OS windows if negative. When the number is
larger
than the number of OS windows focus the last OS window. A value of zero will refocus the currently
focused OS window, this is useful if focus is not on any kitty OS window at all, however, it will only
work if the window manager allows applications to grab focus. For example:
# focus the previously active kitty OS window
map ctrl+p nth_os_window -1
# focus the current kitty OS window (grab focus)
map ctrl+0 nth_os_window 0
# focus the first kitty OS window
map ctrl+1 nth_os_window 1
# focus the last kitty OS window
map ctrl+1 nth_os_window 999
quit
Quit, closing all windows
Default shortcuts using this action: cmd+q
set_background_opacity
Set the background opacity for the active OS Window
For example:
map f1 set_background_opacity +0.1
map f2 set_background_opacity -0.1
map f3 set_background_opacity 0.5
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+a>l, ctrl+shift+a>1, ctrl+shift+a>m, ctrl+shift+a>d
start_resizing_window
Resize the active window interactively
See Resizing windows for details.
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+r
toggle_fullscreen
Toggle the fullscreen status of the active OS Window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+f11
toggle_maximized
Toggle the maximized status of the active OS Window
Default shortcuts using this action: ctrl+shift+f10
Author
Kovid Goyal
Copyright
2025, Kovid Goyal
0.32.2 Jun 25, 2025 kitty.conf(5)