How to use Quick Terminal?

[trevor-e]

I see Quick Terminal is listed as a feature on the website, the top feature for macOS. And I see it as an option in the menu at View > Quick Terminal. This seems like a popular feature so I must be missing something very obvious -- how do I use it?

There's no hotkey listed next to it in the View dropdown, and I can't find any other way to trigger it. Having to select View > Quick Terminal seems very... not quick lol. Why would I do this over opening a new tab? Would someone please mind explaining how to use this feature, thanks! 😅

[edrozenberg]

You can add a binding for this in the config file, something like this for ex:
keybind = global:ctrl+grave_accent=toggle_quick_terminal

(this one binds CTRL + backtick to the Quick Terminal).

The global item means it will work even if some other app is active, but (on MacOS) global will require Ghostty to have Privacy->Accessibility permissions in the system settings in order to work. Otherwise not using global means Ghostty needs to be active in order for the keybinding to work.

Tap the binding once to show, tap again to hide. Or, with the default config, clicking/focusing some other window will also auto-close the Quick Terminal (its contents will persist). You can also drag the edge of the Quick Terminal to make it taller.

[trevor-e]

Thanks! This is very neat.

[daletman]

Since Ghostty has a Zero Configuration Philosophy I would argue there should be a default key binding since without a key binding this feature doesn't make much sense?!

https://ghostty.org/docs/config#zero-configuration-philosophy

[edrozenberg]

I agree but can't think of a shortcut that would work well for most people, esp. one that you can make global without stepping on shortcuts used by other apps. On Mac I settled on Ctrl Opt Cmd + Space, nothing else is using that atm for me. I don't suggest using Cmd-T or Cmd-Q on Mac :).

Previously I looked into using a sided modifier for ex. the right side CTRL key:
keybind = ctrl+right_control=toggle_quick_terminal

but this doesn't function properly atm, possibly due to a Ghostty bug
(#3734)

For users who have F11/F12 available, something like this would work:
keybind = f11=toggle_quick_terminal

(in my case I'm using both of these Fn's for other things on Mac)

[trevor-e]

After learning more about the feature and reading the docs for it, IMO just making the https://ghostty.org/docs/config/keybind/reference#toggle_quick_terminal docs more prominent would be very helpful and simple, like having a link to this from somewhere on the main website. It gets lost with the rest of the documentation and requires some user setup to work.

[sebastian-correa]

I use Cmd + Esc for the same thing in iTerm. I have no clue whether I gave up some MacOS thing, but evidently I don't care enough for it to be annoying in my use case xD.

[oranges13]

I use ctrl + ` for iterm also.

[aaronik]

Is there a way to open ghostty in quick terminal mode by specifying a flag? Like ghostty --quick-terminal? I'd rather manage the keybindings in my operating system than have ghostty manage it from the config file. That way I don't have to grant any extra permissions, and I don't have to fumble with finding the correct key combo strings.

[natikgadzhi]

I didn't figure it out yet, and settled on having a global keybind (outside of Ghostty) to open Ghostty itself for now.

I think this would be a welcome addition (I am not working on Ghostty and can't speak for Mitchell though), and you can probably craft something like a new CLI action (akin to what +list-themes etc do) as a launcher for the behavior. If we had ghostty +quick-terminal, it would be trivial to trigger it with your keybind tool of choice.

[JakeWharton]

A CLI flag would be covered by #2353

[elliotdes]

Is there a way for this to work while Ghostty is terminated? Currently for quick terminal to work, Ghostty must be active (appear in the app switcher). I do not always have my terminal app open, so being able to use quick terminal any time would be useful.

[MattMorgis]

On macOS, go to Privacy & Security > Accessibility then add Ghostty.app

[smikheiev]

is there a way to change the default quick terminal size (width/height)?

[edrozenberg]

Not yet but there's an open issue for it: #2384

Currently (see https://ghostty.org/docs/config/reference) you can specify:
quick-terminal-position

The position of the "quick" terminal window
Valid values are:
top - Terminal appears at the top of the screen.
bottom - Terminal appears at the bottom of the screen.
left - Terminal appears at the left of the screen.
right - Terminal appears at the right of the screen.
center - Terminal appears at the center of the screen.

If you set position to center you will get a quick term window that is centered and also takes up less than full width, you may prefer this.

You can also manually adjust the height of a for ex. top quick term by dragging its bottom edge (not persistent across app relaunches).

[smikheiev]

thanks!