feat(config): generate default template when config file is not found

[pluiedev]

Closes #3203

[qwerasd205]

Notably, this PR automatically initializes the file on the first attempted load, rather than as a part of open_config (which is handled by open in ./src/config/edit.zig). I'm not sure how I feel about this.

[qwerasd205]

As for the contents of the template- there are some changes to my suggested template that are definitely improvements, but some of the new wording is a little sloppy, the text jumps around between moods in a strange way, extraneous commentary is included which will reduce the chance of a user properly reading it (users could not care less about the philosophical basis of the configuration file, they just want to change their font and color scheme), and not leading with the docs link front and center is definitely worse.

[mitchellh]

Notably, this PR automatically initializes the file on the first attempted load, rather than as a part of open_config (which is handled by open in ./src/config/edit.zig). I'm not sure how I feel about this.

I agree, I don't think we should be doing this in the load portion.

[pluiedev]

Notably, this PR automatically initializes the file on the first attempted load, rather than as a part of open_config (which is handled by open in ./src/config/edit.zig). I'm not sure how I feel about this.

I feel like I prefer this over only generating when open_config is run, since another common point of feedback is that some people didn't even know that you can open the config by pressing Ctrl/Cmd-,.

Plus, when they follow the docs and try to find the config file at ~/.config/ghostty/config (or its macOS equivalent) only to find that it doesn't exist, they get quite confused for one reason or another (some people mistake it for a directory, some people ask "wait, where's the ghostty directory in ~/.config?", etc.) Therefore I'd argue that only generating the file upon open_config only addresses half the problem. Always creating the template file when one couldn't be found would largely alleviate the volume of PEBKAC I've personally seen.

[pluiedev]

As for the contents of the template- there are some changes to my suggested template that are definitely improvements, but some of the new wording is a little sloppy, the text jumps around between moods in a strange way,

Proofreads & wording suggestions welcome, but an issue I had with the original version is that it feels too cold/robotic for an introductory document — I tried to rephrase it with a more welcoming tone but maybe now it seems a bit disjointed

extraneous commentary is included which will reduce the chance of a user properly reading it (users could not care less about the philosophical basis of the configuration file, they just want to change their font and color scheme),

Zero-config is a great selling point of Ghostty — heck, it's literally the first thing you see on the website's docs page. If people truly don't care about philosophical fluff then maybe we should deemphasize it there too.

I think it's a needed point of justification as to why we're not like, say, Kitty, where the default config is a full list of options. (Believe me, there are people who got confused by that as well, coming from Kitty)

and not leading with the docs link front and center is definitely worse.

That can definitely be moved

[edrozenberg]

Love this:

This template file has been automatically created at path
#   {[path]s} 

As a new user, Ghostty created the config file for me and I had a bit of a hl of a time figuring out where it put it, ~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config (Mac) was not my first, second or fifth guess, I looked in ~ and then in ~/.config and then no clue. Eventually I found it. This template text will be a big help.

[mitchellh]

This is just an unrelated change I snuck in here because I noticed it.

[mitchellh]

Alright, I made some edits. I'm still not super happy with how this works but it does the job and I think it'll help users quite a lot. Thanks @pluiedev

[HeySora]

There might be an issue in this PR, considering that this happened on every launch after updating to 1.0.1 on my computer.

This will actually fail if the ~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty directory does not exist! That can be fixed by doing cmd+, inside ghostty, but this creates an empty config file, without the template. Because of this, ghostty will not attempt to create a template file, considering the file exists (despite being empty). Closing ghostty, deleting that file while keeping the folder, then restarting ghostty properly creates the template file this time!

A workaround for this would be to also generate the template by doing cmd+, for the first time, in the code path that creates the folder and file.

[mitchellh]

Does the directory exist? I just deleted my config files (moved them) and it gets created fine. But @HeySora is correct that it requires the dir to exist which is unfortunate. I'm making an issue to track that now.

[edrozenberg]

It worked after these steps:

1. Close Ghostty windows, Quit Ghostty

2. rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty

3. Open Ghostty, Cmd ,

4. Blank config file opens in TextMate

5. cat ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config is blank

6. Quit Ghostty

7. rm -f ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config

8. Open Ghostty, Cmd ,

9. Template config file shows up in TextMate ✅

[liby]

Hi @HeySora,

Interesting observation! While trying to reproduce this issue, I noticed something different. I can only see the error message in the logs:

2025-01-01 17:30:11.159045+0000 Info ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:config] creating template config file: path=/Users/bryan/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config
2025-01-01 17:30:11.159075+0000 Error ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:config] error creating template config file err=error.FileNotFound

But I don't see any UI modal/notification like the one in your screenshot. I'm curious:

• Did you have any special configuration to enable these error notifications?

• Or perhaps you're running on a different platform? I'm on macOS with:

  Ghostty 1.0.1
  - channel: stable
  - app runtime: apprt.Runtime.none
  - font engine: font.main.Backend.coretext
  - renderer: renderer.Metal
  

Would be helpful to know your setup as it seems to provide a better user experience with visible error notifications!

[HeySora]

Hi @liby, this is just Console.app!

It's the built-in macOS app that aggregates logs from every running app (+ has remote debugging for any of your Apple devices, including iOS);
I simply didn't want to guess where Ghostty stored its logs, as Console is effectively an universal way to read logs from anywhere, so I just started the logging capture, started Ghostty, then stopped the capture and typed "ghostty" in the search bar, filtering by errors.

Here is an uncropped screenshot to hopefully help with the context of the above image.