Ghostty

What is Ghostty?

Ghostty is a GPU-accelerated terminal emulator focused on speed, correctness, and native platform integration. It supports ligatures, true color, and custom themes out of the box.

Prerequisites

None — Ghostty works with any shell. The ZSH guide is recommended for the best experience.

Install Nerd Fonts

Many terminal tools (including Starship) use special glyphs for Git status, language icons, and other indicators. You need a patched Nerd Font to render them properly.

brew install --cask font-meslo-lg-nerd-font

brew install --cask font-jetbrains-mono-nerd-font
brew install --cask font-fira-code-nerd-font

# Download and install manually
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts
cd ~/.local/share/fonts
curl -fLO https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/latest/download/Meslo.tar.xz
tar -xf Meslo.tar.xz
fc-cache -fv

Installation

brew install --cask ghostty

Configure Ghostty

Create ~/.config/ghostty/config:

font-family = MesloLGS Nerd Font
font-size = 14

theme = Argonaut
background-opacity = 0.95

window-padding-x = 8
window-padding-y = 8

Browse available themes with ghostty +list-themes in terminal.

Manage with Dotfiles

To manage Ghostty config with GNU Stow:

mkdir -p ~/my-dotfiles/shared/ghostty/.config/ghostty
mv ~/.config/ghostty/config ~/my-dotfiles/shared/ghostty/.config/ghostty/config
cd ~/my-dotfiles
stow -d shared -t ~ ghostty

Troubleshooting

Icons display as squares or question marks

You are missing a Nerd Font or your terminal is not configured to use it. Verify:

1. A Nerd Font is installed (fc-list | grep -i nerd on Linux)
2. Your terminal’s font is set to the Nerd Font (font-family in config)

Resources

🔗

Ghostty Documentation ghostty.org

Official Ghostty terminal emulator documentation

🔗

Nerd Fonts nerdfonts.com

Patched fonts with developer icons and glyphs