Ghostty Tab Management

Ghostty is a fast, native terminal emulator with excellent tab support. This guide covers tab keybindings and visual configuration options.

Default Tab Keybindings

Creating and Closing Tabs

Navigating Between Tabs

Tab Visual Configuration

Titlebar Styles

Ghostty offers several titlebar styles that affect tab appearance:

# In your Ghostty config file:
# ~/.config/ghostty/config (Linux)
# ~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config (macOS)

macos-titlebar-style = tabs

Available options:

• native - Standard macOS titlebar with zero customization
• transparent - Transparent titlebar showing window background color
• tabs - Custom titlebar integrating tabs into titlebar (most prominent tabs)
• hidden - Hides titlebar completely (removes tab UI)

Recommendation for Clear Tab Edges

The tabs style provides the clearest visual separation between tabs by:

• Integrating tabs directly into the titlebar
• Matching tabs to terminal background color
• Creating distinct tab boundaries

Limitations

As of Ghostty 1.2.0, there are no config options for:

• Tab border color
• Tab border thickness
• Tab separator style
• Individual tab padding

These visual properties are controlled by the titlebar style and cannot be customized further through configuration.

Configuration File Location

macOS

~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config

Linux

~/.config/ghostty/config

Example Configuration

# Enhanced tab visibility
macos-titlebar-style = tabs

# Tab-related keybinds are defaults, but documented here for reference:
# New tab: cmd+t
# Close tab: cmd+alt+w
# Next tab: cmd+shift+] or ctrl+tab
# Previous tab: cmd+shift+[ or ctrl+shift+tab
# Jump to tab 1-8: cmd+1 through cmd+8
# Go to last tab: cmd+9

Reloading Configuration

After editing your config file, reload Ghostty configuration:

• Keybinding: Look for reload_config action in your keybinds
• Menu: Ghostty → Reload Configuration
• Restart: Close and reopen Ghostty completely

Related Configuration Options

• window-decoration - Controls window decorations (affects titlebar availability)
• window-theme - Sets light/dark theme (affects tab appearance)
• gtk-titlebar-style - Linux equivalent for titlebar customization
• gtk-tabs-location - Linux tab bar placement (top/bottom/hidden)

Links

Official Documentation

• URL: https://ghostty.org/docs/config/reference↗
• Summary: Complete Ghostty configuration reference including all titlebar and tab options
• Related: Ghostty, Terminal Configuration