Name

kitty - The fast, feature rich terminal emulator

kitty [options] [program-to-run ...]

Run the kitty terminal emulator. You can also specify the program to run inside kitty as normal arguments following the options. For example: kitty --hold sh -c "echo hello, world"

For comprehensive documentation for kitty, please see: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/

Options

--app-id <CLS>, --class <CLS>: On Wayland set the application id. On X11 set the class part of the WM_CLASS window property. Default: kitty

--name <NAME>, --os-window-tag <NAME>: On Wayland, set the window tag, when specified. On X11, set the name part of the WM_CLASS property, when unset, defaults to using the value from kitty --class.

--title <TITLE>, -T <TITLE>: Set the OS window title. This will override any title set by the program running inside kitty, permanently fixing the OS window's title. So only use this if you are running a program that does not set titles.

--config <CONFIG>, -c <CONFIG>

Specify a path to the configuration file(s) to use. All configuration files are merged onto the builtin kitty.conf, overriding the builtin values. This option can be specified multiple times to read multiple configuration files in sequence, which are merged. Use the special value NONE to not load any config file.

If this option is not specified, config files are searched for in the order: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/kitty/kitty.conf, ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf, $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/kitty/kitty.conf. The first one that exists is used as the config file.

If the environment variable KITTY_CONFIG_DIRECTORY is specified, that directory is always used and the above searching does not happen.

If /etc/xdg/kitty/kitty.conf exists, it is merged before (i.e. with lower priority) than any user config files. It can be used to specify system-wide defaults for all users. You can use either - or /dev/stdin to read the config from STDIN.

--override <OVERRIDE>, -o <OVERRIDE>: Override individual configuration options, can be specified multiple times. Syntax: name=value. For example: kitty -o font_size=20

--directory <DIRECTORY>, --working-directory <DIRECTORY>, -d <DIRECTORY>: Change to the specified directory when launching. Default: .

--detach [=no]: Detach from the controlling terminal, if any. On macOS use open -a kitty.app -n instead.

--detached-log <DETACHED_LOG>: Path to a log file to store STDOUT/STDERR when using --detach

--session <SESSION>: Path to a file containing the startup session (tabs, windows, layout, programs). Use - to read from STDIN. See Startup Sessions for details and an example. Environment variables in the file name are expanded, relative paths are resolved relative to the kitty configuration directory. The special value none means no session will be used, even if the startup_session option has been specified in kitty.conf. Note that using this option means the command line arguments to kitty specifying a program to run are ignored.

--hold [=no]: Remain open, at a shell prompt, after child process exits. Note that this only affects the first window. You can quit by either using the close window shortcut or running the exit command.

--single-instance [=no], -1 [=no]: If specified only a single instance of kitty will run. New invocations will instead create a new top-level window in the existing kitty instance. This allows kitty to share a single sprite cache on the GPU and also reduces startup time. You can also have separate groups of kitty instances by using the kitty --instance-group option.

--instance-group <INSTANCE_GROUP>: Used in combination with the kitty --single-instance option. All kitty invocations with the same kitty --instance-group will result in new windows being created in the first kitty instance within that group.

--wait-for-single-instance-window-close [=no]: Normally, when using kitty --single-instance, kitty will open a new window in an existing instance and quit immediately. With this option, it will not quit till the newly opened window is closed. Note that if no previous instance is found, then kitty will wait anyway, regardless of this option.

--listen-on <LISTEN_ON>: Listen on the specified socket address for control messages. For example, kitty --listen-on=unix:/tmp/mykitty or kitty --listen-on=tcp:localhost:12345. On Linux systems, you can also use abstract UNIX sockets, not associated with a file, like this: kitty --listen-on=unix:@mykitty. Environment variables are expanded and relative paths are resolved with respect to the temporary directory. To control kitty, you can send commands to it with kitten @ using the kitten @ --to option to specify this address. Note that if you run kitten @ within a kitty window, there is no need to specify the kitten @ --to option as it will automatically read from the environment. Note that this will be ignored unless allow_remote_control is set to either: yes, socket or socket-only. This can also be specified in kitty.conf. To start in headless mode, without an actual window, use kitty --start-as=hidden.

--start-as <START_AS>: Control how the initial kitty window is created. Default: normal Choices: fullscreen, hidden, maximized, minimized, normal

--position <POSITION>: The position, for example 10x20, on screen at which to place the first kitty OS Window. This may or may not work depending on the policies of the desktop environment/window manager. It never works on Wayland. See also remember_window_position to have kitty automatically try to restore the previous window position.

Debugging options

--version [=no], -v [=no]: The current kitty version.

--dump-commands [=no]: Output commands received from child process to STDOUT.

--replay-commands <REPLAY_COMMANDS>: Replay previously dumped commands. Specify the path to a dump file previously created by kitty --dump-commands. You can open a new kitty window to replay the commands with:

kitty sh -c "kitty --replay-commands /path/to/dump/file; read"

--dump-bytes <DUMP_BYTES>: Path to file in which to store the raw bytes received from the child process.

--debug-gl [=no], --debug-rendering [=no]: Debug rendering commands. This will cause all OpenGL calls to check for errors instead of ignoring them. Also prints out miscellaneous debug information. Useful when debugging rendering problems.

--debug-input [=no], --debug-keyboard [=no]: Print out key and mouse events as they are received.

--debug-font-fallback [=no]: Print out information about the selection of fallback fonts for characters not present in the main font.

--watcher <WATCHER>: This option is deprecated in favor of the watcher option in kitty.conf and should not be used.

Tabs and windows

kitty is capable of running multiple programs organized into tabs and windows. The top level of organization is the OS window. Each OS window consists of one or more tabs. Each tab consists of one or more kitty windows. The kitty windows can be arranged in multiple different layouts, like windows are organized in a tiling window manager. The keyboard controls (which are all customizable) for tabs and windows are:

Scrolling

Action	Shortcut
Line up	ctrl+shift+up (also ⌥+⌘+⇞ and ⌘+↑ on macOS)
Line down	ctrl+shift+down (also ⌥+⌘+⇟ and ⌘+↓ on macOS)
Page up	ctrl+shift+page_up (also ⌘+⇞ on macOS)
Page down	ctrl+shift+page_down (also ⌘+⇟ on macOS)
Top	ctrl+shift+home (also ⌘+↖ on macOS)
Bottom	ctrl+shift+end (also ⌘+↘ on macOS)
Previous shell prompt	ctrl+shift+z (see Shell integration)
Next shell prompt	ctrl+shift+x (see Shell integration)
Browse scrollback in less	ctrl+shift+h
Browse last cmd output	ctrl+shift+g (see Shell integration)

The scroll actions only take effect when the terminal is in the main screen. When the alternate screen is active (for example when using a full screen program like an editor) the key events are instead passed to program running in the terminal.

Tabs

Action	Shortcut
New tab	ctrl+shift+t (also ⌘+t on macOS)
Close tab	ctrl+shift+q (also ⌘+w on macOS)
Next tab	ctrl+shift+right (also ⇧+⌃+⇥ and ⇧+⌘+] on macOS)
Previous tab	ctrl+shift+left (also ⇧+⌃+⇥ and ⇧+⌘+[ on macOS)
Next layout	ctrl+shift+l
Move tab forward	ctrl+shift+.
Move tab backward	ctrl+shift+,
Set tab title	ctrl+shift+alt+t (also ⇧+⌘+i on macOS)

Windows

Action	Shortcut
New window	ctrl+shift+enter (also ⌘+↩ on macOS)
New OS window	ctrl+shift+n (also ⌘+n on macOS)
Close window	ctrl+shift+w (also ⇧+⌘+d on macOS)
Resize window	ctrl+shift+r (also ⌘+r on macOS)
Next window	ctrl+shift+]
Previous window	ctrl+shift+[
Move window forward	ctrl+shift+f
Move window backward	ctrl+shift+b
Move window to top	ctrl+shift+`
Visually focus window	ctrl+shift+f7
Visually swap window	ctrl+shift+f8
Focus specific window	ctrl+shift+1, ctrl+shift+2 ... ctrl+shift+0 (also ⌘+1, ⌘+2 ... ⌘+9 on macOS) (clockwise from the top-left)

Additionally, you can define shortcuts in kitty.conf to focus neighboring windows and move windows around (similar to window movement in vim):

map ctrl+left neighboring_window left
map shift+left move_window right
map ctrl+down neighboring_window down
map shift+down move_window up
...

You can also define a shortcut to switch to the previously active window:

map ctrl+p nth_window -1

nth_window will focus the nth window for positive numbers (starting from zero) and the previously active windows for negative numbers.

To switch to the nth OS window, you can define nth_os_window. Only positive numbers are accepted, starting from one.

You can define shortcuts to detach the current window and move it to another tab or another OS window:

# moves the window into a new OS window
map ctrl+f2 detach_window
# moves the window into a new tab
map ctrl+f3 detach_window new-tab
# moves the window into the previously active tab
map ctrl+f3 detach_window tab-prev
# moves the window into the tab at the left of the active tab
map ctrl+f3 detach_window tab-left
# moves the window into a new tab created to the left of the active tab
map ctrl+f3 detach_window new-tab-left
# asks which tab to move the window into
map ctrl+f4 detach_window ask

Similarly, you can detach the current tab, with:

# moves the tab into a new OS window
map ctrl+f2 detach_tab
# asks which OS Window to move the tab into
map ctrl+f4 detach_tab ask

Finally, you can define a shortcut to close all windows in a tab other than the currently active window:

map f9 close_other_windows_in_tab

Other keyboard shortcuts

The full list of actions that can be mapped to key presses is available here. To learn how to do more sophisticated keyboard mappings, such as modal mappings, per application mappings, etc. see Making your keyboard dance.

Action	Shortcut
Show this help	ctrl+shift+f1
Copy to clipboard	ctrl+shift+c (also ⌘+c on macOS)
Paste from clipboard	ctrl+shift+v (also ⌘+v on macOS)
Paste from selection	ctrl+shift+s
Pass selection to program	ctrl+shift+o
Increase font size	ctrl+shift+equal (also ⌘++ on macOS)
Decrease font size	ctrl+shift+minus (also ⌘+- on macOS)
Restore font size	ctrl+shift+backspace (also ⌘+0 on macOS)
Toggle fullscreen	ctrl+shift+f11 (also ⌃+⌘+f on macOS)
Toggle maximized	ctrl+shift+f10
Input Unicode character	ctrl+shift+u (also ⌃+⌘+space on macOS)
Open URL in web browser	ctrl+shift+e
Reset the terminal	ctrl+shift+delete (also ⌥+⌘+r on macOS)
Edit kitty.conf	ctrl+shift+f2 (also ⌘+, on macOS)
Reload kitty.conf	ctrl+shift+f5 (also ⌃+⌘+, on macOS)
Debug kitty.conf	ctrl+shift+f6 (also ⌥+⌘+, on macOS)
Open a kitty shell	ctrl+shift+escape
Increase background opacity	ctrl+shift+a>m
Decrease background opacity	ctrl+shift+a>l
Full background opacity	ctrl+shift+a>1
Reset background opacity	ctrl+shift+a>d

Author

Kovid Goyal

Copyright

2025, Kovid Goyal