macOS: quick-terminal-size possibly not working properly?

[tedlatentai]

Hi, I noticed that #8402 was merged and is available in the tip releases, so I started testing it right away. However, for me, setting the terminal width doesn’t seem to work at all, only the height setting works.

With the following config, quick-terminal-size = 50%, I believe it should set the terminal width to 50%, but that didn’t work and the terminal still opens with the default size.

I also tried this config: quick-terminal-size = 50%, 25%. In this case, the width parameter was ignored, but the terminal height was correctly set to 25%.

I’m not sure if this is a bug or if I’m missing something, so I’d appreciate your help!

Minimal Config:

quick-terminal-position = right
quick-terminal-size = 50%, 25%

keybind = global:cmd+§=toggle_quick_terminal

Here’s how it looks like with the new config for me

[mitchellh]

This might be a bug, I tested those all locally and they worked when I was working on the PR but maybe it regressed at some point. I'll verify.

[mitchellh]

I can't reproduce this, your exact config produces the following for me, which is correct (50% of primary axis, 25% secondary):

[tedlatentai]

@tedlatentai What macOS version? Perhaps this is a macOS 14 issue. I only tested on 15 and 26.

macOS 15.6 Sequoia

[mitchellh]

I wonder if its a race condition on both and I'm just not hitting it on my machines then.

[tedlatentai]

@mitchellh is there anything I can do to help track down this bug?

[mitchellh]

Not really unless you want to fix it :) I think I have to get my older macOS up and running and look myself.

[GJRobert]

I think this is the most complete condition found for now: #8419 (comment)

[Suree33]

With the following config, quick-terminal-size = 50%, I believe it should set the terminal width to 50%, but that didn’t work and the terminal still opens with the default size.
I also tried this config: quick-terminal-size = 50%, 25%. In this case, the width parameter was ignored, but the terminal height was correctly set to 25%.

Exactly the same situation on macOS 15.6.1.

Ghostty version: 5ef6412

quick-terminal-position = center
quick-terminal-size = 800px,50%
quick-terminal-animation-duration = 0
keybind = global:ctrl+grave_accent=toggle_quick_terminal

[GJRobert]

I think this is the most complete condition found for now: #8419 (comment)

[mitchellh]

I tried this config and couldn't get this to reproduce still. I'm sorry.

[krono]

I just switched from c014dd79f tip build to todays (5ef641282) and the problem is gone for me!

[donaldguy]

[At tip = 5ef6412 on macOS 26 beta 8 (25A5349a), as well as before pulling today's tip: ]

It seems like in order for quick-terminal-size to be respected at all, the quick terminal must be unfurled for the first time (since start of Ghostty.app) while a regular terminal window is focused

if it is triggered from a global hotkey with ghostty unfocused, the default dimensions end up being applied and (absent drag-resizing) remain the used dimensions until Ghostty.app is quit and re-opened

[This was extra hard to figure out with my setup from #7978 w/ macos-hidden=always and initial-window=no ; it does not appear to depend on window-save-state;

and an override for ⌘N to spawn a separate none macos-hidden ghostty process ]

[maddo]

I found that if I had a non quick-terminal focused when I first unfurled quick-terminal, the quick-terminal-size values were not respected.

[GJRobert]

Same with @donaldguy, macOS 15.6.1 Sequoia

[teroyks]

This works to set the initial size of the quick terminal!
However, that size is then locked in – so, when I open the terminal on another display (of a different size),
the quick terminal is of the size of the previous display, i.e. either too small, or much bigger than the actual display.

This was a regression in 1.2, before that, the quick terminal adapted to the current display.

[mitchellh]

Thanks @donaldguy, this sounded promising but this is still not reproducing for me on macOS 26. I'd really love to get this fixed but I've still been totally unable to reproduce the quick terminal size not working...

[iwinux]

I've tried @tedlatentai's workaround: actually adding initial-window = false alone fixes the problem.

• macOS 15.3.2
• Ghostty 1.2.0

[edrozenberg]

I'm seeing various issues with quickterm size (Ghostty 3e38e28 b-12119 MacOS 15.7 24G219)

• Different size on different spaces - main space vs a fullscreen space, for ex. taller on main space, less tall (larger bottom margin) on a fullscreen space. The larger bottom margin on a fullscreen space appears to be based on taking into account the vertical space occupied by Ghostty tabs on a Ghostty window on a fullscreen space
• Width spec sometimes ignored
• Different initial size depending on whether autohide is enabled (extends underneath Mac Dock w/ autohide on, doesn't extend under Dock if off)
• The height spec is ignored if position is center (defaults to 400px height on my screen)

It also behaves in an unusual way if a Ghostty window on a fullscreen space is active - when showing the quickterm on the main space, then switching to a fullscreen space w/ an active Ghostty window w/tabs, the quickterm will appear shitfted downward by the amount necessary to not cover the Ghostty tab bar of the Ghostty window on that fullscreen space.

For ex. this is one set of quickterm specs:

#┌───────────────────────┐
#│ Quickterm settings    │
#└───────────────────────┘
quick-terminal-autohide = true
quick-terminal-position = center
quick-terminal-size = 99%,99%
quick-terminal-animation-duration = 0.0
quick-terminal-space-behavior = remain

[Rawa]

I can attest to this as well, seeing the samething running MacOS Sequoia 15.6.1. The most obvious thing is that the terminal does not resize after first spawn, e.g if you create the terminal on your ultra wide and then try and expand it on the MacBook screen it will be about 300% size of the actual display. I also tried initial-window = false & macos-hidden = always as proposed above, but it does not resolve my issue.

[mitchellh]

I tried this config and couldn't get this to reproduce still. I'm sorry. (I am copying and pasting this but only after legitimately trying the posted config with various setups: single monitor, dual monitor, unfocused, focused, no initial window, etc.)

[svenjacobs]

This doesn't work for me, too, with the newly released Ghostty 1.2.0 on macOS 15.7.
That's my minimal configuration, which doesn't seem to have any effect on the initial height of the quick terminal:

keybind = global:ctrl+grave_accent=toggle_quick_terminal
quick-terminal-position = top
quick-terminal-size = 50%

Ghostty version:

Ghostty 1.2.0

Version
  - version: 1.2.0
  - channel: stable
Build Config
  - Zig version   : 0.14.1
  - build mode    : builtin.OptimizeMode.ReleaseFast
  - app runtime   : apprt.Runtime.none
  - font engine   : font.main.Backend.coretext
  - renderer      : renderer.generic.Renderer(renderer.Metal)
  - libxev        : kqueue

Log:

Timestamp                       Thread     Type        Activity             PID    TTL
2025-09-16 09:00:50.932300+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:default] ghostty version=1.2.0
2025-09-16 09:00:50.932556+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:default] ghostty build optimize=ReleaseFast
2025-09-16 09:00:50.932566+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:default] runtime=apprt.Runtime.none
2025-09-16 09:00:50.932573+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:default] font_backend=font.main.Backend.coretext
2025-09-16 09:00:50.932579+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:default] renderer=renderer.generic.Renderer(renderer.Metal)
2025-09-16 09:00:50.932584+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:default] libxev default backend=kqueue
2025-09-16 09:00:50.935586+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:os_locale] detected system locale=en_DE.UTF-8
2025-09-16 09:00:50.935672+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:os_locale] setlocale after unset lang result=C
2025-09-16 09:00:50.935684+0200 0xfb6fe    Error       0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:os_locale] setlocale failed with LANG and system default. Falling back to en_US.UTF-8
2025-09-16 09:00:50.935753+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:os_locale] setlocale default result=en_US.UTF-8
2025-09-16 09:00:50.936685+0200 0xfb706    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:sentry] sentry envelope does not contain crash, discarding
2025-09-16 09:00:50.994769+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:default] reading configuration file path=/Users/A10EAAF/.config/ghostty/config
2025-09-16 09:00:50.995594+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:config] default shell src=passwd value=/opt/homebrew/bin/fish
2025-09-16 09:00:50.995614+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:config] default working directory src=passwd value=/Users/A10EAAF
2025-09-16 09:00:51.086895+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:ghostty] config reload notification
2025-09-16 09:00:51.086976+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:ghostty] config change notification
2025-09-16 09:00:51.102346+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:ghostty] known but unimplemented action action=37
2025-09-16 09:00:51.108111+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:io_exec] found Ghostty resources dir: /Applications/Ghostty.app/Contents/Resources/ghostty
2025-09-16 09:00:51.108175+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:io_exec] shell integration automatically injected shell=termio.shell_integration.Shell.fish
2025-09-16 09:00:51.108326+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:ghostty] known but unimplemented action action=20
2025-09-16 09:00:51.109792+0200 0xfb72b    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:io_exec] started subcommand path=/usr/bin/login pid=39604
2025-09-16 09:00:52.758049+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:ghostty] known but unimplemented action action=37
2025-09-16 09:00:52.759975+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:io_exec] found Ghostty resources dir: /Applications/Ghostty.app/Contents/Resources/ghostty
2025-09-16 09:00:52.760047+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:io_exec] shell integration automatically injected shell=termio.shell_integration.Shell.fish
2025-09-16 09:00:52.760249+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:ghostty] known but unimplemented action action=20
2025-09-16 09:00:52.763233+0200 0xfb913    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:io_exec] started subcommand path=/usr/bin/login pid=39769
2025-09-16 09:00:53.199388+0200 0xfb6fe    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:GlobalEventTap] global event tap enabled for global keybinds
2025-09-16 09:00:53.343706+0200 0xfb916    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:page_list] adjusting page capacity=terminal.page.Capacity{ .cols = 375, .rows = 125, .styles = 128, .hyperlink_bytes = 512, .grapheme_bytes = 8192, .string_bytes = 2048 }
2025-09-16 09:01:00.177760+0200 0xfb6fe    Debug       0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:AppDelegate] application will save window state
2025-09-16 09:01:04.823895+0200 0xfb72f    Info        0x0                  39603  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:page_list] adjusting page capacity=terminal.page.Capacity{ .cols = 99, .rows = 472, .styles = 128, .hyperlink_bytes = 192, .grapheme_bytes = 8192, .string_bytes = 2048 }

[aresler]

Just updated to 1.2.0 and quck-terminal-size has absolutely no effect for me no matter which value I try:

quick-terminal-position = bottom
quick-terminal-size = 80%

Still shows the default size after completely restarting Ghostty.
Mac Sequoia 15.6.1 (24G90)

[edrozenberg]

Just updated to 1.2.0 and quck-terminal-size has absolutely no effect for me no matter which value I try:

Right, whether and what effect the size spec has is affected by various other settings such as position and autohide. If you try position top just to test, your size spec might have an effect. I like and use quickterm all the time, and for now I'm just using it with position top and resizing it as needed every time I restart Ghostty. Some work each time but quickterm is useful enough for me to do it.

[GJRobert]

I think this is the most complete condition found for now: #8419 (comment)

[mitchellh]

We ran out of time to address this for 1.2.0 but plan to get a fix in the next few weeks (hopefully) for a 1.2.1. That comment looks promising!

[GJRobert]

v1.2.0 is wonderful already. Thank you all so much @mitchellh

[mitchellh]

As an update. I'm still unable to reproduce this on any of my devices (I have 3 Macs), on both macOS 15 and 26. I'm using both the menu item AND global hot keys with and without focus, with and without windows open. It's unclear why I'm unable to see this when clearly very many people do.

If anyone has any further ideas of how I can get to a reproduction here, I'd love to get this resolved for 1.2.1.

[moritz1000]

Screen.Recording.2025-09-20.at.13.02.10.mov

I captured the bug on video but I also don't have a reliable way to reproduce it.
(In the video I launch the Ghostty Quick Terminal via shortcut - it ignores my quick-terminal-size settings until I restart it)

Here are my Ghostty settings:

initial-window = false
quick-terminal-size = 35%, 60%
keybind = global:f18=toggle_quick_terminal

---

This recording happened after using the OnyX maintenance task (my goal was to delete application cashes) but like I said I can't reproduce the issue reliable. The only thing that I noticed that I think it happens more often after a "cold boot" (so my Mac is shutdown for some hours).

[edrozenberg]

Some other issues with sizing. These likely related to #8796 ("macos: quick terminal stores the last closed size by screen"). Ghostty 230014a53 b-12307.

If I don't spec a quick-terminal-size value in Ghostty config, the quick terminal height repeatedly resets to the default 400px even if I manually resize it.

If I spec a % value for ex. something like quick-terminal-size = 98%, this value doesn't take into account the presence/height of the Mac Dock, so I wind up with the Quick Terminal showing up under the Dock at bottom.

For now the best I can come up with is to use quick-terminal-size = 1315px on my 27" 5k display. Works with a single display, doesn't go under the Dock (leaves a small margin above the Dock). But this would probably not work well with multiple screens of varying resolutions.

Another issue is that Ghostty sometimes "remembers" that a new Ghostty window should be fullscreen on its own Mac "desktop", and then I need to un-fullscreen the new Ghostty window. And this behavior is also inconsistent, sometimes it will open a new window at regular size on the current desktop, other times it again opens a new window at fullscreen size.

[Guria]

Will it help to help a screen sharing debug call with one of us?

[mitchellh]

@moritz1000 FWIW I tried your exact config, exact same macOS version, and could not reproduce. I tried various things (unplugging/replugging monitor, restarting my OS, etc.). I really can't get this to fail for me.

[moritz1000]

I really can't get this to fail for me.

Is there anything more I (we) can do? Provide more information?
e.g.:

• list the exact monitor, type of connection (HDMI, DisplayPort...)
• list other installed software
  etc.

I just restarted my Mac mini 6 times and I could reproduce the issue in 5 of those.

[Kyle-Ye]

I'm hitting a similar issue on macOS 15.6.1. The default width is 100%. But it should be respected per screen. After update the latest version - 1.2.0, the width is locked, even I try to toggle it on another different width screen.

See #8935

[maniacyak]

@Kyle-Ye I had this issue too, but I believe it's distinct from what's being discussed here – see #8713.

It's already fixed in the tip release, and will be included in 1.2.1.

[Kyle-Ye]

It does not fully fixed for me. It works for big screen -> small screen. But not works for small screen -> big screen (keep the original small size and center aligned)

I'm using 1.2.2

[Kyle-Ye]

BTW, I can't reproduce it 100% time. It will work sometimes.

[niraj-khatiwada]

Just updated to version 1.2.1 and can confirm the quick terminal size is still not persistent.

compressO-Built-in.Retina.Display.2025-10-07.10.01.25.mp4

[mitchellh]

Good video, but I still couldn't get this to reproduce still. I'm sorry. (I am copying and pasting this but only after legitimately trying the posted config with various setups: single monitor, dual monitor, unfocused, focused, no initial window, etc.)

[b-angus]

Using macOS Sonoma 14.6.1 and an up-to-date Ghostty Tip, quick-terminal-size is still acting a bit strange on first trigger. If quick-terminal-size is not configured in settings, the default size appears to be "quick-terminal-size = 50%, 100%"

For the following examples, I am using "quick-terminal-size = 90%, 60%" as it is easy to see on my screen. Note, the quick terminal size is set upon first trigger. All subsequent triggers leave the size unchanged.

• If Ghostty has its initial terminal window open and the Ghostty app is still in focus, then quick terminal acts as expected (i.e. "quick-terminal-size = 90%, 60%).

• If Ghostty has "initial-window = false" OR if the initial window has been closed, but the Ghostty app is still in focus, then the default layout occurs (i.e. "quick-terminal-size = 50%, 100%"). The configured setting is completely ignored.

• If Ghostty has its initial terminal window open but the Ghostty app is NOT in focus, then the quick term looks like "quick-terminal-size = 50%, 60%". The first parameter is ignored and seems to reset to default.

• If Ghostty has "initial-window = false" OR if the initial window has been closed, but the Ghostty app is NOT in focus, then the quick term looks like "quick-terminal-size = 50%, 60%". The first parameter is ignored and seems to reset to default.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this as it seems the parameters are at least being read from the configuration file in most of the cases? Not sure if this has been particularly helpful or not... :)

[jameshome]

Mac OS 26.0.1 / Ghostty 1.2.2 exhibits the same quick-terminal-size weirdness all previous versions have exhibited: that setting is ignored unless I also set macos-hidden = always.

Here's my config in hopes that we can find the pattern that causes this, because Ghostty is otherwise a delight!

macos-hidden                      = always

keybind                           = global:cmd+shift+c=toggle_quick_terminal
keybind                           = cmd+t=toggle_command_palette

shell-integration                 = fish
shell-integration-features        = no-cursor

font-family                       = Fira Code
font-style                        = Light
font-size                         = 15

palette                           = 0=#928374
palette                           = 1=#fb4934
palette                           = 2=#b8bb26
palette                           = 3=#fabd2f
palette                           = 4=#83a598
palette                           = 5=#d3869b
palette                           = 6=#8ec07c
palette                           = 7=#ebdbb2
palette                           = 8=#928374
palette                           = 9=#fb4934
palette                           = 10=#b8bb26
palette                           = 11=#fabd2f
palette                           = 12=#83A597
palette                           = 13=#d3869b
palette                           = 14=#8ec07c
palette                           = 15=#b5bfe2
foreground                        = #ebdbb2
background                        = #3c3836
background-opacity                = 1
unfocused-split-opacity           = 0.6

selection-foreground              = #fbf1c7
selection-background              = #282828

cursor-color                      = #fe8019
cursor-text                       = #fe8019
cursor-style                      = underline
cursor-opacity                    = 1
adjust-cursor-thickness           = 2

initial-window                    = false
focus-follows-mouse               = true
adjust-cell-height                = 1
window-padding-x                  = 5
window-padding-y                  = 5  

clipboard-paste-protection        = false

quick-terminal-position           = left
quick-terminal-size               = 50%,100%
quick-terminal-animation-duration = 0
quick-terminal-autohide           = false

[mitchellh]

I tried this config and couldn't get this to reproduce still. I'm sorry. (I am copying and pasting this but only after legitimately trying the posted config with various setups: single monitor, dual monitor, unfocused, focused, no initial window, etc.)

[mitchellh]

Quick terminal size persistence should be stable now with #9256. The fix in 1.2.2 was using NSScreens which get randomly garbage collected (it's undefined), so it was like 2 steps forward and 1 step back, because we sometimes saved state properly but sometimes lost state. Terrible. #9256 should be a stable change.

[Kyle-Ye]

Matched with the behavior I experience in 1.2.2. Thanks for the latest fix. I'll give it a try.

[b-angus]

Not sure about any other issues being discussed, but I just upgraded to the latest Tip version and the behaviour I was seeing with the quick-terminal-size being quirky is unchanged from my earlier post. The size of the quick term window when initially invoked still seems to depend on which app has focus and whether or not a ghosty window is currently open.

[mitchellh]

@b-angus There haven't been any released changes in tip yet since 1.2.2. The only change is #9256 which only affects size storage and this isn't even released yet (its notarizing at the time of this comment, so probably will be out in like... less than a minute). So this is expected.

[b-angus]

The update just came through and the behaviour has changed. Using the same configuration as I used before ("quick-terminal-size = 90%, 60%"):

-With Ghostty in focus and term window open
-> appears to be the default quick term window ("quick-terminal-size=50%,100%")
-With Ghostty in focus and term window closed
-> appears to be "quick-terminal-size=50%,60%" (first parameter ignored)
-With Ghostty NOT in focus and term window open
-> appears as "quick-terminal-size=90%,100%" (second parameter ignored)
-With Ghostty NOT in focus and term window closed
-> appears as "quick-terminal-size=90%,100%" (second parameter ignored)

If there is another specific test you would like me to try, let me know... :)

[mitchellh]

The update only addresses size caching across monitors. I made that clear in the PR

[mitchellh]

As an update, the main blocker to this issue for me is that I can't reproduce it. Based on reports, this appears to be an issue with older versions of macOS since only a couple people reported being on 26. I'll try with some of my older installs later this week.

The size persistence issue which somehow got lumped into here should be resolved on tip and in 1.2.3 in #9256. Note this has no relation to the issue where quick-terminal-size isn't working for people. This just happens to be another issue that was mentioned in here.

[jameshome]

Moving from MacOS 15 to MacOS 26 had no effect on this bug for me.

Removing initial-window = false reliably fixes the issue, and it's a pretty mild annoyance to have to close that spurious initial window.

[moritz1000]

Same for me, the bug still happens on macOS 26.
Still like in my last screen recording: #8419 (reply in thread)

[Tom-Bury]

On my end, it feels like I can get it to consistently use the wrong size every time I plug/unplug an extra monitor.

[mitchellh]

@moritz1000 Just responded to your post there, tried very hard with your config to reproduce it and couldn't. AHHHH.

[mitchellh]

I've tried every posted configuration in this thread on two separate machines (a MBP and MBA) that I have, both running macOS 26 and Ghostty 1.2.2. This is what I tried with each configuration:

• Initial window, no initial window
• Ghostty focused, unfocused
• Global keybind, non-global keybind
• Left, right, and center quick terminals
• Single monitor, multi-monitor
• Plug a monitor in after Ghostty launches

quick-terminal-size worked for me 100% of the time for every posted comment here in every configuration listed above on both my machines.

This issue is very obviously happening for people, but without a reproduction I'm still unable to fix this. I'm sorry folks. I'm trying! If anyone has more suggestions, I'm willing to try it.

[mgsmith128]

I have MBP M4, macOS 26, with no external displays.

My tip install ignores quick-terminal-size parameters completely, but when I run locally with zig build run the size parameters are respected correctly. Sorry Mitchell this sounds like a nightmare to track down. If anyone can suggest anything I might try, I'd be happy to oblige.

[tedlatentai]

I wonder if this is Intel specific? Are other people on Intel machines?

@mitchellh I now have a MacBook M4 Pro 2024 running macOS Sequoia 15.6.1, and I have exactly the same problem as on my previous MacBook Intel Pro 2020.

[b-angus]

I just tried again with the the most recent Tip version on the same older macOS that I've been testing (14.6.1) and everything is still the same. I wonder if this could somehow be build process related or some sort of underlying framework version problem. Sorry, but I don't have much to add beyond simple observations...

[siutsin]

I wonder if this is Intel specific? Are other people on Intel machines? I don’t have any more of those. And we’re dropping Intel support in 1.3. But I’d still be curious for 1.2

Have you tried a closed lid laptop setup?

My setup:

macOS 15.1 (25B78)
Dual monitor both are 27" HP x27qc 2560x1440 with 2023 MacBook Pro M2 16" (closed lid)

Ghostty 1.2.3

Version
  - version: 1.2.3
  - channel: stable
Build Config
  - Zig version   : 0.14.1
  - build mode    : builtin.OptimizeMode.ReleaseFast
  - app runtime   : apprt.Runtime.none
  - font engine   : font.main.Backend.coretext
  - renderer      : renderer.generic.Renderer(renderer.Metal)
  - libxev        : kqueue

Full config:

Working on both primary and secondary monitors:

keybind = global:ctrl+`=toggle_quick_terminal
initial-window = true
quick-terminal-size = 50%

Doesn't work on both primary and secondary monitors:

keybind = global:ctrl+`=toggle_quick_terminal
initial-window = false
quick-terminal-size = 50%

[jameshome]

Oh interesting, I'm also closed lid!

[voideanvalue]

quick-terminal-size never worked reliably for me on macOS. I've attempted adopting ghostty as my terminal of choice on a few occasions recently, but not being able to control the quick terminal size presented sufficient friction that I gave up on each of the previous occasions.

Decided to dig in and debug today. I think I figured out the issue and have a fix that seems to reliably do the trick for me.

tl;dr is that I tracked it down to a C ABI compatibility issue, leading to incorrect QuickTerminalSize/ghostty_config_quick_terminal_size_s struct initialization in Swift/C-land downstream of correctly parsed config in src/config/Config.zig. I'll caveat that I have essentially no prior experience with Zig and very little with Swift, but I'm relatively confident about my diagnosis here.

The fix I have is at voideanvalue@aa0afa2 (changing enum(u8) to enum(c_int)). Based on what I found in Zig documentation and other comments in the same file, I think it's the most straightforward and appropriate one.

Let me know what you think @mitchellh. I can send you a pull request, and/or outline salient bits of what I discovered while debugging if you'd like.

And, before I forget, thank you for creating ghostty :). I'm looking forward to adopting it as my terminal of choice going forwards!

[b-angus]

Great sleuthing! All of my previous test cases are now resolved.
Cheers & thanks...

[mitchellh]

Wow, I wonder if this is why it always worked for me and not for others on seemingly same specs. ABI issues would definitely pop up like that. I've merged your fix and hope this helps many people!

[moritz1000]

I've merged your fix and hope this helps many people!

Since updating to the newest Ghostty Tip Release containing the fix, quick-terminal-size works 10/10 times!

Thank you @voideanvalue 🎉

[jameshome]

Thank you @voideanvalue — this fixes all outstanding issues for me.

It sounds like 1.3 is too far along for a 1.2.4 with this fix in it to make sense, but I'm excited to get off tip given how dialed ghostty has been for me aside from this bug!

[apolischuk]

same issue, macOS 26.1. I think the issue was happened after I added the app at startup and removed initial window. After that, size configuration stopped working correctly at all. My config:
theme = Catppuccin Frappe background-opacity = 0.7 background-blur = 8 initial-window = false quick-terminal-size = 50%,50% window-show-tab-bar = auto window-width = 110 window-height = 35 window-position-y = 0 window-position-x = 200 window-padding-x = 3 window-padding-y = 10 macos-titlebar-style = hidden macos-option-as-alt = true macos-hidden = never font-family = JetBrainsMonoNL Nerd Font Mono font-size = 14 keybind = global:cmd+backquote=toggle_quick_terminal

Also, I noticed that sometimes quick window opened and there is present symbol "%" in terminal prompt. Looks like configuration parsing is broken and just print something to output, don't know. It not always happened. Maybe it is somehow connected with 'oh my zsh' extension or shell themes. Just try to change quick-terminal-size several time by editing config in text editor and quit and open Ghostty

[apolischuk]

version 1.2.3
build 12214

[maniacyak]

Please see the discussion above your comment – there's now a fix for this issue that seems to be working for most people, but it hasn't been incorporated into the stable release channel yet.

For reference, the earliest build number that includes this fix is 13255.