Launch new window with Ghostty CLI on macOS

[sagikazarmark]

I use yabai and skhd on macOS for a tiling VM experience (that I'm used to from Linux).

Currently I use Kitty as a terminal emulator.

I have a keybinding set in skhd to launch a new Kitty window:

cmd + alt - return : /Users/mark/.nix-profile/bin/kitty --single-instance -d ~ &> /dev/null

It would be nice if I could do the same with Ghostty.

Last time I checked this wasn't possible.

[rhodes-b]

it is fully possible but ghostty follows the macos method of using open (this has been possible since 1.0)
open -na Ghostty.app

this will open a new instance of the application (im pretty sure -n will as well but im not sure maybe that is only a new window)

Ghostty does not plan on having it in the cli ghostty tool on macos rather you will need to use Ghostty.app or wait until something like #2353 exists so programmatically control ghostty

[sagikazarmark]

Hm, I remember why this didn't work: it opens new instances of the application, not just a new window. Closing the window on the other hand doesn't close the application, so I end up with the number of Ghostty instances growing and growing.

Thanks anyway!

I'll watch the linked issue.

[jcollie]

You need to add --quit-after-last-window-closed=true. The "extra" instances will close as soon as the last window closes.

[nikaro]

What would be the way to execute a command when launching the Ghostty.app this way (since ghsotty -e is not working on macOS)? For example i'm in my IDE and i want to launch an "external task" that run whatever terminal command in Ghostty.

I've tried this approach (using osascript) with no success: https://superuser.com/questions/174576/opening-a-new-terminal-from-the-command-line-and-running-a-command-on-mac-os-x

[rhodes-b]

What would be the way to execute a command when launching the Ghostty.app this way (since ghsotty -e is not working on macOS)? For example i'm in my IDE and i want to launch an "external task" that run whatever terminal command in Ghostty.

This has been answered in multiple times in other places
#4254 (comment)

specifically if you look at the man page for open you need to add --args to pass args to Ghostty.app all the arguments work just as they do on linux ghostty --arg=val

to be extra clear

open -na Ghostty.app --args -e btop

[rhodes-b]

#9249

this seems promising? Im not sure if you can do applescript stuff through the CLI

[danielwe]

If you're mainly interested in the keybind rather than the CLI itself, you may also consider the following solution:

cmd + alt - return : open -a Ghostty.app --args --keybind=global:ctrl+alt+enter=new_window

Caveat that I don't know yabai/skhd syntax, so I'm just extrapolating from your example here, but the idea is to launch ghostty with a global keybind that shadows the system keybind. That way, if ghostty is already open, it will intercept the keybind and open a new window in the same instance. This is how I've set it up on my system, albeit through the macOS Shortcuts app instead of the wm config.

If you want this to work no matter how the ghostty process was first launched, you can add the global keybind to the ghostty config instead of passing it on the command line. So you'd have

cmd + alt - return : open -a Ghostty.app

# in ~/.config/ghostty/config
keybind = global:ctrl+alt+enter=new_window

[sagikazarmark]

In theory, this would be the perfect solution. Sadly, it looks like SKHD doesn't allow shadowing. But this is actually a great idea, so I may be able to get around SKHD and reach the same result.

Thanks!

[danielwe]

Oh, I see. Looks like both SKHD and Ghostty use the global event tap system. I have no idea how that works when multiple processes want to capture the same keybind (arbitrary? depending on order in which the processes were launched? who knows). In any case, before concluding it won't work, I would double check that Ghostty has the accessibility permissions it needs to capture global keybinds. If at all in doubt, follow these instructions: #9047 (comment).

[sagikazarmark]

I'm not entirely sure what the problem was, but I managed to solve it with the following config:

cmd + alt - return -> : open -a Ghostty.app --args --quit-after-last-window-closed=true

This is the syntax telling SKHD not to consume a keybinding.

The weird thing: when configured in both SKHD and Ghostty, it seemed like SKHD didn't actually get the event when Ghostty was running. So it looks like it got lost between the two somewhere. :D

Anyway, the above seems to be working just fine, doing exactly what I wanted, so huge thanks!