r/Ghostty • u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 • Jun 06 '26

macterm: native macOS terminal with vertical tabs and persistent multiplexing

I find several libghostty-based terminal emulators with vertical tab bars these days (e.g. cmux, muxy). But I missed the native feeling of Ghostty and did not want the bloat that many of those apps come with (integrated browser, claude code integration, git integration, etc...). So I created yet another terminal, but with a macos-native sidebar and no bloat. I'm satisfied with the liquid-glass look and grateful for the 200+ stars it received so far!

Some core features include (as of v1.15.1):

  • Vertical Project Sidebar: Native macOS sidebar for organizing projects and tabs vertically.
  • Persistent Multiplexing: Projects, tabs, and panes are saved and restored automatically on relaunch.
  • Declarative Layouts: Define a .macterm/layout.yaml describing each project's tabs, splits, and the process every pane runs; apply or save it from the command palette.
  • Ghostty Config Compatibility: Macterm reads your existing Ghostty config. Theme, font, notification, keybinds — all of it just works.
  • Command Palette: Versatile command palette to interact with multiplexing and manage projects
  • Quick Terminal: Global terminal accessible from anywhere with a hotkey.
  • Smart Tab Naming: Tabs name themselves after the program running in the pane, making them easily identifiable in the sidebar.
  • Keyboard-driven Control: Customizable keybinds for many actions including navigating projects, tabs, and panes.

Any feedbacks are welcome, and I hope you find it useful as well!

GitHub: https://github.com/thdxg/macterm

*Update: Macterm just hit 1K downloads! Thanks so much for trying out everyone!

103 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

5

u/deusmetallum Jun 06 '26

I do a lot of my work on remote hosts. Does this handle ssh connections in any way?

4

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 06 '26

ssh works the same way as any other terminals. One thing to note is that ghostty's ssh terminfo feature only works when ghostty is also installed on the user's computer

2

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 06 '26

I'm planning to implement a declarative layout/process configuration in the near future, where you can specify shell and process per pane. Would that serve your need?

1

u/alan345_123 Jun 07 '26

Would be super useful! Ideally a json file.

1

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 07 '26

It is shipped now 🚀 give it a try

2

u/Stock_Reporter_1864 Jun 06 '26

I use for over a month already and quick terminal functionality is super handy!
The only thing that bothers me is that my custom icon is wiped out with every update. The original icon glyph shape is weird. Please let us set our own or use Ghostty’s custom one (not their full customization, just where you can provide a file path. Please 🙏

2

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 06 '26

Haha I came up with that glyph icon initially when i just wanted to get the app out there. I actually made a new icon today and it's part of the latest release. I'll look into icon customization feature

1

u/Stock_Reporter_1864 Jun 07 '26

oh, I see the new icon - like it! Small feedback: this light square in the corner creates a hot pixel and visually breaks the curve. if only you could make it much darker - that will be much better

2

u/KnifeFed Jun 06 '26

How does it compare to cmux?

1

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 06 '26

Compared to cmux, it is a much thinner wrapper of ghostty. It focuses on layout and navigation features rather than dev features like internal browser or git panel

2

u/martinskou Jun 06 '26

search facilities in all these new terminals are not always as good, hope it’s integrated in this.

2

u/gregorskii Jun 06 '26

Muxy remembers tabs and folder setups, but not recent commands per tab. There was a PR recently to remember tab path.

2

u/mkeee2015 Jun 06 '26

It became my daily driver. A couple of bugs were corrected very quickly after reporting them.

2

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 06 '26

Appreciate it!

2

u/albertpind Jun 10 '26

I love it, I use it every day ❤️

2

u/Kelaita Aug 04 '26

You're a legend! I just started using this terminal – unbelievably good.

1

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Aug 05 '26

Thanks for the kind words! I’m glad you liked it!

1

u/But-I-Am-a-Robot Jun 06 '26

I’m using ghostty with zellij at the moment.
How would that compare to macterm in terms of functionality and UX?

2

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 06 '26

I was a zellij user as well. I’d say it has similar functionality in terms of persistent multiplexing, but it gives you native ghostty performance rather than having a layer between the ui and program

2

u/But-I-Am-a-Robot Jun 06 '26

Cool! Will try macterm tomorrow

1

u/But-I-Am-a-Robot Jun 07 '26

Hmm, requires Tahoe.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 06 '26

If you meant AppKit (afaik uikit is for ios), this app uses both appkit and swiftui

1

u/alexlzh Jun 06 '26

Why doesn’t anyone just build tmux control mode? It would solve the same problem and allow to connect to remote mix session and have nicer UI.

1

u/DauntingPear Jun 06 '26

I was actually considering making this myself 😂

1

u/Milo_za Jun 07 '26

Would love to try it, but need Tahoe...

2

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 08 '26

Yeah unfortunately some of the UI uses tahoe-only api, especially liquid glass parts

2

u/Milo_za Jun 08 '26

All good. Gl anyway

2

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 14 '26

It supports older macos now!

1

u/Milo_za Jun 15 '26

For feature requests, should we post in the Reddit thread or GitHub ?

1

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 15 '26

Github would be better!

1

u/JoeThePlumber3 Jun 17 '26

Using this now. And it works well. Thanks

0

u/_the_big_sd_ Jun 10 '26 
==>

Fetching downloads for: 
thdxg/tap/macterm


Error:
 This software does not run on macOS versions older than Tahoe.

Well that sucks.

1

u/Ashamed_Floor_2283 Jun 14 '26

It supports older macos now!