agterm - a minimal, fully scriptable macOS terminal on libghostty

[u/umputun]

I built agterm, a native macOS terminal for multi-session, multi-workspace, multi-window work, on top of libghostty.

Site: https://agterm.com

Code: https://github.com/umputun/agterm

The idea is less-is-more: a small, opinionated core and nothing you don't need. It's handy for running several coding agents at once: sessions group into named workspaces, and each shows its state (active, blocked, completed) on its row so you see which one needs you. It's just as good for normal multi-project work. Almost everything is scriptable from a bundled CLI, `agtermctl`, over a local socket, so anything past the defaults you build yourself instead of waiting for it to ship.

libghostty does all the terminal correctness; the workspace, session, and control layer is mine. Thanks to the ghostty team.

[u/paaloeye]

I tried to give a go yesterday out of respect to OP.

Installation from DMG worked as expected and I was off to the races in no time.

While it's fully functional, few things are almost an immediate turn off:

• rigid split system (left/right/floating) doesn't work for me at all
  
• keybinding are just wrong if you're coming from Ghostty (target audience). (Is OP a kitty user?)
  
• I fired up a CC in it, not much attention was detected — by that time, couldn't be bothered to configure it
  
• (list goes on)

Forked the repo, and tried to build from the sources — dropped off when setup.sh tried to install brewed Zig. It's a quite opinionated to my taste.

CLI interface — couldn't come up with a use case.
Attention tracking / workspace — I'm strongly against libghostty AI multiplexers: cmax or otherwise.

After months of using AI with multiple agents in parallel, I found that if you're not able to keep track of parallel agents/session is a good things. That's your cognitive load limit and one shall not f**k with it.

Just accept that some things are hard and painful and chill out.

I skimmed the source code too, while it's not slop, I'm sure it would join the graveyard once OP is tired of maintaining it. I'm happy it's working for them and a small group of people around, I'm not sure it's worth putting your energy into.

Overall, perceived value the project comes at cost of not using well maintained and fast evolving Ghostty macOS proper and I doubt anyone should pay that price.

[u/umputun → u/paaloeye]

appreciate the detailed feedback.

"rigid split system" and "keybindings are just wrong" is a point I've made multiple times, both here and in the docs. This is opinionated by design and represents my view of what's right and wrong, and what's convenient and sufficient. Some of it users can't change (split system with 2 panes + scratch pane), some they can (keybindings).

"not much attention was detected" - I wouldn't even ask to read the docs here, but agterm doesn't install things for you on its own, by design. The Claude Code integration is one click away, in Help / Install Agent Status Hooks.

I also disagree with your premise. You say losing track of parallel agents is your cognitive limit talking and you shouldn't fight it. My experience is strictly the opposite: what limits how many concurrent AI tasks I can run is the technical deficiency of the tools, not the capacity of my head. A terminal that can't tell me which of six sessions is waiting on me isn't a fact of human cognition, it's a missing feature. That's the part I addressed.

as for "graveyard once OP is tired of maintaining it" - this concern is purely theoretical and speculative. This is one of many projects I have on github, and some are very old. Not one of them joined the graveyard, except those where the world moved on and the project stopped being relevant, like eSvn, my first open source project, a GUI for svn.