Kitty Terminal Configuration

Terminal emulator configuration, fonts, colors, and keybindings

Kitty Terminal Configuration

Kitty is the default terminal emulator in Config-Sway, chosen for its GPU acceleration, extensive customization, and excellent font rendering.

Configuration File

Location: ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

This file is dynamically updated when switching themes. Each theme provides its own kitty/kitty.conf which replaces the active configuration.

Font Configuration

Primary Font

~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

font_family      JetBrainsMono Nerd Font
bold_font        JetBrainsMono Nerd Font Bold
italic_font      JetBrainsMono Nerd Font Italic
bold_italic_font JetBrainsMono Nerd Font Bold Italic
font_size        18

JetBrains Mono Nerd Font is required for proper icon rendering. Install it with:

sudo pacman -S ttf-jetbrains-mono-nerd

Emoji Support

symbol_map U+1F300-U+1F5FF Noto Color Emoji
symbol_map U+1F600-U+1F64F Noto Color Emoji
symbol_map U+1F680-U+1F6FF Noto Color Emoji
symbol_map U+1F700-U+1F77F Noto Color Emoji
symbol_map U+1F900-U+1F9FF Noto Color Emoji
symbol_map U+1FA00-U+1FAFF Noto Color Emoji

Maps Unicode emoji ranges to the Noto Color Emoji font for proper emoji rendering.

Install emoji font:

sudo pacman -S noto-fonts-emoji

Appearance

Cursor Configuration

cursor #ad8ee6
cursor_shape beam
cursor_beam_thickness 1.8

• Color: Purple (#ad8ee6)
• Shape: Vertical beam (like insert mode in editors)
• Thickness: 1.8 pixels

Change cursor_shape to block for a traditional terminal cursor, or underline for a subtle underline cursor.

Transparency

background_opacity 0.95

95% opacity provides subtle transparency while keeping text readable.

URL Styling

url_color #61afef
url_style curly

• URLs are highlighted in blue
• Curly underline style distinguishes them from regular text

Click URLs: Hold Ctrl and click any URL to open it in your browser.

Keybindings

Window Navigation

Move Focus Between Windows

map ctrl+left neighboring_window left
map ctrl+right neighboring_window right
map ctrl+up neighboring_window up
map ctrl+down neighboring_window down

Use Ctrl + Arrow Keys to move between split terminal windows.

Multiple Clipboards

Kitty supports multiple copy-paste buffers:

map f1 copy_to_buffer a
map f2 paste_from_buffer a
map f3 copy_to_buffer b
map f4 paste_from_buffer b

Usage:

1. Select text
2. Press F1 to copy to buffer A (or F3 for buffer B)
3. Press F2 to paste from buffer A (or F4 for buffer B)

Use buffer A for temporary snippets and buffer B for frequently-used commands or paths.

Window and Tab Management

Create New Windows/Tabs

map ctrl+shift+enter new_window_with_cwd
map ctrl+shift+t new_tab_with_cwd

• Ctrl + Shift + Enter - New window in current directory
• Ctrl + Shift + T - New tab in current directory

Both commands inherit the current working directory.

Rename Tab

map ctrl+shift+n set_tab_title

Ctrl + Shift + N opens a prompt to rename the current tab.

Layout Toggle

map ctrl+shift+z toggle_layout stack

Ctrl + Shift + Z toggles between normal layout and stack layout (one window maximized).

Tab Bar Styling

tab_bar_style powerline

inactive_tab_background #e06c75
active_tab_background #98c379
inactive_tab_foreground #000000
tab_bar_margin_color black

• Style: Powerline (angled separators)
• Active tab: Green background (#98c379)
• Inactive tabs: Red background (#e06c75)
• Text: Black for contrast

Tab colors are defined in the base config, but theme-specific color files may override them via include colors.ini.

Performance Settings

repaint_delay 10
input_delay 3
sync_to_monitor yes

• repaint_delay 10 - Redraw every 10ms (smooth rendering)
• input_delay 3 - Process input every 3ms (responsive typing)
• sync_to_monitor yes - Sync redraws to monitor refresh rate (eliminates tearing)

These settings optimize for smoothness. If you experience high CPU usage, try increasing repaint_delay to 15 or 20.

Mouse Behavior

mouse_hide_wait 3.0
detect_urls yes

• Hide mouse cursor after 3 seconds of inactivity
• Auto-detect URLs for Ctrl+Click opening

Shell Configuration

shell zsh

Sets Zsh as the default shell. Change to bash or fish if preferred.

Blur Effect (Compositor)

[blur]
background=true

Enables background blur when using a compositor like Sway’s built-in compositor.

Blur effects may impact performance on older hardware. Disable by setting to false if you experience lag.

Color Scheme

Including Theme Colors

include colors.ini

The colors.ini file (if present) defines the 16 ANSI colors used by terminal applications. This file is theme-specific.

Manual Color Configuration

If not using colors.ini, define colors directly:

# Basic colors
background #1e1e2e
foreground #cdd6f4
selection_background #585b70
selection_foreground #cdd6f4

# Black
color0 #45475a
color8 #585b70

# Red
color1 #f38ba8
color9 #f38ba8

# Green
color2  #a6e3a1
color10 #a6e3a1

# Yellow
color3  #f9e2af
color11 #f9e2af

# Blue
color4  #89b4fa
color12 #89b4fa

# Magenta
color5  #f5c2e7
color13 #f5c2e7

# Cyan
color6  #94e2d5
color14 #94e2d5

# White
color7  #bac2de
color15 #a6adc8

Colors 0-7 are normal variants, while colors 8-15 are bright variants (used with bold text or explicit codes).

Advanced Configuration

Font Ligatures

disable_ligatures never

Enables programming ligatures (e.g., -> renders as →, != as ≠).

Options:

• never - Always show ligatures
• always - Never show ligatures
• cursor - Disable ligatures where the cursor is

Audio Bell

enable_audio_bell no

Disables the terminal bell sound. Set to yes if you want audio alerts.

Custom Window Padding

Add padding inside terminal windows:

window_padding_width 8

Creates an 8-pixel padding around the text area.

Scrollback

Configure terminal history:

scrollback_lines 10000
scrollback_pager less --chop-long-lines --RAW-CONTROL-CHARS +INPUT_LINE_NUMBER

• Keeps 10,000 lines of scrollback history
• Uses less for viewing long scrollback

Copy/Paste Behavior

copy_on_select yes
strip_trailing_spaces smart

• copy_on_select yes - Auto-copy selected text to clipboard
• strip_trailing_spaces smart - Remove trailing whitespace intelligently

Theme Integration

When you switch themes using Super + A, the theme switcher:

1. Backs up current config:

   cp ~/.config/kitty ~/.config/kitty.bak-<timestamp>
   

2. Copies theme config:

   cp -a ~/.config/themes/<ThemeName>/kitty/. ~/.config/kitty/
   

3. Kitty auto-reloads the configuration (no restart needed)

Kitty watches its config file for changes and reloads automatically. You’ll see colors update instantly when switching themes.

Kitty Extensions

Kittens

Kitty includes utility scripts called “kittens”:

Diff Files

kitty +kitten diff file1.txt file2.txt

Shows a side-by-side diff with syntax highlighting.

Image Viewer

kitty +kitten icat image.png

Displays images directly in the terminal.

SSH Integration

kitty +kitten ssh user@hostname

SSH with full Kitty feature support (including image display) on the remote host.

Unicode Input

kitty +kitten unicode_input

Searchable Unicode character picker.

Troubleshooting

Icons/glyphs not rendering

Solution: Install Nerd Font

sudo pacman -S ttf-jetbrains-mono-nerd

Verify it’s active:

kitty +list-fonts | grep JetBrains

Colors not updating after theme switch

Force config reload:

1. Edit ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf (add a space)
2. Save the file
3. Kitty should reload automatically

Or restart Kitty:

killall kitty
kitty &

Transparency not working

Ensure your compositor supports transparency:

swaymsg -t get_tree | grep app_id.*kitty

Check Kitty config:

background_opacity 0.95  # 0.0 = fully transparent, 1.0 = opaque

High CPU usage

Reduce rendering frequency:

repaint_delay 20
input_delay 5

Disable blur:

[blur]
background=false

Clipboard not working

Verify clipboard manager is running:

ps aux | grep wl-copy

Install wl-clipboard:

sudo pacman -S wl-clipboard

Kitty Tips & Tricks

Open URLs from terminal output

Keyboard: Ctrl + Shift + E opens URL hints mode

Type the letter next to a URL to open it.

Search terminal output

Ctrl + Shift + H opens scrollback in pager with search enabled.

In pager: Type / to search forward, ? to search backward.

Split windows

Add custom keybindings:

map ctrl+shift+s launch --location=split
map ctrl+shift+v launch --location=vsplit

• Horizontal split: Ctrl + Shift + S
• Vertical split: Ctrl + Shift + V

Custom color per session

Override colors for specific sessions:

kitty -o background=#000000 -o foreground=#00ff00

Opens Kitty with black background and green text (Matrix style).

Remote file editing

Edit remote files locally:

kitty +kitten ssh user@remote
# On remote:
kitty-edit /path/to/remote/file.txt

File opens in your local editor, saves back to remote automatically.

Related Configuration

Sway Configuration

Terminal launcher keybinding (Super + Enter)

Theme System

How themes update Kitty colors automatically

Neovim Configuration

Editor configuration for terminal development

Additional Resources

• Kitty Documentation - Official docs
• Kitty Themes - Community color schemes
• Nerd Fonts - Patched fonts with icons

Explore the full Kitty config with:

kitty --config /dev/null --dump-commands

This shows all available commands and options.