ELYTerminal
A terminal for macOS, Windows and Linux, in Rust on GPUI and Ely components. Sessions sit on the left, the terminal in the middle, Git or Files on the right. Every setting has a control in the settings window.
Install
A release on Gitea carries three builds.
- macOS 11 or later, Apple silicon: open
ELYTerminal-VERSION.dmgand drag ELYTerminal into Applications. The app is signed with Developer ID and notarized. - Windows 10 or later, x86_64: unzip
ELYTerminal-VERSION-windows-x86_64.zipand runelyterminal.exe. It is unsigned; if SmartScreen stops it, press More info, then Run anyway. - Linux, x86_64, glibc 2.35 or later, with libxkbcommon, libxkbcommon-x11 and libxcb:
tar -xzf ELYTerminal-VERSION-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
cd ELYTerminal-VERSION-linux-x86_64
install -Dm755 elyterminal -t ~/.local/bin
install -Dm644 com.zacharyzhang.elyterminal.desktop -t ~/.local/share/applications
install -Dm644 com.zacharyzhang.elyterminal.svg -t ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps
The desktop entry runs elyterminal, so ~/.local/bin must be on PATH.
Build and run
Rust 1.95.0, which rust-toolchain.toml pins; rustup installs it on the first build.
cargo run --release
Each platform's script builds its release in target/release: on macOS, scripts/mac-app.sh builds ELYTerminal.app, with its icon, and a disk image of it; on Windows, scripts/windows-zip.ps1 zips elyterminal.exe, its icon inside; on Linux, scripts/linux-tar.sh builds in Docker and packs the binary with its desktop entry and icon.
On Linux, install the libraries gpui links first. On Debian and Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install pkg-config libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev \
libxcb1-dev libx11-xcb-dev libfontconfig-dev libfreetype-dev
The app writes its log to stderr. RUST_LOG=elyterminal=debug writes more; trace logs each paint. A Windows release build opens no console: elyterminal.exe 2> log.txt keeps its log.
What it does
- The terminal runs on
alacritty_terminal: 256 colors and truecolor, bold, dim, italic, five underline styles, wide characters and combining marks. Box drawing, block elements and powerline shapes are drawn as geometry, so lines join across cells. Keys follow xterm and the kitty keyboard protocol; input methods compose at the cursor; programs can track the mouse; pastes are bracketed when a program asks; OSC 8 and plain links open with the link press below; find searches the scrollback. - Shell integration for zsh, bash, fish and PowerShell: each prompt reports its folder and title.
- Sessions: new, close and switch. A bell marks a hidden session's row and makes no sound.
- A button at each end of the title bar hides or shows its side column; the window opens as it was left. On Windows and Linux a gear beside the right one opens Settings.
- Files shows the session's folder as a tree with Git's marks.
- Git shows the branch, stages, unstages, discards, commits, lists recent commits and opens diffs, all through the
gitcommand line. - Themes: Ely Dark, Ely Light, Catppuccin Mocha, Macchiato, Frappé and Latte, Tokyo Night, Dracula, Nord, Gruvbox Dark, Rosé Pine, Solarized Light, One Light and Kanagawa Wave. A second theme can take over while the system is dark. On Omarchy 4, an Omarchy theme follows the system's theme as it switches, and is the default there.
- Background opacity and blur: NSVisualEffectView on macOS, acrylic on Windows,
ext_background_effect_v1ororg_kde_kwin_bluron Wayland,_KDE_NET_WM_BLUR_BEHIND_REGIONon X11, which KWin reads.
Keys
Settings › Terminal lists them all, as this platform binds them.
| macOS | Windows and Linux | |
|---|---|---|
| New session | Cmd-T | Ctrl-Shift-T |
| Close session | Cmd-W | Ctrl-Shift-W |
| Session 1 to 8, last | Cmd-1 to Cmd-8, Cmd-9 | Alt-1 to Alt-8, Alt-9 |
| Next, previous session | Ctrl-Tab, Ctrl-Shift-Tab | Ctrl-Tab, Ctrl-Shift-Tab |
| Sessions column | Cmd-B | Ctrl-Shift-B |
| Right column | Cmd-Alt-B | Ctrl-Shift-Alt-B |
| Copy, paste | Cmd-C, Cmd-V | Ctrl-Shift-C, Ctrl-Shift-V; on Windows Ctrl-V pastes too |
| Select all | Cmd-A | Ctrl-Shift-A |
| Find | Cmd-F | Ctrl-Shift-F |
| Bigger, smaller, reset size | Cmd-=, Cmd-minus, Cmd-0 | Ctrl-=, Ctrl-minus, Ctrl-0 |
| Open a link | Cmd-press | Ctrl-press |
| Settings | Cmd-, | Ctrl-, |
| Minimize | Cmd-M | |
| Quit | Cmd-Q | Ctrl-Shift-Q |
Settings
The settings window saves each change at once to settings.json in the platform's config folder:
- macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/ELYTerminal/settings.json - Linux:
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ELYTerminal/settings.json, else~/.config/ELYTerminal/settings.json - Windows:
%APPDATA%\ELYTerminal\settings.json
A file that does not parse, or holds a value out of range, stops the start with an error naming the file and the field. The app never overwrites it.
Development
scripts/check.sh runs fmt, clippy, the tests and the 500-line rule. AGENTS.md lists the rest: the layout, the decisions and the tools.
License
MIT, in LICENSE. Box drawing and key encoding follow Ghostty's code, MIT, in LICENSE-GHOSTTY. The theme files come from iTerm2-Color-Schemes, MIT, with its license in assets/themes. JetBrains Mono and its Nerd Font build are under the SIL Open Font License, in assets/fonts.