Colors Basic Colors Set the fundamental terminal colors:
# Basic colors (hex format) background = #282C34 foreground = #FFFFFF # Named X11 colors are also supported background = black foreground = white
Colors can be specified as:
Hex with hash: #RRGGBB
Hex without hash: RRGGBB
Named X11 colors: black, white, red, etc.
Terminal Color Palette Customize the 256-color palette:
# Set individual palette colors (0-255) palette = 0 = #282C34 # Black palette = 1 = #E06C75 # Red palette = 2 = #98C379 # Green palette = 3 = #E5C07B # Yellow palette = 4 = #61AFEF # Blue palette = 5 = #C678DD # Magenta palette = 6 = #56B6C2 # Cyan palette = 7 = #ABB2BF # White palette = 8 = #5C6370 # Bright Black # ... more colors
What palette indices should I set?
For most themes, you only need to set the first 16 colors (indices 0-15). Ghostty can automatically generate the extended palette (16-255) from these base colors. See the 256 colors cheat sheet for palette index definitions.
What is palette-generate?
When enabled (default since 1.3.0), Ghostty automatically generates palette colors 16-255 from your base 16 ANSI colors: palette-generate = true # Default
This creates a cohesive color scheme. Explicitly set colors via palette are never overwritten. Palette indices can be specified in multiple number formats:
palette = 5 = #C678DD # Decimal (default) palette = 0b00000101 = #C678DD # Binary palette = 0o5 = #C678DD # Octal palette = 0x5 = #C678DD # Hexadecimal
Themes Using Themes Ghostty includes many built-in themes:
List available themes:
Theme Locations Themes are searched in this order:
Absolute path (if specified)
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ghostty/themes/Built-in themes directory
# Use built-in theme theme = dracula # Use custom theme by name theme = my-custom-theme # Use absolute path theme = /path/to/theme.conf
Light and Dark Themes Specify different themes for light and dark mode:
theme = light:rose-pine-dawn,dark:rose-pine
Whitespace around values is trimmed. Order doesn’t matter. Both light and dark must be specified.
Known bugs with light/dark mode:
macOS : Titlebar tabs style is not updated when switching themes Creating Custom Themes Theme files are just Ghostty config files:
# ~/.config/ghostty/themes/my-theme background = #1a1b26 foreground = #c0caf5 palette = 0 = #15161e palette = 1 = #f7768e # ... more settings
Themes can set any configuration option, but built-in themes are audited to only set safe options. Only use themes from trusted sources!
Cursor Cursor Colors # Set cursor color cursor-color = #528BFF # Set text color under cursor cursor-text = #FFFFFF # Special values (since 1.2.0) cursor-color = cell-foreground cursor-text = cell-background
Cursor Style # Cursor shape cursor-style = block # block (default) cursor-style = bar # vertical bar cursor-style = underline # underline cursor-style = block_hollow # hollow block
Why does my cursor style change?
Shell integration automatically sets the cursor to a bar at the prompt. Disable this with: shell-integration-features = no-cursor
Running programs can also request cursor styles via escape sequences (DECSCUSR). Cursor Blinking # Control cursor blinking cursor-style-blink = true # Enable blinking cursor-style-blink = false # Disable blinking # (blank/unset) # Default: respect DEC Mode 12
Cursor Opacity # Cursor transparency (0.0 = transparent, 1.0 = opaque) cursor-opacity = 1.0
Very low opacity values (e.g., 0.3) may make the cursor hard to find.
Selection Colors # Selection colors selection-foreground = #000000 selection-background = #FFFACD # Use cell colors (since 1.2.0) selection-foreground = cell-foreground selection-background = cell-background
How do I disable selection?
If not set, selection uses inverted window background/foreground colors (default behavior).
Background Customization Background Opacity # Transparency (0.0 = transparent, 1.0 = opaque) background-opacity = 0.9 # Apply opacity to cells with explicit background colors background-opacity-cells = true
macOS : Background opacity is disabled in native fullscreen mode. Changing this requires restarting Ghostty.
Background Blur # Enable blur with intensity background-blur = 20 # Simple enable/disable background-blur = true # Default intensity: 20 background-blur = false # No blur
macOS 26.0+ supports native glass effects: background-blur = macos-glass-regular background-blur = macos-glass-clear
Supported on KDE Plasma (Wayland and X11). The exact blur intensity is ignored on KDE - configure blur globally in System Settings. Unsupported on most other desktop environments. Users may need third-party plugins.
Background Image # Set background image background-image = ~/wallpaper.png # Image opacity (relative to background-opacity) background-image-opacity = 1.0 # Image position background-image-position = center # center, top-left, top-center, etc. # Image fit background-image-fit = contain # contain, cover, stretch, none # Repeat image background-image-repeat = false
Background images are currently duplicated in VRAM per terminal, which can increase memory usage for large images.
What image formats are supported?
Currently PNG and JPEG only. Other formats are not yet supported (as of 1.2.0).
Split and Window Styling Unfocused Split Appearance # Opacity of unfocused splits (0.15-1.0) unfocused-split-opacity = 0.7 # Dim color overlay unfocused-split-fill = #000000
Split Divider # Split divider color (since 1.1.0) split-divider-color = #3E4451
Color Space Alpha Blending Control how colors are blended:
alpha-blending = native # macOS: Display P3, Linux: sRGB alpha-blending = linear # Linear space (prevents darkening) alpha-blending = linear-corrected # Linear with text correction (default on Linux)
Which alpha blending should I use?
native : Best default on macOSlinear-corrected : Best default on Linux - eliminates color fringing without affecting text weightlinear : Only if you want very thin/thick text rendering Window Color Space # Terminal color interpretation (macOS only) window-colorspace = srgb # Default window-colorspace = display-p3 # Wide color gamut
Window Theme Control the window chrome theme:
window-theme = auto # Based on terminal background window-theme = system # Follow system theme window-theme = light # Always light window-theme = dark # Always dark window-theme = ghostty # Use Ghostty config colors (Linux only)
On macOS with macos-titlebar-style = tabs or transparent, window theme is automatically set based on background luminosity.
Contrast Ensure readable text:
# Minimum contrast ratio (1-21, WCAG 2.0) minimum-contrast = 1 # No adjustment minimum-contrast = 1.1 # Avoid invisible text minimum-contrast = 3 # Readable text minimum-contrast = 7 # WCAG AA large text
Higher values make text more readable but may change colors significantly (toward black/white).
Advanced Visual Settings Window Padding Color window-padding-color = background # Use background color window-padding-color = extend # Extend cell background window-padding-color = extend-always # Always extend (no heuristics)
When does 'extend' disable?
On primary screen (not Vim, etc.), extending is disabled if:
Nearest row has default background cells
Nearest row is a prompt (requires shell integration)
Nearest row contains powerline characters
Search Colors # Non-focused search matches search-foreground = #000000 search-background = #FFE082 # Currently selected search match search-selected-foreground = #000000 search-selected-background = #F2A57E
Color Resources
256 Color Chart Terminal color palette reference
X11 Color Names Named color reference
Built-in Themes Browse included themes
WCAG Contrast Accessibility guidelines