For quite some time I’ve been perfectly fine with the default distro-provided terminal emulator (such as Gnome Terminal or Ptyxis). Never felt the need for anything more complex or shiny, I just needed to run commands and show the output, why complicate things and install more dependencies?

Then, one random day, I decided to try Kitty and it became my default ever since.


What is Kitty?

Kitty is a modern, GPU-accelerated terminal emulator.

It provides many features like native window and tab management, high-performance rendering, URL link display, and multiple window layouts (all without needing to install an additional multiplexer like tmux - nothing against tmux though).

kitty.webp


Why I Chose Kitty?

  • Native Window and Tab Management
    • Kitty handles tabs and windows natively.
    • I can split windows and manage everything with simple keybindings out-of-the-box - no extra multiplexer required.
  • Good Performance
    • The GPU acceleration is useful. When scrolling through logs or working with syntax highlighting the responsiveness is appreciated.
  • Simple Configuration File
    • All of Kitty’s configuration is done in kitty.conf.
    • I just configured it once to my liking, saved it to GitHub for reuse on any machine I would like to work from. Easy and straightforward.
  • Modern Features Built-in
    • Kitty supports true color, fast rendering, images in the terminal, etc. These aren’t features I thought I needed, but once you have them, going back feels limiting.

When Kitty Isn’t Enough

  • Remote Server Work
    • Kitty can’t persist sessions across SSH disconnections. When working on remote servers and running long tasks, you still need tmux for session persistence.
  • Complex Persistent Layouts
    • tmux is great at saving and restoring complex pane layouts across sessions.
    • If you need to maintain specific arrangements that persist through reboots and disconnections, tmux is the better choice (but doesn’t replace Kitty).

My Setup

On my workstation, I have Kitty as my default terminal with tmux installed.

  • Kitty gives me everything I need for local development and workstation use where I’m not running processes that need to survive disconnections.
  • I use tmux exclusively when I SSH into remote servers or work on my home lab. The session persistence and ability to reconnect after dropped connections is very useful.

Conclusion: Kitty made working directly from the terminal easier and more intuitive. I recommend it personally, but each use case is different.

Anyway, I guess the whole point of this post is to share my ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf configuration.