Ghostty Terminal

A VS Code extension that provides a terminal powered by ghostty-web (WASM) instead of xterm.js. The terminal renders inside a VS Code WebviewPanel and connects to a real shell process via node-pty.

Features

Full terminal emulator using Ghostty's battle-tested VT100 parser compiled to WASM
Multiple simultaneous terminal instances
Configurable shell, font, cursor, scrollback, and color themes
Built-in themes: Dark, Light, Tokyo Night, Dracula, Solarized Dark
Inherits VS Code's terminal.integrated.fontSize and terminal.integrated.fontFamily by default
Live config updates (font, theme, cursor changes apply immediately)

Installation

npm install
npm run build

Then press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host.

Usage

Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P):
- Ghostty Terminal: New Terminal — open a new terminal
- Ghostty Terminal: Clear Active Terminal — clear the active terminal
- Ghostty Terminal: Kill Active Terminal — kill the active terminal
- Ghostty Terminal: Focus Active Terminal — focus the active terminal
Keyboard shortcut: Cmd+Shift+`` (macOS) / Ctrl+Shift+`` (Windows/Linux) — new terminal

Configuration

All settings are under the ghosttyTerminal namespace.

Setting	Default	Description
`shell`	`""` (auto-detect)	Shell executable path
`shellArgs`	`[]`	Arguments passed to the shell
`fontSize`	`0` (inherit)	Font size in pixels. `0` inherits from `terminal.integrated.fontSize`
`fontFamily`	`""` (inherit)	Font family. Empty inherits from `terminal.integrated.fontFamily`
`theme`	`"dark"`	Color theme: `dark`, `light`, `tokyo-night`, `dracula`, `solarized-dark`, or `custom`
`theme.background`	`"#1e1e1e"`	Background color (only used with `custom` theme)
`theme.foreground`	`"#d4d4d4"`	Foreground color (only used with `custom` theme)
`scrollback`	`10000`	Number of scrollback lines
`cursorStyle`	`"underline"`	Cursor style: `block`, `underline`, or `bar`
`cursorBlink`	`true`	Whether the cursor blinks
`copyOnSelect`	`false`	Automatically copy selected text to clipboard

Architecture

Extension Host (Node.js)                Webview (Chromium sandbox)
┌─────────────────────────┐             ┌─────────────────────────┐
│  GhosttyTerminalManager │             │  ghostty-web (WASM)     │
│  GhosttyTerminalPanel   │ ◄─────────► │  Terminal + FitAddon    │
│  PtyBridge (node-pty)   │ postMessage │  CanvasRenderer         │
└─────────────────────────┘             └─────────────────────────┘

Extension host spawns the shell via node-pty and manages the WebviewPanel
Webview runs ghostty-web's WASM terminal emulator in a canvas
Communication is via VS Code's postMessage API

Known Limitations

The terminal appears in the editor area as a WebviewPanel, not in VS Code's native terminal tab bar
Does not appear in vscode.window.terminals (not accessible by other extensions)
File drag & drop from Finder/Explorer does not work (webview sandbox blocks file path access)
Requires macOS, Linux, or Windows 10 build 18309+ (ConPTY)
Does not support VS Code for the Web (node-pty requires native Node.js)

Development

npm install
npm run build    # one-time build
npm run watch    # rebuild on changes
npm run compile  # type-check only

Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host for testing.

License

See LICENSE.

Ghostty Terminal

TobiLG

Ghostty Terminal

Features

Installation

Usage

Configuration

Architecture

Known Limitations

Development

License