ZenTerm

ZenTerm is a modern macOS terminal built on a libghostty core. Native panes and windows, hideable drawers and floats, tools bound to the keys you pick, and workspaces you define.

The terminal emulation is Ghostty's own, from libghostty, built from a pinned vendor/ghostty submodule. The layout, input routing, scroll mode, theming, and chrome are ZenTerm's. All of it exists so you can reach your toolchain without stopping to find somewhere to run it.

Release notes, documentation, and guides live at zenterm.io.

One tab, three shells. ⌘B opens the drawer along the bottom, ⌘\ opens the one down the right side, and each runs its own shell with its chord printed in the corner. Hiding a drawer doesn't stop its process. The dev server here keeps running while the drawer is hidden. The numbered tabs along the bottom are ⌘1 through ⌘9.

Install

Download ZenTerm-<version>-arm64.dmg from the releases page, open it, and drag ZenTerm onto Applications. The app is signed and notarized, so macOS opens it without an "unidentified developer" warning.

Apple Silicon, macOS 14 or later. There is no Intel build.

ZenTerm expects JetBrains Mono Nerd Font, which macOS does not ship:

brew install --cask font-jetbrains-mono-nerd-font

ZenTerm updates itself from then on. docs/onboarding.md walks through the first hour.

What it does

• Panes that tile. Split right or down, and move between panes by direction rather than by order.
• Two drawers per tab. One along the bottom, one down the right side, each running its own shell and resizable from the keyboard.
• Tool floats. Any command you name in the config becomes a card over your work on a chord you pick: lazygit, lazydocker, btop, a dev server. A float can stay warm between opens, or shut down when you dismiss it.
• Workspaces. A folder plus a layout, so a project opens the way you left it.
• A command palette over every action. It lists actions by group with each one's current shortcut, filters as you type, and runs the selection on Enter. Rebind something and the palette shows the new chord.
• Scroll mode and Find, in vim keys. Move through the scrollback with hjkl, w/b/e, and {/}. v and V select, y copies.
• One motion across Neovim splits and ZenTerm panes. Bind ctrl+hjkl to the nav_* actions and install zen-navigator.nvim: nvim walks its own splits and hands off to ZenTerm at the edge.
• 65 themes, and a bring-your-own theme file. A theme colors the whole app, not the terminal text alone.
• Neovim recolors with the terminal. Install zen-theme.nvim and switching theme in ZenTerm switches your editor's colorscheme to match, live.
• A notification when an agent needs you. With ZenTerm in the background and an agent stopped for input, macOS posts a banner and the tab's number takes the theme's attention color until you visit it.
• No telemetry, no analytics, no account. The only request ZenTerm makes on its own is an update check, which asks GitHub for a version number and sends nothing about you.

Shortcuts

Defaults. Every one is rebindable in the config, and the command palette lists your current shortcut for each action.

Tool floats have no defaults. Each one takes the chord you give it in the config.

A look around

Three panes in one tab. The focused pane carries the halo, so you can see where the next keystroke lands without hunting for a cursor. The gap between panes and the padding around them are both yours to set.

The same window on Catppuccin Latte. A theme colors the terminal, the tab bar, the toolbar, the focus halo, and Settings itself, so a light theme stays light through the whole app. 17 ship, each marked Dark or Light in the picker, and a theme = line pointed at any Ghostty theme file works the same way.

The palette filters as you type and runs the selection on Enter. Each row carries the shortcut that runs it, read from your config, so a rebind shows up here right away.

The workspaces you named, each one a folder plus a layout. ZenTerm does not scan directories to fill this list, so it holds only what you put there.

A float is one float = line in the config: a title, a command, and the chord that toggles it. It opens over the work instead of taking a pane, so the panes and drawers underneath keep their places. persist:dir keeps one warm per repository. The first open is cold and every reopen is instant.

Configure it

One file, ~/.config/zen-term/config, in Ghostty's config syntax. Settings writes the same file, so the two never disagree. docs/config/config is the annotated reference: every key, its default, and what a bad line does.

Picking a theme here writes the theme = line you would have typed. The row says it applies instantly, and it recolors the terminal, the tabs, and the chrome while the pane is still open. The pane and the file hold the same keys, so editing either one gives you the same result.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/praxis-labs-io/zen-term.git && cd zen-term
bin/build-ghosttykit   # inits the vendor/ghostty submodule, fetches Zig,
                       # builds GhosttyKit.xcframework + runtime resources
brew install swiftlint # bin/check needs it
bin/run

bin/build-ghosttykit takes a few minutes and reruns only when the ghostty pin or the script changes. You need Xcode 26 or later: the package manifest declares swift-tools-version: 6.2, and the Metal compiler is not in the Command Line Tools alone.

Documentation

• docs/onboarding.md walks through the app for someone opening it for the first time.
• docs/config/config and docs/config/workspaces are the reference files.
• docs/architecture.md is how the app fits together.
• docs/swift-conventions.md collects the AppKit traps that cost us a release each.
• docs/releasing.md is how a build gets released.
• docs/release-notes/ is every version, curated.

Contributing

Read docs/CONTRIBUTING.md. The short version: bin/check is the gate, one branch is one pull request, and CLAUDE.md holds the rules an agent working in this repo follows.

Security

Report a vulnerability privately. SECURITY.md says how.

License

MIT. See LICENSE. Third-party notices ship inside the app and live in Sources/ZenTerm/Resources/THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.