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JusTTY
A simple native macOS terminal built on Swift and libghostty
134 followers
A simple native macOS terminal built on Swift and libghostty
134 followers
A simple native macOS terminal built with Swift and libghostty. Minimal be design - suited for everyday use, just not packed with the bells and whistles power users expect.
Why should I switch from Ghostty? I can see graphical preferences, but what's the major differentiator?
JusTTY
@mlitwiniuk JusTTY is intentionally not full Ghostty. It wraps libghostty’s Metal/PTY core in a small native SwiftUI app aimed at everyday shell use: tabs, windows, themes, fonts, padding/size, and a short fixed shortcut set. Ghostty stays the power-user terminal (splits, inspector, rich config/profiles, remappable binds, etc.). JusTTY explicitly leaves those out. So the pitch isn’t "better than Ghostty", it’s: same solid rendering/shell stack, fewer knobs, macOS-native chrome, and a config surface that’s small enough to ignore. If you want Ghostty’s depth, staying on Ghostty is the right choice, but if you want a simpler app that still feels fast because it’s Ghostty underneath, JusTTY is that.
@0x96f got ya, thanks, will give it a try.
Native macOS apps built with libghostty are exactly what I've been hoping someone would ship. One thing that would make me switch from iTerm2 full time: support for per-pane scrollback buffers with the ability to detach a pane into its own window. Would be great for keeping long-running logs handy while working in another session.
JusTTY
@monetizemax Hey thanks for the suggestion. I am still thinking on what to include as a feature. A large scrollback is already supported by default by libghostty, but adding multi-pane support in a single tab is something I am not sure about. I want to keep things minimal. Maybe I will create a separate build with extra features (JusTTY extended) and add extra features like this.
Thanks for sharing. What would you say are the "selling points" of this terminal emulator?
JusTTY
@maciej_baron The main selling points are performance, resource usage and minimal bloat. The app gives you just the basics of the terminal (visual control with themes and colorschemes and window control with tabs, starting location and padding). I honestly think that the rest should be added with software, for example if you want multiplexing you can always use tmux but not everyone need that. Also, making it native removes the overhead of additional frameworks and runtimes (e.g. Electron), which can reduce resource usage and improve performance.
Love seeing more native macOS dev tools built with Swift! Terminal performance makes or breaks the daily workflow.
JusTTY
@zeo81 Yeah as a dev terminal performance is very important. I also hate that many terminal apps add as many features as possible without thinking of how it would impact the performance or resource cost of it. Also native is always best in my opinion.
@0x96f “Also native is always best in my opinion”， I think so.
Love that you went native with Swift instead of wrapping something electron-based. That kind of focus on simplicity and performance over feature bloat is exactly what most people actually need day-to-day.
There's something genuinely calming about a tool that decides to stay small and fast on purpose. Filip, this feels like the kind of thing I'd quietly stop noticing and just keep reaching for every day.