Built from the six notes Maya Ortiz wrote after her first ten minutes in the Ghostty terminal, and from her reply after a day of using the settings. Ghostty's own defaults come first; a line is added only where her words show a default failing her. Plan on about 20 minutes.
Step 1
Get Ghostty
about 3 minutes
You do this part yourself, in a web browser such as Safari.
Go to ghostty.org and choose the download for macOS.
Open the downloaded file and drag the Ghostty icon into the Applications folder.
The first time you open it, your Mac may ask whether to open an app downloaded from the internet. Choose Open.
Maya already did this: "I installed Ghostty, opened it, typed pwd, and pressed Return."
Step 2
Open it and type pwd
about 2 minutes
Press Command and Space, type Ghostty, and press Return.
In the window that opens, type pwd and press Return.
Ghostty prints the folder you are in, for example /Users/maya. The name pwd stands for "print working directory".
Step 3
Your two lines, and the note behind each
about 4 minutes
Only two of Maya's six notes show a default not working for her, so the settings file needs only two settings. A line starting with # is a comment: Ghostty skips it. Each comment quotes the note it comes from, and her reply in answers.txt where she tested the line.
Change Bigger text
font-size = 18
New windows start at 18 points instead of Ghostty's 13. Each press of Command and + adds one point: three presses took Maya to 16 on the desk monitor, and two more took her to 18 on the laptop.
Before her answer
font-size = 16
Comfortable on the desk monitor. Not yet tried on the laptop.
"At 16 points on the laptop I still leaned forward to read it. I pressed Command and the plus key two more times, which made it 18 points, and ten lines were comfortable on the laptop and on the desk monitor."
Now in the file
font-size = 18
One size for both screens, the one she tested on both.
theme = light:Modus Operandi,dark:Ghostty Default Style Dark
Ghostty now follows your Mac's Appearance. In Light it uses Modus Operandi, a theme that comes with Ghostty: black text on white, made for high readability. In Dark it uses Ghostty Default Style Dark, which also comes with Ghostty and copies the dark colors Ghostty starts with, so nights look as they do now.
"My Mac switches between Light and Dark appearance on its own, but the terminal stays dark all day, and in the morning glare the dark window is hard to read."
# Note 1, tested on the laptop in answers.txt: "I pressed Command and the plus key two more times, which made it 18 points, and ten lines were comfortable on the laptop and on the desk monitor."
font-size = 18
# Note 2: "My Mac switches between Light and Dark appearance on its own, but the terminal stays dark all day, and in the morning glare the dark window is hard to read."
# Tried for a day, answers.txt: "The light colors fixed the morning glare."
theme = light:Modus Operandi,dark:Ghostty Default Style Dark
Checked with Ghostty itself. From the practice folder, python3 check.py ran:
It finished with exit status 0, which means Ghostty 1.3.1 found no errors in the file. You do not need to run this yourself.
Step 4
Put the lines in place
about 5 minutes
Click the Ghostty window so it is in front, then press Command and , (the comma key). Ghostty opens its settings file in a text editor.
Back up anything already in it. If the file has any text, press Command and A, then Command and C. Open TextEdit, press Command and N for a new document, paste with Command and V, and save it in Documents as ghostty-backup. If the file is empty, skip this.
If the file already has a line starting with font-size or theme, delete that old line. It is safe in your backup. One line per setting keeps things clear.
Click at the very end of the settings file, press Return, and paste the six lines from the whole file above.
Save with Command and S.
Go back to Ghostty and press Command, Shift, and , to reload the settings.
Press Command and 0 in any window that is already open. A window whose size you changed by hand keeps that size after a reload; Command and 0 sets it back to the size in your file, now 18.
To see the theme switch, open System Settings, choose Appearance, and click Light, then Dark. The terminal follows.
Step 5
What Ghostty already does for you
about 4 minutes
Four of Maya's notes need no settings. Ghostty's defaults already cover them, so here is how to use them. These are the only keys in this guide; there is no list to memorize.
Default Two terminals side by side
Start Claude Code in your window as usual.
Press Command and D. The window splits, and a new terminal opens on the right.
Press Command and ] or Command and [ to move between the two sides, or just click the side you want.
For note 3. New sides get the window's current text size.
Default A warning before closing a busy terminal
When a program such as Claude Code is still running, Ghostty asks before closing it. Try it safely:
Type sleep 30 and press Return. This just waits 30 seconds.
The window stays solid, with nothing showing through. Nothing to do. Maya did not know whether a see-through window would help her read, and after a day she wrote "I want to keep everything else as it is.", so the solid default stays.
Delete the line you no longer want, and the # comment line above it.
Save with Command and S, then press Command, Shift, and , in Ghostty.
If you removed font-size, press Command and 0 to go back to 13.
To undo everything, replace the whole file with your ghostty-backup copy and reload.
Answered The one question for Maya
Her note 1: "I use the laptop every day too, and its screen is smaller and sits farther from my eyes, but I have not tried 16 on it yet."
The question: on the laptop, press Command and 0 so the text is at 16. Can you read ten lines without squinting? If you press Command and + again, count the presses.
"At 16 points on the laptop I still leaned forward to read it. I pressed Command and the plus key two more times, which made it 18 points, and ten lines were comfortable on the laptop and on the desk monitor."
Two more presses, so the font-size line went from font-size = 16 to font-size = 18. Nothing else in the file changed.
Note ledger: from note to default to decision
Each of Maya's notes, word for word, with Ghostty's default and the decision, then her reply. Sources: observations.txt and answers.txt; full reasoning and the Ghostty commands used are in decisions.md.
The text is too small. Ghostty started at 13 points and I was squinting within a minute. I pressed Command and the plus key three times, which made it 16 points, and ten lines were comfortable on my desk monitor. I use the laptop every day too, and its screen is smaller and sits farther from my eyes, but I have not tried 16 on it yet.
Ghostty default
13 points: font-size = 13. Command and + adds one point: keybind = super++=increase_font_size:1
What we did
Decision: change. font-size = 18
Before her answerfont-size = 16: 13 made her squint; 16 was comfortable on the monitor; the laptop was not yet tried.
Laptop test, from answers.txt"At 16 points on the laptop I still leaned forward to read it. I pressed Command and the plus key two more times, which made it 18 points, and ten lines were comfortable on the laptop and on the desk monitor."
I work by a sunny window in the morning and late at night. My Mac switches between Light and Dark appearance on its own, but the terminal stays dark all day, and in the morning glare the dark window is hard to read.
Ghostty default
No theme, so one fixed dark color set: background = #282c34
What we did
Decision: change. theme = light:Modus Operandi,dark:Ghostty Default Style Dark
Both themes are built into Ghostty.
After a day, from answers.txt"The light colors fixed the morning glare." The line stays as it was.
Maya's reply, after a day of using the settings:
At 16 points on the laptop I still leaned forward to read it. I pressed Command and the plus key two more times, which made it 18 points, and ten lines were comfortable on the laptop and on the desk monitor. The light colors fixed the morning glare. I want to keep everything else as it is.