An annotated field guide
Built from the six notes Maya Ortiz wrote after her first ten minutes in the Ghostty terminal. Ghostty's own defaults come first; a line is added only where her notes show a default failing her. Plan on about 20 minutes.
You do this part yourself, in a web browser such as Safari.
Maya already did this: "I installed Ghostty, opened it, typed pwd, and pressed Return."
Ghostty, and press Return.pwd and press Return./Users/maya. The name pwd stands for "print working directory".Only two of Maya's six notes show a default not working for her, so the settings file needs only two lines. A line starting with # is a comment: Ghostty skips it. Each comment quotes the note it comes from.
font-size = 16
New windows start at 16 points instead of Ghostty's 13. That is the size Maya reached by pressing Command and + three times, one point per press.
"I pressed Command and the plus key three times, which made it 16 points, and ten lines were comfortable on my desk monitor."
From note 1.
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."
From note 2.
# Note 1: "I pressed Command and the plus key three times, which made it 16 points, and ten lines were comfortable on my desk monitor." font-size = 16 # 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." theme = light:Modus Operandi,dark:Ghostty Default Style Dark
Checked with Ghostty itself. From the practice folder, python3 check.py ran:
env -u GHOSTTY_RESOURCES_DIR XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/private/
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.
ghostty-backup. If the file is empty, skip this.font-size or theme, delete that old line. It is safe in your backup. One line per setting keeps things clear.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.
For note 3. New sides get the window's current text size.
When a program such as Claude Code is still running, Ghostty asks before closing it. Try it safely:
sleep 30 and press Return. This just waits 30 seconds.For note 4.
The window stays solid, with nothing showing through. Nothing to do. Maya does not yet know whether a see-through window would help her read, so the solid default stays.
For note 5.
Command and + makes text bigger, Command and - smaller, Command and 0 back to your setting. Colors stay as the theme sets them.
For note 6.
# comment line above it.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.
"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."
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. Nothing changes until she answers. If she needs more presses, the 16 in the font-size line becomes the bigger number; if 16 works, the file stays as it is.
Each of Maya's notes, word for word, with Ghostty's default and the decision. Source: observations.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.
13 points: font-size = 13. Command and + adds one point: keybind = super++=increase_font_size:1
Decision: change. font-size = 16
13 made her squint; 16 was comfortable on the monitor. The laptop is still an open question.
Source: observations.txt, note 1 · the line explained
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.
No theme, so one fixed dark color set: background = #282c34
Decision: change. theme = light:Modus Operandi,dark:Ghostty Default Style Dark
Both themes are built into Ghostty.
Source: observations.txt, note 2 · the line explained
I want Claude Code on one side of the window and a second terminal on the other side.
Command and D splits right: keybind = super+d=new_split:right
Decision: keep the default. Ghostty's own shortcut: Command and D, then Command and ] to switch sides.
Source: observations.txt, note 3 · how to use it
I am afraid of closing the window by accident while the agent is still working.
Asks before closing while a program runs: confirm-close-surface = true
Decision: keep the default. Ghostty already asks before Command and W closes a running agent.
Source: observations.txt, note 4 · try it safely
A friend's terminal has a see-through, blurred window. It looked cool, but I do not know whether it would help me read.
Solid, no blur: background-opacity = 1 background-blur = false
Decision: keep the default. No evidence either way, so the solid window stays.
Source: observations.txt, note 5 · what that means
I do not care about colors beyond being able to read them, and I do not want to learn a list of keyboard shortcuts.
No contrast adjustment: minimum-contrast = 1. Ghostty's shortcuts stay as they are.
Decision: keep the default. Readability is handled by the note 2 theme; no new shortcuts to learn.
Source: observations.txt, note 6 · the few keys used here