mTerm

A native macOS terminal emulator. Opinionated, GPU-accelerated, focused.

Status: v0.2.0 — pre-release. Daily-driveable for most workflows, but a few items from SPEC.md are still in progress. Expect changes before 1.0.

Why

mTerm is an alternative to iTerm2 for developers who want:

• A terminal that feels like a real Mac app, not a port.
• GPU-class rendering (Ghostty/Alacritty territory).
• A small, sharp feature set instead of a thousand preferences.

It is not trying to be Warp. No AI features, no command palettes that rethink the shell, no cloud accounts. Just a fast, beautiful, modern terminal.

Install

Signed DMG (recommended)

Grab the latest .dmg from Releases, drag mTerm.app to /Applications. The DMG is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so Gatekeeper will accept it on first launch.

Build from source

Requires macOS 14+ and Xcode 15+ (or just the command-line tools with Swift 5.10+).

git clone https://github.com/d0x2a/mTerm.git
cd mTerm
swift run -c release mTerm

What works today

• AppKit-native window with tabbed sidebar, full-screen, session restore (tabs + CWDs).
• Metal-rendered terminal view with pixel-snapped glyph atlas — crisp text at all sizes, no GPU filtering blur.
• xterm-256color compatibility for vim/neovim/htop/fzf/less/git pagers. 24-bit true color. Alt-screen, scrollback, mouse tracking.
• Scrollback search: plain text by default, regex via ⌥⌘F, smart-case.
• Shell integration for zsh via OSC 133: gutter prompt markers (color-coded by exit status), jump to previous/next prompt with ⌘↑ / ⌘↓.
• Themes: Tomorrow Night, Solarized (light + dark), Nord, Dracula, Gruvbox Dark, plus mTerm's own light + dark. Auto light/dark switching follows the system appearance.
• Triggers engine with built-in regex rules for URLs (⌘-click to open), file paths (⌘-click to reveal), git SHAs, IPv4 addresses.
• Close-confirmation when a foreground process is running (vim, ssh, etc.) — togglable in Settings.

Not yet (tracked for v1)

• bash + fish shell integration (zsh only today).
• tmux -CC control mode.
• Profiles (named shell configurations).
• Triggers editor UI + runCommand action.
• Multi-pane Settings with search.
• Configurable scrollback size from Settings.

Keyboard shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
New tab	⌘T
Close tab	⌘W
Next / previous tab	⌘⇧] / ⌘⇧[ (also ⌘ / ⌘⇧)
Jump to tab N	⌘1 – ⌘9 (⌘9 = last)
Find in scrollback	⌘F
Find (regex)	⌥⌘F
Next / previous match	⌘G / ⇧⌘G
Jump previous / next prompt	⌘↑ / ⌘↓
Toggle full screen	⌃⌘F
Open Settings	⌘,

Configuration

mTerm stores everything under ~/Library/Application Support/mTerm/:

• settings.json — appearance mode, themes, font, close-warning preference.
• state.json — restored on next launch (tabs + window frame + full-screen state).

There's no config file in v1; everything is editable through the Settings window (⌘,).

Architecture

See SPEC.md for the full design — stack choices, terminal-emulation scope, performance budgets, and what's deliberately out of scope.

AppKit shell  →  MainWindowController + SidebarView
                    │
                    └─ N tabs, one Session each
                            │
                            ├─ PTY (forkpty + posix_spawn, off-main I/O)
                            ├─ VT parser  →  TerminalState
                            └─ Metal Renderer (glyph atlas, instanced cells)

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Copyright © 2026 Dox2A Labs LLC.