Duplicate text on key release with latched modifiers (Kitty protocol) and Ergo-L keyboard layout

[tsacha]

Issue Description

When the Kitty Keyboard Protocol's report event types 0x10 (2) is active, Ghostty sends duplicate text input for keyboard layouts using latched modifiers (e.g., the French Ergol layout using ISO_Level5_Latch). A character is sent on press, and an identical one is sent on release.

Expected Behavior

Ghostty should only include a UTF-8 text payload in the escape sequence during .press (or .repeat) events. A .release event should only report the state change of the key without triggering a second text insertion in the application.

Actual Behavior

When "report event types" is enabled (flag 2), Ghostty's GTK surface implementation provides a UTF-8 fallback based on the keyval. This fallback is currently active for .release actions.

As a result, the escape sequence generated for the release event includes a text payload. Applications that support the Kitty protocol (like Neovim 0.12+) then receive this sequence and process the associated text, leading to a duplicate character being registered on key release (e.g., typing ! produces !!).

Reproduction Steps

1. Install french keyboard layout with Ergo-L variant: it is included in xkeyboard-config since version 2.42.

2. Launch Ghostty and enable the Kitty enhancement flags 1 and 2:

printf '\033[>3u'

3. Type a character that requires a latched modifier (on a US physical layout: Shift+O to produce ! or AltGr+O to produce '.
4. Observe that two ! characters are rendered: one on key press and one on key release.

You can observe this behavior directly in Neovim 0.12+, or with the command kitty +kitten show_key -m kitty.

Ghostty Logs

No response

Ghostty Version

Ghostty 1.3.1-arch1

Version
  - version: 1.3.1-arch1
  - channel: tip
Build Config
  - Zig version   : 0.15.2
  - build mode    : .ReleaseFast
  - app runtime   : .gtk
  - font engine   : .fontconfig_freetype
  - renderer      : renderer.generic.Renderer(renderer.OpenGL)
  - libxev        : io_uring
  - kernel version: 6.19.11-arch1-1
  - desktop env   : other
  - GTK version   :
    build         : 4.20.3
    runtime       : 4.22.2
  - libadwaita    : enabled
    build         : 1.8.4
    runtime       : 1.9.0
  - libX11        : enabled
  - libwayland    : enabled

OS Version Information

Archliunx

(Linux only) Display Server

Wayland

(Linux only) Desktop Environment/Window Manager

Reproduced on KDE, Gnome and Niri.

Minimal Ghostty Configuration

Reproduced with empty configuration

Additional Relevant Configuration

• kitty +kitten show_key -m kitty on Alacritty

• No issue on MacOS:

• Reverting the revert (😆 ) fix the issue in Neovim 0.12.

Potential fix investigated with AI:

Restricting the UTF-8 fallback in src/apprt/gtk/class/surface.zig to non-release actions seems to resolve the issue:

diff --git a/src/apprt/gtk/class/surface.zig b/src/apprt/gtk/class/surface.zig
index 179c779d7..0d04d9ca1 100644
--- a/src/apprt/gtk/class/surface.zig
+++ b/src/apprt/gtk/class/surface.zig
@@ -1382,7 +1382,7 @@ pub const Surface = extern struct {
         // a text value. We have to do this because GTK will not process
         // "Ctrl+Shift+1" (on US keyboards) as "Ctrl+!" but instead as "".
         // But the keyval is set correctly so we can at least extract that.
-        if (priv.im_len == 0 and keyval_unicode > 0) im: {
+        if (action != .release and priv.im_len == 0 and keyval_unicode > 0) im: {
             if (std.math.cast(u21, keyval_unicode)) |cp| {
                 // We don't want to send control characters as IM
                 // text. Control characters are handled already by

I am unsure if this has side effects for other specific layouts.

I acknowledge that:

• I have reviewed the FAQ and confirm that my issue is NOT among them.
• I have searched the Ghostty repository (both open and closed Discussions and Issues) and confirm this is not a duplicate of an existing issue or discussion.
• I have checked the "Preview" tab on all text fields to ensure that everything looks right, and have wrapped all configuration and code in code blocks with a group of three backticks (```) on separate lines.

[farangkao]

I have the same issue with my swiss german keyboard, and the ! and ] characters (which are on the same physical key)
They are doubled when i use ghostty + neovim 0.12.2, but not when i use alacritty + neovim 0.12.2
Other TUI's work fine, keys are not repeated

Note: i tested with "nvim --clean" ,and also tried different settings, to no avail.

So not 100% sure if the issue is on the side of neovim or ghostty or a combination.

[manutepowa]

Ghostty 1.3.1 on Linux
Keyboard layout: Spanish (Spain), ISO
When running herdr, pressing { or [ once produces the character twice.
showkey -a confirms that each keypress is reported twice.

This happens inside herdr but not in a regular shell outside herdr.

[boydkelly]

im running into this same issue with the Cameroon Multilingual keyboard. The latch function is attached to the semi-colon key (us physical layout). When pressing the colon (Shift ;) then the colon is emitted twice.

Reproducible by:

1. Install and select Cameroon Multilinugual keyboard
2. Open Ghostty terminal (With no config file; clean)
3. Open Neovim with no config (nvim --clean)
4. Type the colon (shift ; on us physical keyboard)

Result: two :: are emitted. This does not occur in other terminals i have tested, ptyxis, foot, kitty.

[boydkelly]

Ah i see this is a discussion. (i came by link). Will this become an issue as is confirmed? I would love to see it solved so i can use Ghostty!! Thanks devs!

[lbise]

Same thing happening with the swiss french layout. Funnily I just reported this exact same issue to windows terminal which just implemented kitty protocol ;)

[boydkelly]

hmm. Does this maybe need to be an issue instead of a discussion for correct visibility. For me its a deal breaker. I can't use Ghostty. Kitty works.

[lbise]

hmm. Does this maybe need to be an issue instead of a discussion for correct visibility. For me its a deal breaker. I can't use Ghostty. Kitty works.

In this repo users cannot create issues directly, see the issues pane why. Everything must go through discussions.
In the meanwhile, I found a very silly workaround for my particular use case which seem to be working for now... lbise/dotfiles@269dbf9

;)

[sbidoul]

I'm having the same issue with a Belgian keyboard and AltGr+[ with ghostty 1.3.1 and neovim 0.12.4. I get [[ due to a missing CSI code upon release, while AltGr+] works fine. See the inspector log below for the two keys:

[jcollie]

#13861