support macos options(aka alt) key to work well with zellij

[qballer]

OS: MacOS 13.6.6
multiplexer: zellij

When using Zellij with Ghostty, the alt key is mapped to the wrong action. I'm unsure which mapping is being used, but this appears to be a bug in Ghostty. I'm going to review the docs to see how I can fix this, but if the maintainers can help, I would really appreciate it.

Recreate:

cargo install zellij
zellij
ctrl+p -> n
options+arrow keys open a floating window instead of moving between panes.
related to: zellij-org/zellij#265

[sadotsoy]

did you find a possible fix? @qballer

[sadotsoy]

@qballer #3207

[qballer]

These are my current configuration

keybind = alt+left=unbind
keybind = alt+right=unbind
macos-option-as-alt = true

And it doesn't seem to solve the issue, any ideas on whats the issue here?

[qballer]

issue seems to work

[guilhermeramosht]

Worked for me 🚀

[trskare]

I use ALT (super in ghostty) as a leader key for my zellij keybinds. This seems to crash with a lot ghostty´s default keybindings (you can see them by running ghostty +list-keybinds. I solved this by setting keybind=clear in the ghostty config file. I have to find other keybindings for the necessary ghostty actions. I will not use a lot of them anyway because i use zellij.

[Gelio]

Thanks! That worked out for me. I used this solution to clear the Alt-Right and Alt-Left keybinds so they can be used in Neovim by https://github.com/github/copilot.vim

[peteringram0]

Also seeing this issue. For me i would love to get ALT+K working as thats second nature for my workflow.

[aldanor]

Same here. In zellij, option + left/right arrow within zellij doesn't work and triggers other things.

[sadotsoy]

This worked for me:

macos-option-as-alt = true

keybind = alt+left=unbind
keybind = alt+right=unbind

[aldanor]

This worked for me:

macos-option-as-alt = true

keybind = alt+left=unbind
keybind = alt+right=unbind

Can confirm, this works (perhaps it should be documented better somewhere?)

[citypaul]

This isn't working for me for some reason :(

[dunxiii]

On nordic keyboards we often use option for pipe and at characters, so I did only a set left option to act as alt. Works great.

macos-option-as-alt = left

keybind = alt+left=unbind
keybind = alt+right=unbind

[WHYBBE]

Thanks! It works.

[kirhgoff]

Bless you, thank you so much

[expert]

Thanks!

[PapaniaP]

Over a year later and this saved me from going into a mental asylum <3

[madsboddum]

Thanks for posting this.

[giacomoran]

I rely quite a bit on Option+Left and Option+Right to move the cursor one word at a time in the terminal, which stops working when setting

keybind = alt+left=unbind
keybind = alt+right=unbind

I solved this by:

• Setting only macos-option-as-alt = true in Ghostty
• Replacing the Alt+ArrowKey bindings in Zellij with Alt+Shift+ArrowKey to move between panes and tabs
• Removing the Alt+F shortcut in Zellij that opens the floating pane