Terminal Compatibility Issue with xterm-ghostty

[Azizadx]

When using Ghostty to connect to remote hosts, commands like clear fail because the terminal type xterm-ghostty is not recognized. as shown below

Solution

This can be fixed by setting the $TERM variable to a supported type like xterm-256color.

1. Temporary Fix (Per Session):
Run this command after connecting to the remote host: export TERM=xterm-256color

2. Permanent Fix:
Add this to your remote host’s shell config (~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc): export TERM=xterm-256color

[mitchellh]

https://ghostty.org/docs/help/terminfo

[Azizadx]

thanks @mitchellh didn't saw this part.

[nicholasss]

Thank you for those who have put all the info together on the official website.
This is the fix when ssh'ing into older OS'. e.g. Debian

[billgertz]

You could also conditionally set the TERM to xterm-color256 for ghostty in the client ~/.bashrc, like so:

# force xterm-ghostty terminal id to be reset to xterm-color256
case "$TERM" in
    xterm-ghostty) TERM=xterm-color256;;
esac

Slightly cleaner as it only overwrites the TERM id when accessing with ghostty and not force other terminal emulators forced to xterm-color256.

[00-kat]

Have you seen https://ghostty.org/docs/features/shell-integration#ssh-integration?

[billgertz]

Copying the ghostty terminfo into the client is a much better solution as highlighted above. Missed that at first.