Ghostty 1.2 removed builtin opt+backspace keybind on macos

[moskyb]

Issue Description

I use Opt+Backspace often to delete single words, a-la Ctrl+w in bash and friends (but such that i don't have to remember two different keybinds for the same action). Prior to Ghostty v1.2, this worked out of the box, but upon updating this behaviour didn't work, only a single character gets deleted.

The workaround is pretty easy -- add

keybind = opt+backspace=text:\x17

to the config file, but i had to do a little digging to find out what the specific character code for delete word was etc, and it was just overall surprising.

Keyboard layout: US standard qwerty
OS: macOS Sequoia 15.6.1
Keystrokes:

Expected Behavior

opt+backspace should delete a single word left of the cursor

Actual Behavior

Only a single character is deleted

Reproduction Steps

1. Download and install Ghostty v1.1.x
2. Enter some text into the terminal that has spaces
3. Hit Opt+Backspace
4. Note that a whole word is deleted
5. Download and install Ghostty v1.2.0
6. Enter some text into the terminal that has spaces
7. Hit Opt+Backspace
8. Note that only a single character is deleted

Ghostty Logs

No response

Ghostty Version

Ghostty 1.2.0

Version
  - version: 1.2.0
  - channel: stable
Build Config
  - Zig version   : 0.14.1
  - build mode    : builtin.OptimizeMode.ReleaseFast
  - app runtime   : apprt.Runtime.none
  - font engine   : font.main.Backend.coretext
  - renderer      : renderer.generic.Renderer(renderer.Metal)
  - libxev        : kqueue

OS Version Information

macOS Sequoia 15.6.1

(Linux only) Display Server

None

(Linux only) Desktop Environment/Window Manager

No response

Minimal Ghostty Configuration

Can repro with empty config file

Additional Relevant Configuration

No response

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.

[deadcoder0904]

Can confirm. I was trying Option+Delete & it didn't work when it used to before.

[vincentisambart]

FWIW ctrl+delete(ctrl+backspace) seems to do that, but on macOS the default shortcut for that should be opt+delete.

[vsncls]

Which shell are you using ? I can reproduce only in fish ...

[moskyb]

I'm using fish shell.

[vsncls]

Bash and zsh are unaffected on my setup...

[deadcoder0904]

I'm using Fish too.

[edrozenberg]

I'm using the following in my .zshrc and something similar should work in other shells:

bindkey "^H"       backward-kill-word    # CTRL+backspace
bindkey "^[^?"     backward-kill-word    # ALT+backspace

bindkey "^[[3;5~"  kill-word             # CTRL+delete
bindkey "^[[3;3~"  kill-word             # ALT+delete

My Nuphy kbd has an actual DEL key, different from the BACKSPACE key - on Mac kbds this would be Fn + BACKSPACE/DEL.

These bindings have been working for some time in Ghostty.

And I'm using these in Helix config.toml:

C-backspace   = "delete_word_backward"
A-backspace   = "delete_word_backward"

C-del         = "delete_word_forward"
A-del         = "delete_word_forward"

Vim would need binding defs for these as well.

[NsdHSO]

for me it works like this:
~/.config/fish/...

# Opt+Backspace to delete word backwards bind \e\x7f backward-kill-word

[Kamillaova]

Also reproduced for me, only with fish.
Setting macos-option-as-alt = true fixes on fish too. (with = left too, wow, Ghosty is awesome!)