Cursor blinking stops working after opening/closing certain TUI apps (e.g., neovim, yazi)

[sleemer]

Issue Description

When using Ghostty with cursor-style-blink=true, the cursor blinking stops after opening and closing some terminal user interface (TUI) applications such as neovim or yazi.
After exiting these applications, the cursor no longer blinks until Ghostty is restarted or a new tab is open.

Expected Behavior

The cursor should continue blinking after closing any TUI application when cursor-style-blink=true is set.

Actual Behavior

After closing a TUI application such as neovim in any tab, the cursor stops blinking and remains static in this tab until Ghostty is restarted or a new tab is opened.

Reproduction Steps

1. Start Ghostty with the minimal Ghostty configuration.
2. Verify that the cursor is blinking as expected in the shell.
3. Open a TUI application such as Neovim.
4. After exiting the application and returning to the shell prompt, the cursor stops blinking and remains static.
5. The blinking only resumes after restarting Ghostty or opening a new tab.

Ghostty Logs

Timestamp                       Thread     Type        Activity             PID    TTL
2025-10-14 22:22:23.827499+0300 0x1dcb11   Error       0x0                  77462  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:stream] ignoring CSI t with unimplemented parameter: ESC [  { 8, 54, 118 } t
2025-10-14 22:22:23.831243+0300 0x1dcb11   Error       0x0                  77462  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:stream] ignoring CSI t with unimplemented parameter: ESC [  { 8, 54, 118 } t
2025-10-14 22:22:29.468373+0300 0x1dcb11   Error       0x0                  77462  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:stream] ignoring CSI t with unimplemented parameter: ESC [  { 8, 54, 118 } t
2025-10-14 22:22:29.494871+0300 0x1dcb11   Error       0x0                  77462  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:stream] unimplemented OSC callback: terminal.osc.Command{ .end_of_command = terminal.osc.Command__struct_18694{ .exit_code = 0 } }
2025-10-14 22:22:29.494897+0300 0x1dcb11   Error       0x0                  77462  0    ghostty: [com.mitchellh.ghostty:stream] unimplemented OSC command: end_of_command

Ghostty Version

Ghostty 1.2.2

Version
  - version: 1.2.2
  - 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 Tahoe Version 26.0.1 (25A362)

(Linux only) Display Server

None

(Linux only) Desktop Environment/Window Manager

No response

Minimal Ghostty Configuration

shell-integration-features = no-cursor
cursor-style = block
cursor-style-blink = true

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.

[rhodes-b]

Having a quick glance at this im not 100% sure this is ghosttys fault. In some circumstances the tui is supposed to restore the cursor when it exits.

https://ghostty.org/docs/config/reference#cursor-style

This is described in the docs. Ghostty only sets the style for the default cursor if it gets overriden but not restored properly then it will not blink anymore.

This is an example of helix not restoring the cursor style on exit
helix-editor/helix#10089

[sleemer]

@rhodes-b, shouldn't shell-integration-features = no-cursor prevent this and ensure that the cursor-* settings are restored after closing any TUI application that overrides the cursor?

[rhodes-b]

no that is the opposite

the default shell-integration features explicitly set the cursor back after every command the style of which is not configurable it will always be a blinking bar. When no-cursor is supplied it no longer resets the cursor style for you

https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/blob/main/src/shell-integration/bash/ghostty.bash#L209
you can see the reset is \e [0 q which resets to the default cursor style just like the suggested workaround in the helix thread I linked above note that \033 and \e are the same thing

[sleemer]

Ah, I see, thanks!

[assafdori]

no that is the opposite

the default shell-integration features explicitly set the cursor back after every command the style of which is not configurable it will always be a blinking bar. When no-cursor is supplied it no longer resets the cursor style for you

https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/blob/main/src/shell-integration/bash/ghostty.bash#L209 you can see the reset is \e [0 q which resets to the default cursor style just like the suggested workaround in the helix thread I linked above note that \033 and \e are the same thing

Hey just jumping in this convo, I like to have a blinking block cursor across tmux, nvim, ghostty

Pretty sure it was working fine for me until recently, when I enter nvim and exit, the blinking cursor becomes static all of a sudden. Removing no-cursor turns my cursor into a blinking vertical line for some reason, even though the cursor-style is set to block.

Think you'd be able to help out?

shell-integration-features = no-cursor, sudo, no-title
cursor-style = block
cursor-style-blink = true
cursor-opacity = 0.96