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--start-as is not used when running in single instance mode #9228

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Description

@johan-osvaldsson-ingka

Describe the bug
If I start kitty like kitty --single-instance --start-as=maximized, it is not actually maximized, but just started with normal window size.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

  1. Start a kitty single instance so that we can create new windows from that instance. kitty --single-instance
  2. Try to start another kitty window in the single instance maximized. kitty --single-instance --start-as=maximized
  3. The first window (the kitty single instance "daemon" is maximized, but the new window is not actually maximized

Screenshots
It's just a non-maximized kitty window

Environment details
Running Debian Sid on kernel 6.17.7+deb14+1-amd64. Running Openbox as WM.

Additional context
The bug reproduces even when using --config NONE.
I debugged this a while ago and found that the --start-as argument is not parsed (or used) when a new Kitty window is created as part of a single instance.
Can't find that code right now, but IIRC it was in the startup where something like "if (start_in_single_instance_mode) { spawn_single_instance_window(); return; }" was run and the --start-as argument was checked after that in the code.

Activity

  1. added a commit that references this issue on Nov 17, 2025
    11dd7ee
  2. johan-osvaldsson-ingka commented on Dec 2, 2025

    @johan-osvaldsson-ingka
    Author

    Gotta say I'm impressed by the time-to-fix on this, good job! Thank you very much for the speedy attention 🙂

  3. kovidgoyal commented on Dec 2, 2025

    @kovidgoyal
    Owner

    If it's a bug I can replicate/understand it typically gets fixed same day.

  4. added a commit that references this issue on Jul 8, 2026
    396fb46
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