Probably the most portable terminal in the world

A full-featured terminal emulator in a single Java file, powered by GhosttyFX — Ghostty's terminal engine exposed as a JavaFX control. No build system, no IDE, no project setup — just JBang and one file.

This was an idea created, edited and published in a few hours a Sunday morning - no promises; but do share if it works or not for you :)

Get Started

Run instantly (JBang downloads Java 25 automatically if needed):

jbang jhostty@maxandersen

Install as a command for everyday use:

jbang app install jhostty@maxandersen
jhostty

Or clone and run from source:

git clone https://github.com/maxandersen/jhostty.git
cd jhostty
jbang jhostty.java

Features

🪟 Multiple Windows, Tabs & Splits

Open as many windows, tabs, and split panes as you need. Horizontal and vertical splits can be nested freely.

Tab bar appears automatically when you have more than one tab, hides when you're back to one.

🎨 10 Built-in Themes

Switch themes on the fly from the View menu — the entire UI adapts, including context menus and split dividers.

🔍 Per-Terminal Zoom

Each split pane has its own independent zoom level. Zoom with keyboard shortcuts, scroll wheel, or trackpad pinch (macOS). The title bar shows the current zoom percentage.

🔤 All System Fonts

Every font on your system is available in the View → Font menu. Popular terminal fonts (JetBrains Mono, Fira Code, Hack, SF Mono, Consolas) are listed first for quick access.

✨ More

• Drag-and-drop — drop files, text, or URLs onto any terminal pane
• Link detection — clickable URLs in terminal output
• Right-click context menu — styled to match the current theme
• Shell integration — search (⌘F/Ctrl+F) and prompt navigation via Ghostty shell integration
• Native macOS menu bar — app name, menus, and shortcuts feel native
• Cross-platform shortcuts — ⌘ on macOS, Ctrl on Windows/Linux

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	macOS	Windows / Linux
New Window	⌘N	Ctrl+N
New Tab	⌘T	Ctrl+T
Split Horizontal	⌘D	Ctrl+D
Split Vertical	⌘⇧D	Ctrl+Shift+D
Close Terminal	⌘W	Ctrl+W
Zoom In	⌘+	Ctrl++
Zoom Out	⌘−	Ctrl+−
Reset Zoom	⌘0	Ctrl+0
Search	⌘F	Ctrl+F
Scroll Zoom	⌘+scroll	Ctrl+scroll

Requirements

• JBang — that's it. JBang handles everything else:
  • Downloads Java 25 automatically if not present
  • Resolves GhosttyFX, pty4j, and all dependencies
  • Compiles and caches the single .java file

How It Works

jhostty is a single jhostty.java file — ~940 lines, no build system, no project structure. JBang reads the dependency declarations at the top of the file, resolves everything from Maven Central, and runs it.

jhostty.java
├── Terminal rendering ← GhosttyFX (Ghostty's engine in JavaFX)
├── PTY backend       ← pty4j (cross-platform pseudo-terminal)
├── UI                ← JavaFX (comes with GhosttyFX)
└── Build/run         ← JBang (zero setup)

Key design choices:

• No Application subclass ceremony — uses Application.launch() with a minimal start() method
• All state is static — single-file simplicity, no DI framework
• Per-terminal zoom via node properties — no global state conflicts
• Event filters intercept shortcuts before the terminal view consumes them
• Dynamic CSS — theme changes regenerate a temp CSS file and hot-reload it

Configuration

jhostty automatically saves your preferences (theme, font, zoom, window position) to:

~/.config/jhostty/jhostty-state.properties

This file is auto-managed — changes you make in the app are saved on exit. To customize settings permanently, create your own override file:

~/.config/jhostty/jhostty.properties

User config takes priority over saved state. Omit a key or leave it blank to auto-detect / use the default.

Available settings

Key	Description	Default
theme	Theme name (e.g. Dracula, Nord, Catppuccin Mocha)	Ghostty Default
font	Font family (e.g. JetBrains Mono)	Auto-detected
font-size	Base font size in points — what "Reset Zoom" returns to	15.0
zoom	Current zoom level in points — remembered across restarts	Same as font-size
shell	Shell command (e.g. /bin/zsh)	Auto-detected
window-x	Window X position in pixels	OS default
window-y	Window Y position in pixels	OS default

Example

# ~/.config/jhostty/jhostty.properties
theme=Dracula
font=JetBrains Mono
font-size=16.0

Use View → Reload Config to apply changes without restarting.

Font Recommendation

For the best experience with nerd font glyphs (powerline symbols, git icons):

# macOS
brew install font-jetbrains-mono-nerd-font

# Linux
sudo apt install fonts-jetbrains-mono  # or your distro's equivalent

# Windows
# Download from https://www.nerdfonts.com/font-downloads

Debugging

Run with --debug to log input events and modifiers to stderr:

jbang jhostty@maxandersen --debug

Built With

Component	What	Why
GhosttyFX	Terminal control	Ghostty's rendering engine as a JavaFX node
pty4j	PTY backend	Cross-platform pseudo-terminal from JetBrains
JBang	Build & run	Zero-setup Java scripting — no Maven, no Gradle
JavaFX	UI toolkit	Comes transitively via GhosttyFX

License

MIT