Setting up a Dropdown terminal

[paulodiovani]

I'm trying to create a generic script for a Dropdown Terminal (using Ctrl+Esc in my settings) that should work with any terminal.

Goals

• Open a floating terminal at the top of the screen, with fixed width (e.g. 100%) and height (e.g. 30%)
• Allow any terminal of user preferences (alacritty, kitty, iterm2, etc)

Config attempts

Attempt 01

Fully managed by Aerospace

• Detect terminal window by application id or title ✅
• Make window float ✅
• Move window to desired position ❌
• Resize window to desired size ❌
• Query screen dimensions to use for resize ❌

Aerospace can use on-window-detected to detect windows and make it float, but cannot move or resize floating windows.

[[on-window-detected]]
if.window-title-regex-substring = 'dropdown terminal'
run = ['layout floating'] # no way to resize/move floating windows

Attempt 02

Partially managed by Aerospace + Apple Script to move/resize.

• Detect terminal window by application id or title ✅
• Make window float ✅
• Move window to desired position ⚠️ (see below)
• Resize window to desired size ⚠️ (see below)
• Query screen dimensions to use for resize ❌

⚠️ It is possible to resize/move windows using AppleScript, but it does not work with all applications.
Alacritty won't accept it. Neither will Kitty.

It looks like the application must be scriptable for this to work. -- I'm not quite what that means (source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12021536).

tell application "Alacritty"
    set bounds of front window to {0, 0, 1920, 480}
end tell

Attempt 03

Partially managed by Aerospace + Terminal startup options to move/resize.

• Detect terminal window by application id or title ✅
• Make window float ✅
• Move window to desired position ⚠️ (see below)
• Resize window to desired size ✅
• Query screen dimensions to use for resize ❌

Most terminal emulators have command line options that allow to set window dimensions and position.
For Alacritty we can use the window options with -o.

⚠️ For some reason, if I set window.dimensions.lines to anything less than35 the window is not positioned at the top.

Partially working solution (columns and lines may change according to screen resolution):

[mode.main.binding]

# Dropdown terminal
ctrl-esc = '''exec-and-forget \
  WINID=$(aerospace list-windows --all --json | jq '.[] | select(."window-title"=="Dropdown terminal") | ."window-id"')
  [ -n "$WINID" ] && aerospace close --window-id "$WINID" || \
  (
    pgrep -x alacritty > /dev/null && \
    alacritty msg create-window \
      --title='Dropdown terminal' \
      -o window.position.y=0 -o window.position.x=0 \
      -o window.dimensions.lines=35 -o window.dimensions.columns=240 || \
    open -na /Applications/Alacritty.app --args \
      --title='Dropdown terminal' \
      -o window.position.y=0 -o window.position.x=0 \
      -o window.dimensions.lines=35 -o window.dimensions.columns=240
  )
'''

[[on-window-detected]]
if.window-title-regex-substring = 'Dropdown terminal'
run = ['layout floating']

TODO / Missing features

• Manage window size/position with Aerospace without need of other solutions
• Fix the issue with minimum lines with Alacritty
• Detect if Drodown is already visible, than hide or close

If anyone has an alternative solution, please share in the comments.

Updates

• 2025-08-15

[paulodiovani]

2025-08-15 update

I updated the config to allow Aerospace to close an existing dropdown window, if any, on Ctrl+Esc. This way we can toggle the terminal on/off.

# ~/.config/aerospace/aerospace.toml

# Dropdown terminal
ctrl-esc = '''exec-and-forget \
  WINID=$(aerospace list-windows --all --json | jq '.[] | select(."window-title"=="Dropdown terminal") | ."window-id"')
  [ -n "$WINID" ] && aerospace close --window-id "$WINID" || \
  (
    pgrep -x alacritty > /dev/null && \
    alacritty msg create-window \
      --title='Dropdown terminal' \
      -o window.position.y=0 -o window.position.x=0 \
      -o window.dimensions.lines=35 -o window.dimensions.columns=240 || \
    open -na /Applications/Alacritty.app --args \
      --title='Dropdown terminal' \
      -o window.position.y=0 -o window.position.x=0 \
      -o window.dimensions.lines=35 -o window.dimensions.columns=240
  )
'''

For this to work onmacOSs, Alacritty must have window borders. On the contrary, Aerospace cannot close the terminal.

# ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml

[window]
decorations = "Buttonless"

Here is the full diff from my dotfiles, where I have different Alacritty configs for Linux or macOS.

diff --git a/home/user/.config/aerospace/aerospace.toml b/home/user/.config/aerospace/aerospace.toml
index 6cf5687..ed72388 100644
--- a/home/user/.config/aerospace/aerospace.toml
+++ b/home/user/.config/aerospace/aerospace.toml
@@ -110,15 +110,20 @@ cmd-enter = '''exec-and-forget pgrep -x alacritty > /dev/null && \
 '''
 
 # Dropdown terminal
-ctrl-esc = '''exec-and-forget pgrep -x alacritty > /dev/null && \
-  alacritty msg create-window \
-    --title='Dropdown terminal' \
-    -o window.position.y=0 -o window.position.x=0 \
-    -o window.dimensions.lines=35 -o window.dimensions.columns=240 || \
-  open -na /Applications/Alacritty.app --args \
-    --title='Dropdown terminal' \
-    -o window.position.y=0 -o window.position.x=0 \
-    -o window.dimensions.lines=35 -o window.dimensions.columns=240
+ctrl-esc = '''exec-and-forget \
+  WINID=$(aerospace list-windows --all --json | jq '.[] | select(."window-title"=="Dropdown terminal") | ."window-id"')
+  [ -n "$WINID" ] && aerospace close --window-id "$WINID" || \
+  (
+    pgrep -x alacritty > /dev/null && \
+    alacritty msg create-window \
+      --title='Dropdown terminal' \
+      -o window.position.y=0 -o window.position.x=0 \
+      -o window.dimensions.lines=35 -o window.dimensions.columns=240 || \
+    open -na /Applications/Alacritty.app --args \
+      --title='Dropdown terminal' \
+      -o window.position.y=0 -o window.position.x=0 \
+      -o window.dimensions.lines=35 -o window.dimensions.columns=240
+  )
 '''
 
 # See: https://nikitabobko.github.io/AeroSpace/commands#layout
diff --git a/home/user/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml b/home/user/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml
index 9dc2a51..5f94ba5 100644
--- a/home/user/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml
+++ b/home/user/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml
@@ -20,9 +20,5 @@ action = "ToggleViMode"
 key = "Q"
 mode = "Vi"
 
-[window]
-decorations = "none"
-opacity = 0.95
-
 [general]
 import = ["~/.config/os-config/alacritty/alacritty.toml"]
diff --git a/home/user/.config/darwin-config/alacritty/alacritty.toml b/home/user/.config/darwin-config/alacritty/alacritty.toml
index cfe76fb..5556c9d 100644
--- a/home/user/.config/darwin-config/alacritty/alacritty.toml
+++ b/home/user/.config/darwin-config/alacritty/alacritty.toml
@@ -28,3 +28,7 @@ bindings = [
 
 [selection]
 save_to_clipboard = true
+
+[window]
+decorations = "Buttonless"
+opacity = 0.95
diff --git a/home/user/.config/linux-config/alacritty/alacritty.toml b/home/user/.config/linux-config/alacritty/alacritty.toml
index b3d91c6..35c162c 100644
--- a/home/user/.config/linux-config/alacritty/alacritty.toml
+++ b/home/user/.config/linux-config/alacritty/alacritty.toml
@@ -17,3 +17,7 @@ mods = "Control|Shift"
 [hints.enabled.mouse]
 enabled = true
 mods = "Shift"
+
+[window]
+decorations = "none"
+opacity = 0.95