ALACRITTY(5) File Formats Manual ALACRITTY(5)

Alacritty - TOML configuration file format.

Alacritty's configuration file uses the TOML format. The format's specification can be found at https://toml.io/en/v1.0.0.

This section documents the root level of the configuration file.

import = ["<string>",]

Import additional configuration files.

Imports are loaded in order, skipping all missing files, with the importing file being loaded last. If a field is already present in a previous import, it will be replaced.

All imports must either be absolute paths starting with /, or paths relative to the user's home directory starting with ~/.

Example:

import = [
"~/.config/alacritty/base16-dark.toml",
"~/.config/alacritty/keybindings.toml",
]

shell = "<string>" | { program = "<string>", args = ["<string>",] }

You can set shell.program to the path of your favorite shell, e.g. /bin/zsh. Entries in shell.args are passed as arguments to the shell.

Default:

Linux/BSD/macOS: $SHELL or the user's login shell, if $SHELL is unset
Windows: "powershell"

Example:

[shell]
program = "/bin/zsh"
args = ["-l"]

working_directory = "<string>" | "None"

Directory the shell is started in. When this is unset, or "None", the working directory of the parent process will be used.

Default: "None"

live_config_reload = true | false

Live config reload (changes require restart)

Default: true

ipc_socket = true | false # (unix only)

Offer IPC using alacritty msg

Default: true

All key-value pairs in the [env] section will be added as environment variables for any process spawned by Alacritty, including its shell. Some entries may override variables set by alacritty itself.

Example:

[env]
WINIT_X11_SCALE_FACTOR = "1.0"

This section documents the [window] table of the configuration file.

dimensions = { columns = <integer>, lines = <integer> }

Window dimensions (changes require restart).

Number of lines/columns (not pixels) in the terminal. Both lines and columns must be non-zero for this to take effect. The number of columns must be at least 2, while using a value of 0 for columns and lines will fall back to the window manager's recommended size

Default: { columns = 0, lines = 0 }

position = "None" | { x = <integer>, y = <integer> }

Window startup position.

Specified in number of pixels.

If the position is "None", the window manager will handle placement.

Default: "None"

padding = { x = <integer>, y = <integer> }

Blank space added around the window in pixels. This padding is scaled by DPI and the specified value is always added at both opposing sides.

Default: { x = 0, y = 0 }

dynamic_padding = true | false

Spread additional padding evenly around the terminal content.

Default: false

decorations = "Full" | "None" | "Transparent" | "Buttonless"

Window decorations.

Full

Borders and title bar.
None
Neither borders nor title bar.
Transparent (macOS only)
Title bar, transparent background and title bar buttons.
Buttonless (macOS only)
Title bar, transparent background and no title bar buttons.

Default: "Full"

opacity = <float>

Background opacity as a floating point number from 0.0 to 1.0. The value 0.0 is completely transparent and 1.0 is opaque.

Default: 1.0

blur = true | false # (works on macOS/KDE Wayland)

Request compositor to blur content behind transparent windows.

Default: false

startup_mode = "Windowed" | "Maximized" | "Fullscreen" | "SimpleFullscreen"

Startup mode (changes require restart)

Windowed

Regular window.
Maximized
The window will be maximized on startup.
Fullscreen
The window will be fullscreened on startup.
SimpleFullscreen (macOS only)
Same as Fullscreen, but you can stack windows on top.

Default: "Windowed"

title = "<string>"

Window title.

Default: "Alacritty"

dynamic_title = true | false

Allow terminal applications to change Alacritty's window title.

Default: true

class = { instance = "<string>", general = "<string>" } # (Linux/BSD only)

Window class.

On Wayland, general is used as app_id and instance is ignored.

Default: { instance = "Alacritty", general = "Alacritty" }

decorations_theme_variant = "Dark" | "Light" | "None"

Override the variant of the System theme/GTK theme/Wayland client side decorations. Set this to "None" to use the system's default theme variant.

Default: "None"

resize_increments = true | false

Prefer resizing window by discrete steps equal to cell dimensions.

Default: false

option_as_alt = "OnlyLeft" | "OnlyRight" | "Both" | "None" # (macos only)

Make Option key behave as Alt.

Default: "None"

Example:

[window]
padding = { x = 3, y = 3 }
dynamic_padding = true
opacity = 0.9

This section documents the [scrolling] table of the configuration file.

history = <integer>

Maximum number of lines in the scrollback buffer.
Specifying 0 will disable scrolling.
Limited to 100000.

Default: 10000

multiplier = <integer>

Number of line scrolled for every input scroll increment.

Default: 3

This section documents the [font] table of the configuration file.

normal = { family = "<string>", style = "<string>" }

Default:
Linux/BSD: { family = "monospace", style = "Regular" }
Windows: { family = "Consolas", style = "Regular" }
macOS: { family = "Menlo", style = "Regular" }

bold = { family = "<string>", style = "<string>" }

If the family is not specified, it will fall back to the value specified for the normal font.

Default: { style = "Bold" }

italic = { family = "<string>", style = "<string>" }

If the family is not specified, it will fall back to the value specified for the normal font.

Default: { style = "Italic" }

bold_italic = { family = "<string>", style = "<string>" }

If the family is not specified, it will fall back to the value specified for the normal font.

Default: { style = "Bold Italic" }

size = <float>

Font size in points.

Default: 11.25

offset = { x = <integer>, y = <integer> }

Offset is the extra space around each character. y can be thought of as modifying the line spacing, and x as modifying the letter spacing.

Default: { x = 0, y = 0 }

glyph_offset = { x = <integer>, y = <integer> }

Glyph offset determines the locations of the glyphs within their cells with the default being at the bottom. Increasing x moves the glyph to the right, increasing y moves the glyph upward.

builtin_box_drawing = true | false

When true, Alacritty will use a custom built-in font for box drawing characters (Unicode points U+2500 - U+259F), legacy computing symbols (U+1FB00 - U+1FB3B), and powerline symbols (U+E0B0 - U+E0B3).

Default: true

This section documents the [colors] table of the configuration file.

Colors are specified using their hexadecimal values with a # prefix: #RRGGBB.

primary

This section documents the [colors.primary] table of the configuration file.

foreground = "<string>"

Default: "#d8d8d8"

background = "<string>"

Default: "#181818"

dim_foreground = "<string>"

If this is not set, the color is automatically calculated based on the foreground color.

Default: "#828482"

bright_foreground = "<string>"

This color is only used when draw_bold_text_with_bright_colors is true.

If this is not set, the normal foreground will be used.

Default: "None"

cursor = { text = "<string>", cursor = "<string>" }

Colors which should be used to draw the terminal cursor.

Allowed values are hexadecimal colors like #ff00ff, or CellForeground/CellBackground, which references the affected cell.

Default: { text = "CellBackground", cursor = "CellForeground" }

vi_mode_cursor = { text = "<string>", cursor = "<string>" }

Colors for the cursor when the vi mode is active.

Allowed values are hexadecimal colors like #ff00ff, or CellForeground/CellBackground, which references the affected cell.

Default: { text = "CellBackground", cursor = "CellForeground" }

search

This section documents the [colors.search] table of the configuration.

Allowed values are hexadecimal colors like #ff00ff, or CellForeground/CellBackground, which references the affected cell.

matches = { foreground = "<string>", background = "<string>" }

Default: { foreground = "#181818", background = "#ac4242" }

focused_match = { foreground = "<string>", background = "<string>" }

Default: { foreground = "#181818", background = "#f4bf75" }

hints

This section documents the [colors.hints] table of the configuration.

start = { foreground = "<string>", background = "<string>" }

First character in the hint label.

Allowed values are hexadecimal colors like #ff00ff, or CellForeground/CellBackground, which references the affected cell.

Default: { foreground = "#181818", background = "#f4bf75" }

end = { foreground = "<string>", background = "<string>" }

All characters after the first one in the hint label.

Allowed values are hexadecimal colors like #ff00ff, or CellForeground/CellBackground, which references the affected cell.

Default: { foreground = "#181818", background = "#ac4242" }

line_indicator = { foreground = "<string>", background = "<string>" }

Color used for the indicator displaying the position in history during search and vi mode.

Setting this to "None" will use the opposing primary color.

Default: { foreground = "None", background = "None" }

footer_bar = { foreground = "<string>", background = "<string>" }

Color used for the footer bar on the bottom, used by search regex input, hyperlink URI preview, etc.

Default: { foreground = "#181818", background = "#d8d8d8" }

selection = { text = "<string>", background = "<string>" }

Colors used for drawing selections.

Allowed values are hexadecimal colors like #ff00ff, or CellForeground/CellBackground, which references the affected cell.

Default: { text = "CellBackground", background = "CellForeground" }

normal

This section documents the [colors.normal] table of the configuration.

black = "<string>"

Default: "#181818"
red = "<string>"
Default: "#ac4242"
green = "<string>"
Default: "#90a959"
yellow = "<string>"
Default: "#f4bf75"
blue = "<string>"
Default: "#6a9fb5"
magenta = "<string>"
Default: "#aa759f"
cyan = "<string>"
Default: "#75b5aa"
white = "<string>"
Default: "#d8d8d8"

bright

This section documents the [colors.bright] table of the configuration.

black = "<string>"

Default: "#6b6b6b"
red = "<string>"
Default: "#c55555"
green = "<string>"
Default: "#aac474"
yellow = "<string>"
Default: "#feca88"
blue = "<string>"
Default: "#82b8c8"
magenta = "<string>"
Default: "#c28cb8"
cyan = "<string>"
Default: "#93d3c3"
white = "<string>"
Default: "#f8f8f8"

dim

This section documents the [colors.dim] table of the configuration.

If the dim colors are not set, they will be calculated automatically based on the normal colors.

black = "<string>"

Default: "#0f0f0f"
red = "<string>"
Default: "#712b2b"
green = "<string>"
Default: "#5f6f3a"
yellow = "<string>"
Default: "#a17e4d"
blue = "<string>"
Default: "#456877"
magenta = "<string>"
Default: "#704d68"
cyan = "<string>"
Default: "#4d7770"
white = "<string>"
Default: "#8e8e8e"

indexed_colors = [{ index = <integer>, color = "<string>" },]

The indexed colors include all colors from 16 to 256. When these are not set, they're filled with sensible defaults.

Default: []

transparent_background_colors = true | false

Whether or not window.opacity applies to all cell backgrounds, or only to the default background. When set to true all cells will be transparent regardless of their background color.

Default: false

draw_bold_text_with_bright_colors = true | false

When true, bold text is drawn using the bright color variants.

Default: false

This section documents the [bell] table of the configuration file.

animation = "Ease" | "EaseOut" | "EaseOutSine" | "EaseOutQuad" | "EaseOutCubic" | "EaseOutQuart" | "EaseOutQuint" | "EaseOutExpo" | "EaseOutCirc" | "Linear"

Visual bell animation effect for flashing the screen when the visual bell is rung.

Default: "Linear"

duration = <integer>

Duration of the visual bell flash in milliseconds. A `duration` of `0` will disable the visual bell animation.

Default: 0

color = "<string>"

Visual bell animation color.

Default: "#ffffff"

command = "<string>" | { program = "<string>", args = ["<string>",] }

This program is executed whenever the bell is rung.

When set to "None", no command will be executed.

Default: "None"

This section documents the [selection] table of the configuration file.

semantic_escape_chars = "<string>"

This string contains all characters that are used as separators for "semantic words" in Alacritty.

Default: ",│`|:\"' ()[]{}<>\t"

save_to_clipboard = true | false

When set to true, selected text will be copied to the primary clipboard.

Default: false

This section documents the [cursor] table of the configuration file.

style = { <shape>, <blinking> }

shape = "Block" | "Underline" | "Beam"
Default: "Block"

blinking = "Never" | "Off" | "On" | "Always"

Never
Prevent the cursor from ever blinking
Off
Disable blinking by default
On
Enable blinking by default
Always
Force the cursor to always blink

Default: "Off"

vi_mode_style = { <shape>, <blinking> } | "None"

If the vi mode cursor style is "None" or not specified, it will fall back to the active value of the normal cursor.

Default: "None"

blink_interval = <integer>

Cursor blinking interval in milliseconds.

Default: 750

blink_timeout = <integer>

Time after which cursor stops blinking, in seconds.

Specifying 0 will disable timeout for blinking.

Default: 5

unfocused_hollow = true | false

When this is true, the cursor will be rendered as a hollow box when the window is not focused.

Default: true

thickness = <float>

Thickness of the cursor relative to the cell width as floating point number from 0.0 to 1.0.

Default: 0.15

This section documents the [terminal] table of the configuration file.

osc52 = "Disabled" | "OnlyCopy" | "OnlyPaste" | "CopyPaste"

Controls the ability to write to the system clipboard with the OSC 52 escape sequence. While this escape sequence is useful to copy contents from the remote server, allowing any application to read from the clipboard can be easily abused while not providing significant benefits over explicitly pasting text.

Default: "OnlyCopy"

This section documents the [mouse] table of the configuration file.

hide_when_typing = true | false

When this is true, the cursor is temporarily hidden when typing.

Default: false

bindings = [{ <mouse>, <mods>, <mode>, <command> | <chars> | <action> },]

See keyboard.bindings for full documentation on mods, mode, command, chars, and action.

When an application running within Alacritty captures the mouse, the `Shift` modifier can be used to suppress mouse reporting. If no action is found for the event, actions for the event without the `Shift` modifier are triggered instead.

mouse = "Middle" | "Left" | "Right" | "Back" | "Forward" | <integer>

Mouse button which needs to be pressed to trigger this binding.

action = <keyboard.bindings.action> | "ExpandSelection"

ExpandSelection
Expand the selection to the current mouse cursor location.

Example:

[mouse]
bindings = [
{ mouse = "Right", mods = "Control", action = "Paste" },
]

This section documents the [hints] table of the configuration file.

Terminal hints can be used to find text or hyperlinks in the visible part of the terminal and pipe it to other applications.

alphabet = "<string>"

Keys used for the hint labels.

Default: "jfkdls;ahgurieowpq"

enabled = [{ <regex>, <hyperlinks>, <post_processing>, <persist>, <action>, <command> <binding>, <mouse> },]

Array with all available hints.

Each hint must have at least one of regex or hyperlinks and either an action or a command.

regex = "<string>"
Regex each line will be compared against.

hyperlinks = true | false

When this is true, all OSC 8 escape sequence hyperlinks will be included in the hints.

post_processing = true | false

When this is true, heuristics will be used to shorten the match if there are characters likely not to be part of the hint (e.g. a trailing .). This is most useful for URIs and applies only to regex matches.

persist = true | false

When this is true, hints remain persistent after selection.

action = "Copy" | "Paste" | "Select" | "MoveViModeCursor"

Copy
Copy the hint's text to the clipboard.
Paste
Paste the hint's text to the terminal or search.
Select
Select the hint's text.
MoveViModeCursor
Move the vi mode cursor to the beginning of the hint.

command = "<string>" | { program = "<string>", args = ["<string>",] }

Command which will be executed when the hint is clicked or selected with the binding.

The hint's text is always attached as the last argument.

binding = { key = "<string>", mods = "<string>", mode = "<string>" }

See keyboard.bindings for documentation on available values.

This controls which key binding is used to start the keyboard hint selection process.

mouse = { mods = "<string>", enabled = true | false }

See keyboard.bindings for documentation on available mods.

The enabled field controls if the hint should be underlined when hovering over the hint text with all mods pressed.

Default:

[[hints.enabled]]
command = "xdg-open" # On Linux/BSD
# command = "open" # On macOS
# command = { program = "cmd", args = [ "/c", "start", "" ] } # On Windows
hyperlinks = true
post_processing = true
persist = false
mouse.enabled = true
binding = { key = "U", mods = "Control|Shift" }
regex = "(ipfs:|ipns:|magnet:|mailto:|gemini://|gopher://|https://|http://|news:|file:|git://|ssh:|ftp://)[^\u0000-\u001F\u007F-\u009F<>\"\\s{-}\\^⟨⟩`]+"

This section documents the [keyboard] table of the configuration file.

bindings = [{ <key>, <mods>, <mode>, <command> | <chars> | <action> },]

To unset a default binding, you can use the action "ReceiveChar" to remove it or "None" to inhibit any action.

Multiple keybindings can be triggered by a single key press and will be executed in the order they are defined in.

key = "<string>"

The regular keys like "A", "0", and "Я" can be mapped directly without any special syntax. Full list of named keys like "F1" and the syntax for dead keys can be found here:

https://docs.rs/winit/latest/winit/keyboard/enum.NamedKey.html
https://docs.rs/winit/latest/winit/keyboard/enum.Key.html#variant.Dead

Numpad keys are prefixed by Numpad: "NumpadEnter" | "NumpadAdd" | "NumpadComma" | "NumpadDecimal" | "NumpadDivide" | "NumpadEquals" | "NumpadSubtract" | "NumpadMultiply" | "Numpad[0-9]".

The key field also supports using scancodes, which are specified as a decimal number.

mods = "Command" | "Control" | "Option" | "Super" | "Shift" | "Alt"

Multiple modifiers can be combined using |, like this: "Control | Shift".

mode = "AppCursor" | "AppKeypad" | "Search" | "Alt" | "Vi"

This defines a terminal mode which must be active for this binding to have an effect.

Prepending ~ to a mode will require the mode to not = be active for the binding to take effect.

Multiple modes can be combined using |, like this: "~Vi|Search".

command = "<string>" | { program = "<string>", args = ["<string>",] }

Fork and execute the specified command.

chars = "<string>"

Writes the specified string to the terminal.

action

ReceiveChar
Allow receiving char input.
None
No action.
Paste
Paste contents of system clipboard.
Copy
Store current selection into clipboard.
IncreaseFontSize
Increase font size.
DecreaseFontSize
Decrease font size.
ResetFontSize
Reset font size to the config value.
ScrollPageUp
Scroll exactly one page up.
ScrollPageDown
Scroll exactly one page down.
ScrollHalfPageUp
Scroll half a page up.
ScrollHalfPageDown
Scroll half a page down.
ScrollLineUp
Scroll one line up.
ScrollLineDown
Scroll one line down.
ScrollToTop
Scroll all the way to the top.
ScrollToBottom
Scroll all the way to the bottom.
ClearHistory
Clear the display buffer(s) to remove history.
Hide
Hide the Alacritty window.
Minimize
Minimize the Alacritty window.
Quit
Quit Alacritty.
ClearLogNotice
Clear warning and error notices.
SpawnNewInstance
Spawn a new instance of Alacritty.
CreateNewWindow
Create a new Alacritty window.
ToggleFullscreen
Toggle fullscreen.
ToggleMaximized
Toggle maximized.
ClearSelection
Clear active selection.
ToggleViMode
Toggle vi mode.
SearchForward
Start a forward buffer search.
SearchBackward
Start a backward buffer search.

Vi mode actions:

Up

Move up.
Down
Move down.
Left
Move left.
Right
Move right.
First
First column, or beginning of the line when already at the first column.
Last
Last column, or beginning of the line when already at the last column.
FirstOccupied
First non-empty cell in this terminal row, or first non-empty cell of the line when already at the first cell of the row.
High
Move to top of screen.
Middle
Move to center of screen.
Low
Move to bottom of screen.
SemanticLeft
Move to start of semantically separated word.
SemanticRight
Move to start of next semantically separated word.
SemanticLeftEnd
Move to end of previous semantically separated word.
SemanticRightEnd
Move to end of semantically separated word.
WordLeft
Move to start of whitespace separated word.
WordRight
Move to start of next whitespace separated word.
WordLeftEnd
Move to end of previous whitespace separated word.
WordRightEnd
Move to end of whitespace separated word.
Bracket
Move to opposing bracket.
ToggleNormalSelection
Toggle normal vi selection.
ToggleLineSelection
Toggle line vi selection.
ToggleBlockSelection
Toggle block vi selection.
ToggleSemanticSelection
Toggle semantic vi selection.
SearchNext
Jump to the beginning of the next match.
SearchPrevious
Jump to the beginning of the previous match.
SearchStart
Jump to the next start of a match to the left of the origin.
SearchEnd
Jump to the next end of a match to the right of the origin.
Open
Launch the URL below the vi mode cursor.
CenterAroundViCursor
Centers the screen around the vi mode cursor.
InlineSearchForward
Search forward within the current line.
InlineSearchBackward
Search backward within the current line.
InlineSearchForwardShort
Search forward within the current line, stopping just short of the character.
InlineSearchBackwardShort
Search backward within the current line, stopping just short of the character.
InlineSearchNext
Jump to the next inline search match.
InlineSearchPrevious
Jump to the previous inline search match.

Search actions:

SearchFocusNext

Move the focus to the next search match.
SearchFocusPrevious
Move the focus to the previous search match.
SearchConfirm
Confirm the active search.
SearchCancel
Cancel the active search.
SearchClear
Reset the search regex.
SearchDeleteWord
Delete the last word in the search regex.
SearchHistoryPrevious
Go to the previous regex in the search history.
SearchHistoryNext
Go to the next regex in the search history.

macOS exclusive:

ToggleSimpleFullscreen

Enter fullscreen without occupying another space.
HideOtherApplications
Hide all windows other than Alacritty.
CreateNewTab
Create new window in a tab.
SelectNextTab
Select next tab.
SelectPreviousTab
Select previous tab.
SelectTab1
Select the first tab.
SelectTab2
Select the second tab.
SelectTab3
Select the third tab.
SelectTab4
Select the fourth tab.
SelectTab5
Select the fifth tab.
SelectTab6
Select the sixth tab.
SelectTab7
Select the seventh tab.
SelectTab8
Select the eighth tab.
SelectTab9
Select the ninth tab.
SelectLastTab
Select the last tab.

Linux/BSD exclusive:

CopySelection

Copy from the selection buffer.
PasteSelection
Paste from the selection buffer.

Default: See alacritty-bindings(5)

Example:

[keyboard]
bindings = [
{ key = "N", mods = "Control|Shift", action = "CreateNewWindow" },
{ key = "L", mods = "Control|Shift", chars = "l" },
]

This section documents the [debug] table of the configuration file.

Debug options are meant to help troubleshoot issues with Alacritty. These can change or be removed entirely without warning, so their stability shouldn't be relied upon.

render_timer = true | false

Display the time it takes to draw each frame.

Default: false

persistent_logging = true | false

Keep the log file after quitting Alacritty.

Default: false

log_level = "Off" | "Error" | "Warn" | "Info" | "Debug" | "Trace"

Default: "Warn"

To add extra libraries to logging ALACRITTY_EXTRA_LOG_TARGETS variable can be used.

Example:

ALACRITTY_EXTRA_LOG_TARGETS="winit;vte" alacritty -vvv

renderer = "glsl3" | "gles2" | "gles2pure" | "None"

Force use of a specific renderer, "None" will use the highest available one.

Default: "None"

print_events = true | false

Log all received window events.

Default: false

highlight_damage = true | false

Highlight window damage information.

Default: false

prefer_egl = true | false

Use EGL as display API if the current platform allows it. Note that transparency may not work with EGL on Linux/BSD.

Default: false

alacritty(1), alacritty-msg(1), alacritty-bindings(5)

Found a bug? Please report it at https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues.

  • Christian Duerr <contact@christianduerr.com>
  • Kirill Chibisov <contact@kchibisov.com>
2024-03-31