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Skyterm terminal emulator

"Everything should be obvious and easy to use."

- some lazy developer (me)

Skyterm

Skyterm is basic terminal emulator inspired by great terminal emulators like Terminator and Tilix

I built it because I wanted a simple terminal emulator with all my requirements included:

  1. Baked in themes - I dont want to download themes from different places and spend time configuring them. I want a terminal to have 10-20 solid light and dark themes that I can start using off the bat.

  2. Obvious menu and shortcuts - one annoying feature of many new GPU terminals is lack of right click menu. I dont want to read the docs and remember various keyboard shortcuts. The menu should be simple, obvious and easy to use - and also provide keyboard shortcuts for same actions

  3. Lean and mean - the terminal should be as minimal on resource usage as possible, and still have extremely fast performance and rendering using GPU rendering if available

  4. The focus of the terminal should be out of box, batteries included functionality for 99% of required terminal workload, ie, ssh, panes, tabs, splitting, fonts, themes, for anything more advanced, there will be an option to customize. But once you install Skyterm - it should come with usable sane defaults and options for vast majority of users

Skyterm's aim is to be light weight, low-resource and fast.

It uses GPU rendering with OpenGL for fast performance.

Skyterm is written with Claude code and all code is human reviewed and tested.

Skyterm is written in Rust for performance, memory safety and availability of large number of terminal application libs.

Features

Skyterm has the following features:

  • Tabs (renameable, draggable, with preset pane layouts)
  • Panes (ability to split a tab into multiple panes, drag them into new positions or into another tab)
  • Focus mode - enlarge the pane you are working in without losing the others
  • Infinite scrollback
  • built in Themes (future release will add Terminator-compatible theme files)
  • shortcut key bindings - Skyterm or Terminator style, or record your own, with a searchable reference built in

Skyterm aims to be basic, fast and no-nonsense terminal emulator tailored for system administrators, developers and anyone who wants a responsive and lightweight terminal that doesnt get in your way.

Keyboard Actions

all Skyterm actions are available through a menu (right click to open menu) or through a keyboard shortcut.

Every shortcut is listed in Menu > Settings > Keybindings, with a search box - type part of an action or a combo ("split", "tab", "ctrl") to filter the list. The same list is a keypress away at any time with Ctrl+A → Backspace (Menu > Shortcuts…).

The menu shows its grey shortcut hints only when every item can show one. Under Skyterm style most shortcuts are two-key Ctrl+A chords, which GTK cannot draw as an accelerator, so the hints are hidden rather than shown for a random four items; under Terminator style they all appear.

Shortcut Style

The Shortcut Style drop-down at the top of Settings > Keybindings picks which set of shortcuts is active:

  • Skyterm (default) - the Ctrl+A prefix bindings documented below.
  • Terminator - Terminator-compatible bindings (Ctrl+Shift+O / Ctrl+Shift+E to split, Ctrl+Shift+W to close, Ctrl+PageUp / Ctrl+PageDown for tabs, Alt+arrows to move focus). The Ctrl+A prefix is disabled in this style, so Ctrl+A reaches the shell as readline's beginning-of-line.
  • Custom - starts as a copy of the set you were using; click any combo to record a replacement, or ✕ to unbind it. A combo needs Ctrl, Alt or the Ctrl+A prefix so it can't shadow ordinary typing.

The choice is saved to config.toml as shortcut_style, and custom combos as a [keybindings] table.

All Skyterm shortcuts (default style)

Ctrl+A → X means: press Ctrl+A, release, then press X. You have 2 seconds to hit the second key. On macOS the prefix is Command+A.

Shortcut Action
Ctrl+A → ↓ Split pane down (new pane below)
Ctrl+A → → Split pane right (new pane to the right)
Ctrl+A → ↑ Split pane up (new pane above)
Ctrl+A → ← Split pane left (new pane to the left)
Ctrl+A → F Focus pane - enlarge the active pane, press again to restore
Ctrl+A → X Close the focused pane
Ctrl+A → T Open a new tab
Ctrl+Shift+N Open a new window
Ctrl+A → ] Maximize the window (press again to restore)
Ctrl+A → [ Minimize the window
Ctrl+A → Tab Next tab
Ctrl+A → Shift+Tab Previous tab
Ctrl+A → O Cycle focus to the next pane
Ctrl+A → H Focus the pane to the left
Ctrl+A → J Focus the pane below
Ctrl+A → K Focus the pane above
Ctrl+A → L Focus the pane to the right
Ctrl+A → C Copy selection
Ctrl+A → V Paste from system clipboard
Ctrl+A → A Select all (focused pane)
Ctrl+A → Enter Open the context menu (same as right-click)
Ctrl+A → Backspace Show this shortcut reference
Ctrl+A → ' Previous theme (focused pane)
Ctrl+A → / Next theme (focused pane)
Ctrl + + / Ctrl + = Zoom in (focused pane)
Ctrl + - Zoom out (focused pane)
Ctrl + 0 Reset font size (focused pane)
Ctrl+A → Ctrl+A Send a literal Ctrl+A to the shell (readline beginning-of-line)

Note the last two rows: Ctrl+A → A (Ctrl released) selects all, while Ctrl+A → Ctrl+A (Ctrl held down) sends the literal Ctrl+A through to the shell. Holding Ctrl for the second key is fine everywhere else - it only changes the meaning of this one pair.

All Terminator shortcuts

Active when Shortcut Style is set to Terminator. The Ctrl+A prefix is switched off in this style, so Ctrl+A goes straight to the shell.

Shortcut Action
Ctrl+Shift+O Split pane down (new pane below)
Ctrl+Shift+E Split pane right (new pane to the right)
Ctrl+Shift+X Focus pane - enlarge the active pane, press again to restore
Ctrl+Shift+W Close the focused pane
Ctrl+Shift+T Open a new tab
Ctrl+Shift+I Open a new window
F11 Maximize the window (press again to restore)
Ctrl+PageDown Next tab
Ctrl+PageUp Previous tab
Ctrl+Tab Cycle focus to the next pane
Alt + ← / ↓ / ↑ / → Focus the pane in that direction
Ctrl+Shift+C Copy selection
Ctrl+Shift+V Paste from system clipboard
Ctrl+Shift+A Select all (focused pane)
Ctrl+Shift+[ Previous theme (focused pane)
Ctrl+Shift+] Next theme (focused pane)
Ctrl + + / Ctrl + = Zoom in (focused pane)
Ctrl + - Zoom out (focused pane)
Ctrl + 0 Reset font size (focused pane)

Terminator has no equivalent for splitting up / left, minimizing the window, opening the menu from the keyboard, or the shortcut reference, so those actions are unbound in this style - switch to Custom if you want them back. The menu is always a right-click away, and the reference is on the menu as Shortcuts…

MacOS shortcuts

On macOS Ctrl belongs to the shell (Ctrl+A is beginning-of-line, Ctrl+C is SIGINT), so Skyterm puts its actions on Command. These work in every shortcut style:

Shortcut Action
Command+A → key Chord prefix - every Ctrl+A chord above becomes Command+A
Command+D Split pane right
Command+Shift+D Split pane down
Command+T Open a new tab
Command+O Cycle focus to the next pane
Command+Option + arrows Focus the pane in that direction
Command+C Copy selection
Command+V Paste from system clipboard
Command + + / = Zoom in
Command + - Zoom out
Command + 0 Reset font size

Mouse

Gesture Action
Left-drag Select text
Double-click / triple-click Select word / line
Middle-click Paste primary selection
Right-click Open the context menu
Ctrl + scroll Zoom the focused pane
Toolbar ⋯ drag Rearrange pane (drop on an edge of another pane, or on a tab)

While an application has mouse reporting on (htop, vim, less), clicks and drags go to that application - hold Shift to select text locally instead.

Zoom

to zoom in on pane content

Linux

    Ctrl + "+" (zoom in)
    Ctrl + "-" (zoom out)
    Ctrl + "0" (reset to the configured font size)

MacOS

    Command + "+" (zoom in)
    Command + "-"  (zoom out)
    Command + "0"  (reset to the configured font size)

or with mouse

Linux

    Ctrl + mouse scroll up (zoom in)
    Ctrl + mouse scroll down (zoom out)

MacOS

    Command + mouse scroll up (zoom out)
    Command + mouse scroll down (zoom in)

Zoom is per-pane - only the focused pane changes.

Tabs

open new Tab

Linux

    Ctrl+A → T

MacOS

    Command + A → T

switch tabs

Linux

    Ctrl+A → Tab          (next tab)
    Ctrl+A → Shift+Tab    (previous tab)

MacOS

    Command + A → Tab          (next tab)
    Command + A → Shift+Tab    (previous tab)

rename a Tab

by default, each tab will be named Tab + incremented number, to change the name of each tab, double click on Tab header and type in a new name, hit Enter

Panes and Windows

Panes are virtual sub-terminals inside the parent terminal window

Split panes

Linux

    Ctrl+A → Right key  (split pane right)
    Ctrl+A → Left key  (split pane left)
    Ctrl+A → Up key  (split pane up)
    Ctrl+A → Down key  (split pane down)

MacOS

    Command+A → Right key  (split pane right)
    Command+A → Left key  (split pane left)
    Command+A → Up key  (split pane up)
    Command+A → Down key  (split pane down)

    Command+D            (split pane right)
    Command+Shift+D      (split pane down)

Pane cycling

Linux

    Ctrl+A → o	Cycle to the next pane in the tab
    Ctrl+A → h	Focus pane to the left
    Ctrl+A → j	Focus pane below
    Ctrl+A → k	Focus pane above
    Ctrl+A → l	Focus pane to the right

MacOS

    Command+A → o	Cycle to the next pane in the tab
    Command+A → h	Focus pane to the left
    Command+A → j	Focus pane below
    Command+A → k	Focus pane above
    Command+A → l	Focus pane to the right

    Command+O            Cycle to the next pane in the tab
    Command+Option+←↓↑→  Focus pane in that direction

Focus pane

when a tab has 2 or more panes, focus mode enlarges the active pane to 90% of the tab and squeezes the others down to a sliver at the edge, so you get room to work without losing track of what else is open. Hitting the shortcut again puts every divider back exactly where it was. There is no animation - the new layout is applied on the next frame.

Linux

    Ctrl+A → F

MacOS

    Command+A → F

also available from the right click Menu > Focus Pane.

Only the enlarged pane is resized, so only its shell sees the new width - the squeezed panes keep their contents at the size they had, and you see the top-left corner of each until you toggle back. Focus mode ends by itself if you move focus to another pane, close a pane, split, or drag a pane somewhere else.

Close pane

Linux

    Ctrl+A → X

MacOS
    
    Command+A → X

Panes can be dragged into new positions or moved to another tab via the Pane toolbar visible on top right corner of each pane.

To move a pane to another tab, drag the pane via Toolbar drag icon and hover over the tab you want to place it, then drop it into a position inside this tab.

Pane toolbars can be disabled in Settings > Behavior or via config file variable 'show_pane_toolbar'

To open a new terminal window, right click Menu > New Window or via shortcut

Linux    Shift + Ctrl + N
MacOS    Shift + Command + N

Maximize and minimize

Maximize grows the window to the full size of the monitor it is on, and hitting the same shortcut again puts it back to the size it was. Minimize sends it to the taskbar - bring it back the way your desktop normally does, since a minimized window has no keyboard to listen to.

Linux

    Ctrl+A → ]    (maximize / restore)
    Ctrl+A → [    (minimize)

MacOS

    Command+A → ]    (maximize / restore)
    Command+A → [    (minimize)

both are also on the right click Menu > Maximize Window / Minimize Window.

Copy and paste

Linux

    Ctrl+A → C    (copy)
    Ctrl+A → V    (paste)
    Ctrl+A → A    (select all)

MacOS

    Command+A → C    (copy)
    Command+A → V    (paste)
    Command+A → A    (select all)

    Command + C      (copy)
    Command + V      (paste)

Shift + Ctrl + C / V / A are the Terminator style bindings for these - switch Shortcut Style in Settings > Keybindings if you prefer them.

Middle-click pastes the primary selection (the text you last selected with the mouse, no copy needed).

Selecting text can also copy it automatically - turn on 'copy on select' in Settings > Behavior.

Menu and shortcut reference from the keyboard

The right click menu can be opened without the mouse - it appears in the middle of the focused pane:

Linux            Ctrl+A → Enter
MacOS            Command+A → Enter

And the shortcut reference - the same searchable list as Settings > Keybindings, on its own so you can leave it open next to your work:

Linux            Ctrl+A → Backspace
MacOS            Command+A → Backspace

also on the right click Menu > Shortcuts… . Escape closes it.

Color Themes

Themes can be applied globally to all tabs and panes by going to Menu > Settings > Theme and choosing a color theme

To apply to specific pane, right click on the pane, Menu > Themes > choose a theme - this will be applied locally to the pane

You can also scroll through available themes and see how they look on the pane:

Linux

    hold down Ctrl + A and hit ' or / to cycle up or down a theme

MacOS

    hold down Command + A and hit ' or / to cycle up or down a theme

Custom Themes

to add your own custom theme, place a theme-name.toml file into

~/.config/skyterm/themes

directory

custom themes are declared in a TOML format

[themes]
[themes.MyTheme1]
palette = "#353535:#d25252:#a5c261:#ffc66d:#6c99bb:#d197d9:#bed6ff:#eeeeec:#535353:#f00c0c:#c2e075:#e1e48b:#8ab7d9:#efb5f7:#dcf4ff:#ffffff"
background_color = "#323232"
cursor_color = "#d6d6d6"
foreground_color = "#ffffff"
font_size = 12
font_path = "/usr/share/fonts/myfont/myfont.ttf"

[themes.SomeOtherTheme]
cursor_color = "#BAFFAA"
foreground_color = "#FFFFFF"
palette = "#444444:#FF0054:#B1D630:#9D895E:#67BEE3:#B576BC:#569A9F:#EDEDED:#777777:#D65E75:#BAFFAA:#ECE1C8:#9FD3E5:#DEB3DF:#B6E0E5:#FFFFFF"

Custom themes will show up in Menu > Themes > Custom

Custom configuration

additional configration can be applied to your skyterm config file

located in ~/.config/skyterm/config.toml

font_path = ":embedded:JetBrainsMono-Regular:"
font_size = 16
theme_name = "Skyterm Blue"
scrollback_lines = 10000
cursor_blink = true
click_word_select = true
copy_on_select = false
shortcut_style = "skyterm"

a custom font path can be added to font_path variable

theme_name is the default theme applied to all panes and tabs

click_word_select toggles double-click-to-select-word and triple-click-to-select-line (set to false to disable). Also available under Settings > Behavior.

copy_on_select automatically copies any selection (word, line, or drag) to the clipboard as soon as you make it (set to true to enable). Also available under Settings > Behavior.

shortcut_style picks the active keyboard shortcut set - skyterm, terminator or custom. Also available under Settings > Keybindings. With custom, each action's combo lives in a [keybindings] table written by Settings:

shortcut_style = "custom"

[keybindings]
split-horizontal = "prefix+down"
split-vertical = "prefix+right"
close = "prefix+x"
new-tab = "ctrl+shift+t"
copy = "ctrl+shift+c"

prefix means "after the Ctrl+A prefix", so prefix+down is Ctrl+A → Down. An empty value leaves the action unbound, and any action you leave out of the table falls back to its Skyterm default. Combos are easier to record in Settings > Keybindings than to hand-write.

for specific theme on a specific pane, right click > Menu > Themes and choose a theme to apply to this specific pane

Layouts

Skyterm supports preconfigured pane layouts

Available layouts

single

+----------------+ 
|                | 
|                |
|                |
|                |
+----------------+

2 panes vertical

+------+ +------+
|      | |      |
|      | |      |
|      | |      |
|      | |      |
+------+ +------+

2 panes horizontal

+----------------+
|                |
|                |
+----------------+
+----------------+
|                |
|                |
+----------------+

3 panes

+---------+ +---------+
|         |  |        |
|         |  |        |
+---------+ +---------+
+---------------------+
|                     |
|                     |
+---------------------+

4 panes

+---------+ +---------+
|         |  |        |
|         |  |        |
+---------+ +---------+
+---------+ +---------+
|         |  |        |
|         |  |        |
+---------+ +---------+

Pane layout can also be configured in skyterm config TOML (default is single pane)

default_layout = single / 2v / 2h / 3 / 4

or from the Menu > Settings > Behavior > Default layout

Building

cargo build --release

binary is located in target/release/skyterm

for RPM builds

cargo install cargo-generate-rpm
cargo build --release -p skyterm-gui
cargo generate-rpm -p skyterm-gui

or run ./package-rpm.sh

Install:    sudo rpm -ivh target/generate-rpm/skyterm-0.1.1-1.x86_64.rpm
Upgrade:    sudo rpm -Uvh target/generate-rpm/skyterm-0.1.1-1.x86_64.rpm
Verify:     rpm -qip target/generate-rpm/skyterm-0.1.1-1.x86_64.rpm

for DEB builds

./package-deb.sh

for Arch Linux builds

on Arch, the PKGBUILD in the repo root builds from the working tree

makepkg -f

Install:    sudo pacman -U skyterm-0.1.8-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
Upgrade:    same command - pacman replaces the installed version
Verify:     pacman -Qip skyterm-0.1.8-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

the version comes from Cargo.toml, so there is nothing to bump in the PKGBUILD. On a non-Arch machine you can build the package in a container

podman run --rm -v "$PWD":/repo:ro,Z archlinux:base-devel bash -c '
  pacman -Syu --noconfirm --needed git rust gtk4 libepoxy freetype2 fontconfig pkgconf sudo
  useradd -m builder && cp -a /repo /build && chown -R builder:builder /build
  cd /build && sudo -u builder makepkg -f --noconfirm --nodeps'

for MacOS builds

./package-macos.sh

Releases

Releases are built by .github/workflows/release.yml on GitHub's free runners. Push a version tag and every artifact is built and attached to a GitHub Release:

git tag -a v0.1.8 -m 'release 0.1.8'
git push origin --tags
Job Runner Artifact
linux-x86_64 ubuntu-24.04 .deb + .rpm
linux-aarch64 ubuntu-24.04-arm .deb + .rpm
arch-x86_64 archlinux container on ubuntu-24.04 .pkg.tar.zst
macos-arm64 macos-14 .dmg

skyterm links GTK4 dynamically, so every target is built natively rather than cross-compiled - that is also why the Arch package is built inside the official archlinux:base-devel container instead of on the Ubuntu runner.

Run the workflow manually (Actions > release > Run workflow) to build and upload the artifacts without publishing a release - useful for testing the pipeline before cutting a tag.

To re-run a release for an existing tag

git tag -d v0.1.8
git tag v0.1.8
git push --force origin v0.1.8

Changelog

0.1.8

  • add Focus Pane option

    • Control + A + F (makes current pane take up 90% of screen size) - similar to Waveterm Focus feature
    • also on the right click Menu, and rebindable under Settings > Keybindings

  • update keybindings:

    • add shortcut search under Settings > Keybindings
    • split shortcuts by Style ie, Skyterm style, Terminator style, Custom style
    • Menu shortcuts helpers should be dynamic - based on selected shortcut style - the grey hints only show when every menu item can show one, so they are hidden under Skyterm style (Ctrl+A chords cant be drawn as an accelerator) and shown under Terminator style
    • add Maximize/Minimize terminal shortcut - Control + A + ] and Control + A + [ , also on the right click Menu
    • add Control + A + Backspace to open up direct Keyboard shortcut lookup window - also on the right click Menu > Shortcuts…
    • move Copy / Paste / Select All onto the prefix - Control + A + C / V / A
    • add Control + A + Enter to open the right click Menu from the keyboard

  • Builds:

    • add arch linux build (done) - PKGBUILD in the repo root, plus an arch-x86_64 job in the release workflow that builds it in the official archlinux container and publishes the .pkg.tar.zst with the release

0.1.7

  • cycle tabs using Control + Tab (done)
  • fix Macos small pane size jitter bug
  • linux - ncdu not working, not scrolling up or down (done)

0.1.6

  • tabs are wider in size and can be dragged left or right

  • maximum number of tabs by default is set to 20 for performance reasons. To change this number, update tab_max_number variable in config.toml

  • when trying to create new tab after max # of tab limit reached, a warning banner appears and explains why new tab isnt being opened

  • closing pane, tab or window now throws a confirmation prompt, can be disabled via confirm_ variables in config file

    confirm_tab_close = true confirm_pane_close = true confirm_window_close = true

  • panes are now draggable, each pane has a small tooltip on top right, with Drag and Close buttons. Panes can be dragged into new horizontal or vertical position, when you hover over a new position, the position is highlighted with green color

  • added "new window" command to spawn off a new terminal window

  • can drag a pane into a different tab

  • custom themes can now be added via toml theme files

Roadmap

  • add documentation on themes, add ability to integrate custom themes via terminator-style config files
  • add New Window command
  • change split menu option to single row with 4 sub buttons Up, Down, Left, Right - add keyboard shortcut helpers to all menu commands (gray shortcut helper text)
  • add button few pixels to right of rightmost tab "new tab", should be able to create new tab via button (along w menu and KB shortcut)
  • add ability to drag and drop panes in different locations, ie terminator behavior, move panes left, right etc
  • add ability to drag a pane into a different tab, highlight the drop placement area on the new tab

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