Ghostty Theme Switcher

A tiny native macOS app for one-click switching between Catppuccin themes in Ghostty.

简体中文 · English

Screenshots

Features

• Searchable previews for 512 bundled Ghostty-compatible themes, generated from the Ghostty theme format.
• Apply a single theme, or pair a light theme and a dark theme using Ghostty's native theme = light:...,dark:... syntax.
• One click rewrites your config.ghostty and reloads Ghostty automatically (via AppleScript).
• Bundled themes are installed on demand into Ghostty's application support directory before they are referenced.
• A safety backup (config.ghostty.bak) is written before every change.
• Bilingual UI (English / 简体中文): follows your macOS system language by default, switchable in-app from the 🌐 menu.
• Optional CLI mode for scripts and shortcuts.

Requirements

• macOS 13 (Ventura) or newer
• Apple Silicon Mac
• Ghostty installed in /Applications

Install

Option 1 — Download a release

1. Grab the latest Apple Silicon release from the Releases page.
2. Download either the .dmg or .zip artifact. You do not need Xcode, Swift, or any other developer tools.
3. Move Ghostty Theme Switcher.app into /Applications.
   • If you downloaded the .dmg, drag the app onto the Applications shortcut in the mounted window.
   • If you downloaded the .zip, unzip it first and then drag the app into /Applications.
4. First launch: because this app isn't signed by an Apple-paid Developer ID, macOS will block it the first time. Don't double-click it — instead:
   • Open /Applications in Finder
   • Right-click (or hold Control and click) on Ghostty Theme Switcher
   • Choose Open from the menu
   • In the dialog, click Open again
   • It now launches normally on every future double-click.

If macOS says the app "is damaged and can't be opened": that's the quarantine attribute attached to anything downloaded via a browser. Open Terminal and run:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Ghostty Theme Switcher.app"

Then try opening it again.

Architecture: current release builds are for Apple Silicon (arm64) Macs running macOS 13 or newer.

Option 2 — Build from source

git clone https://github.com/haixing23/GhosttyThemeSwitcher.git
cd GhosttyThemeSwitcher
zsh tools/build_app.sh
open dist/Ghostty\ Theme\ Switcher.app

The bundled app appears in dist/.

To produce the release-ready .app, .zip, and .dmg artifacts in one step:

zsh tools/build_release.sh

That script runs tests first, then emits versioned artifacts such as:

dist/GhosttyThemeSwitcher-v1.0.1-macos-arm64.zip
dist/GhosttyThemeSwitcher-v1.0.1-macos-arm64.dmg

Usage

1. Launch the app.
2. Use search to filter themes.
3. In Single mode, click any theme card to apply it.
4. In Follow System mode, choose one light theme and one dark theme, then click Apply Pair. Ghostty will follow macOS appearance using its native light/dark theme syntax.

Permissions

The first time the app reloads Ghostty, macOS will ask for Automation permission. If you accidentally deny it, re-enable it under:

System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation → Ghostty Theme Switcher → Ghostty

If you install from a downloaded release, give macOS permission after the first successful right-click launch. The app can still switch themes without this permission, but automatic Ghostty reloads will not work until you allow Automation.

CLI mode

The same binary doubles as a CLI, useful for shell scripts, Raycast, or Shortcuts:

"/Applications/Ghostty Theme Switcher.app/Contents/MacOS/Ghostty Theme Switcher" --apply mocha
"/Applications/Ghostty Theme Switcher.app/Contents/MacOS/Ghostty Theme Switcher" --apply-system catppuccin-latte catppuccin-mocha
"/Applications/Ghostty Theme Switcher.app/Contents/MacOS/Ghostty Theme Switcher" --list

--list prints tab-separated id, title, source, and appearance values.

How it works

The app reads ~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config.ghostty, replaces (or appends) the theme = … line, then asks the running Ghostty to reload via AppleScript. The previous config is always saved as config.ghostty.bak next to it. Bundled themes are copied into ~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/themes/ghostty-theme-switcher/ the first time they are applied.

Project layout

GhosttyThemeSwitcher/
├── Sources/
│   └── GhosttyThemeSwitcher/         # SwiftUI app + CLI entry point
│       └── Resources/
│           ├── bundled-themes.json   # Generated theme metadata
│           ├── themes.json           # Compatibility copy of generated metadata
│           └── BundledThemes/        # Generated Ghostty theme files
├── Tests/
│   └── GhosttyThemeSwitcherTests/
├── tools/
│   ├── build_app.sh                  # Builds the .app bundle into dist/
│   ├── generate_theme_catalog.py     # Regenerates bundled Ghostty themes
│   ├── build_icon.sh
│   ├── Info.plist
│   ├── AppIcon.icns
│   ├── AppIcon.png
│   └── AppIcon.iconset/
├── assets/
│   └── screenshot-main.png           # Screenshot used in the README
├── Package.swift
├── README.md
├── README.zh-CN.md
├── LICENSE
└── .gitignore

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome. To run the tests:

swift test

Manual release flow

1. Run zsh tools/build_release.sh.
2. Sanity-check the artifacts in dist/.
3. Open the built app locally from dist/ or after moving it into /Applications.
4. Upload the generated .zip and .dmg files to GitHub Releases.
5. In the release notes, call out:
   • Apple Silicon only
   • macOS 13+
   • first launch requires right-click Open
   • quarantine fix command if macOS says the app is damaged

Acknowledgments

• Ghostty by Mitchell Hashimoto — the terminal that makes this app worth writing.
• Catppuccin — the soothing pastel theme this app is built around.

Huge thanks to both communities. ❤️

License

Released under the MIT License.

Catppuccin is © the Catppuccin community and used here only by name; no Catppuccin assets are bundled.