deepin-terminal-ghostty

deepin-terminal-ghostty is the next-generation Deepin terminal emulator, rewritten on top of libghostty-vt.

It keeps the Deepin desktop integration and DTK-native experience of deepin-terminal, while replacing the terminal core with Ghostty's VT engine to build a faster, cleaner, and more modern foundation for future terminal features.

Overview

This project is a Linux terminal emulator built with:

• C++20
• Qt6 Widgets
• DTK6
• libghostty-vt

The repository currently produces:

• qtghostty: a reusable Qt wrapper around libghostty-vt
• deepin-terminal-ghostty: the desktop terminal application built on top of that library

Why This Project

deepin-terminal-ghostty is intended to become the successor to deepin-terminal.

The rewrite focuses on three goals:

• modernize the terminal core with Ghostty's VT implementation
• preserve a native Deepin desktop experience instead of a generic cross-platform shell UI
• create a cleaner architecture that can support tabs, splits, settings, remote workflows, and future rendering improvements

Current Highlights

The current development branch already includes:

• PTY-based local shell sessions
• Ghostty VT parsing and terminal state management
• Qt/DTK desktop application integration
• tabbed terminal workflow with horizontal and vertical tab modes
• split panes inside a tab
• session save and restore — preserves tabs, split layouts, working directories, and terminal content (including colors) across restarts; configurable via settings
• settings dialog backed by DTK settings (font, cursor, scrollback, opacity, theme, shortcuts, and session behavior)
• built-in light/dark/system themes with custom theme support
• built-in remote management entry and saved server configuration support
• terminal scrollbar and scrollback navigation
• inline terminal content search
• Kitty image protocol support for inline image placements
• X11 PRIMARY selection support (copy-on-select, middle-click paste)
• bracketed paste mode
• application translations (zh_CN, es)
• automated tests for PTY, terminal widget, app settings, session snapshot/manager, and main window behavior

Project Status

This project is under active development.

The core application is already usable and the main window workflow is in place, but the product is still evolving toward a full next-generation replacement for deepin-terminal.

Architecture

The codebase is split into two layers.

qtghostty

The library layer in src/libqtghostty/ provides terminal-facing capabilities:

• PTY session lifecycle
• terminal widget integration with libghostty-vt
• input encoding and output processing
• rendering and terminal state updates

This layer is designed to stay reusable and free of app-specific UI concepts such as tabs, panes, or settings dialogs.

deepin-terminal-ghostty

The application layer in src/app/ provides the product experience:

• DTK main window and titlebar integration
• tab management (horizontal and vertical modes)
• split-pane orchestration
• session save and restore
• theme management and application
• settings UI
• remote management panel
• inline search
• application-level actions and shortcuts

Repository Layout

.
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── lib/
│   ├── include/
│   └── libghostty-vt.so
├── src/
│   ├── libqtghostty/
│   ├── app/
│   └── logging/
├── tests/
├── translations/
├── debian/
└── docs/

Build Requirements

Platform:

• Linux only

Build dependencies on Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install cmake qt6-base-dev build-essential binutils \
  libdtk6widget-dev libdtk6core-dev libdtk6gui-dev

Ghostty headers are expected under lib/include/ in this repository, or can be provided through GHOSTTY_INCLUDE_DIR.

Build

cmake -B build
cmake --build build

Run the application:

./build/deepin-terminal-ghostty

Tests

Enable tests, build, and run:

cmake -B build -DBUILD_TESTING=ON
cmake --build build
cd build && ctest --output-on-failure

Individual test binaries:

./build/tests/test_appsettings
./build/tests/test_pty_session
./build/tests/test_terminal_widget
./build/tests/test_main_window
./build/tests/test_session_snapshot
./build/tests/test_session_manager
./build/tests/test_server_config_manager

Packaging

Build Debian packages with:

dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b

The resulting .deb files will be generated in the parent directory.

Roadmap

The long-term direction includes:

• continuing feature parity work with deepin-terminal
• expanding mouse, selection, clipboard, and search workflows
• maturing remote and session management features
• exploring a future GPU-backed rendering path

License

LGPL-2.1-or-later