{"slug": "iterm2", "name": "iTerm2", "category": "terminal", "category_name": "Terminal and shell", "description": "Feature-rich open-source terminal emulator for macOS with splits, profiles and tmux integration.", "recommenders": 12, "commenters": 28, "warners": 2, "score": 13.014, "rising": 4.04, "first": "2025-11-04", "latest": "2026-10-30", "why": "Liked as a reliable, polished macOS terminal for running several AI coding agents side by side and for its native tmux integration.The most common caveat is that it feels slower and more dated than Ghostty, and some dislike its many features, its AI additions, or its lack of a plain config file.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 12, "neutral": 12, "compare": 2, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 3, 2, 0, 2, 4], "listed": true, "loved": ["AI agent workflows", "tmux integration"], "caveat": "Slower than Ghostty", "short_quote": "iterm2 is fast, reliable, and second nature. i don't have to edit settings every day.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://iterm2.com", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["iTerm2", "iTerm"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked as a reliable, polished macOS terminal", "cites": [{"id": 804227872, "item_id": 50264242, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264242", "by": "dimator", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iterm2 is fast, reliable, and second nature. i don't have to edit settings every day.", "excerpt": "i tried ghostty, rio, wezterm, they all stuck for about a month or so... then the subtle usability issues become too much, and i wonder why i switched from iterm2 to begin with. there's something to be said for years of polish, and feature work that is well-baked. iterm2 is fast, reliable, and second nature. i don't have to edit settings every day.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 793450818, "item_id": 49590676, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49590676", "by": "hn_throw2025", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Easily the best fit terminal for my purposes.", "excerpt": "I went through similar feelings switching to the Mac ecosystem (from Linux) in 2012... But I quickly settled on some tools I wouldn't be without now. Finder is terrible, but I switched for Forklift early on. I think it's amazing, so much better than the Gnome and KDE file managers I used before. It covers so many bases, from being a twin-pane orthodox manager, directory comparer and synchroniser, bulk regex renamer, ", "context": "switched from Linux to Mac in 2012", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one"}, {"id": 774668112, "item_id": 48416757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48416757", "by": "chasd00", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use iterm2 instead of ghostty.", "excerpt": "this is basically what i use, it works just fine. I use iterm2 instead of ghostty.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026)"}]}, {"text": " for running several AI coding agents side by side", "cites": [{"id": 799669504, "item_id": 49979344, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49979344", "by": "hkchad", "date": "2026-10-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A couple months ago I switched back to iTerm2, full screen", "excerpt": "Long time JB user here, and I mean long time. The past year I have been using claude in the JB terminal but nothing, and I mean nothing new has come of it in that year. Stuck in a tiny terminal window, opening files every so often. A couple months ago I switched back to iTerm2, full screen and use sublime to open the odd file every so often. So this makes 100% sense. They need to do a better job integrating with agen", "context": "long time JetBrains user", "use_case": "running Claude in terminal", "switched_from": "JetBrains terminal", "story": "JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025"}, {"id": 780045970, "item_id": 48752873, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48752873", "by": "bredren", "date": "2026-07-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use iterm2, so I\u2019ve also added iterm2 specific python that allows the orchestrator to \u201ckick\u201d a worker", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve written a skill for codex and Claude code that designates an orchestrator on the primary worktree and \u201cworkers\u201d on N supporting worktrees. The supporting worktrees are labeled wb1, wb2\u2026wbn. You run either Claude or Codex in tabs for each work tree. Then you generally work with the orchestrator on the primary worktree. It delegates tasks to the different workers and answers their smaller questions, surfacing resu", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal for agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "ZCode: Claude Code from the Makers of GLM"}, {"id": 745856897, "item_id": 46616056, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46616056", "by": "shashimudunuri", "date": "2026-01-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Run 4+ parallel Claude Code sessions in iTerm tabs", "excerpt": "Claude Code Orchestrator v2.2 Released Just shipped a fix for the biggest usability issue: the orchestrator no longer steals window focus. What this means: \u2022 Run 4+ parallel Claude Code sessions in iTerm tabs \u2022 Work in your browser, Slack, or editor while they build \u2022 Get notified when everything merges The technical fix was simple but impactful\u2014replaced AppleScript's `activate` command with iTerm's native `write tex", "context": "", "use_case": "running parallel sessions", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Code Orchestrator v2.1 \u2013 Ralph Wiggums"}, {"id": 776971216, "item_id": 48560701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48560701", "by": "nwienert", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use iTerm, so to me it's not the TUI itself, it's iTerm.", "excerpt": "I actually was a Cursor advocate / CC hater (go back in my comment history), and now I use only TUI coding harnesses. To start a big part is just the efficacy of them, which comes down to the model and the harness logic itself. CC is good, it's sub-agents, loops, background jobs / agents, skills/hooks/etc have typically been pretty far ahead though others are constantly catching up. But you're sort of missing somethi", "context": "former Cursor advocate", "use_case": "running coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B"}]}, {"text": " and for its native tmux integration.", "cites": [{"id": 781277360, "item_id": 48829835, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829835", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "ITerm2 has a really great tmux integration where you get native windows or tabs for tmux windows", "excerpt": "ITerm2 has a really great tmux integration where you get native windows or tabs for tmux windows and the panes are really easy to interact with. Of course it\u2019s macOS only but I use it on my MBP and ssh to attach to my tmux sessions from a secondary Mac (getting the same experience remotely) or my phone (without all the niceties, just normal tmux, but still usable)", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "terminal with tmux integration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr: One terminal to rule them all"}, {"id": 781278097, "item_id": 48829881, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829881", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "with the wonderful iTerm2 integration", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been using tmux (with the wonderful iTerm2 integration) for almost a year now to manage agents as well as organize my workspaces. I initially wrote this off but looking closer I think I\u2019m going to give a shot. My mobile experience is acceptable (Blink shell + tmux) but not ideal and the monitoring of agents is nice. Currently I rely on a hook+Pushover to alert me when my attention is needed which works but has n", "context": "", "use_case": "tmux integration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr: One terminal to rule them all"}, {"id": 776520625, "item_id": 48532539, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48532539", "by": "csheaff", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I'm trying to replicate how good tmux is inside iTerm, but it's tough.", "excerpt": "Tmux control-mode client for Emacs https://github.com/csheaff/tmux-control I found myself ditching Emacs for iTerm when running TUIs inside tmux on remote hosts. I'm trying to replicate how good tmux is inside iTerm, but it's tough. wip.", "context": "", "use_case": "running TUIs in tmux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)"}]}, {"text": "The most common caveat is that it feels slower and more dated than Ghostty,", "cites": [{"id": 804230305, "item_id": 50264394, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264394", "by": "merb", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used iterm2 for years as well", "excerpt": "btw I used iterm2 for years as well and sometimes tried others. I now use ghostty it\u2019s faster definitely. Yes it has some quirks which is hard to overcome as a iterm2 user. But I could live with it. I think ghostty is basically also the only alternative to iterm2", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 785610961, "item_id": 49100685, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49100685", "by": "holden_nelson", "date": "2026-07-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I stuck with iTerm2 for a really long time", "excerpt": "I've wondered this myself. I stuck with iTerm2 for a really long time but recently switched to Ghostty. Ghostty definitely seems to renders faster (I say \"seems to\" because I didn't benchmark or anything). I don't actually use a multiplexer. I'm not sure I understand the use case when most terminal emulators supports tabs + windows (like iTerm2 does). Or you could just launch multiple windows and use your OS's window", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mitchellh starts a new company: Superlogical"}, {"id": 794606784, "item_id": 49662924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49662924", "by": "LikeAnElephant", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iTerm will always have a special place in my heart; I used it for years and years.", "excerpt": "iTerm will always have a special place in my heart; I used it for years and years. I can't quite articulate why, it just feels outdated compared to apps Ghostty / other modern terminals. But I still type \"iTer..\" out of muscle memory when intending to launch Ghostty.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "iTerm2 3.7.0"}]}, {"text": " and some dislike its many features, its AI additions, or its lack of a plain config file.", "cites": [{"id": 804237010, "item_id": 50264813, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264813", "by": "alemanek", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Excellent terminal but too many features for what I was looking for.", "excerpt": "It being super responsive is the reason I switched to it. MacOS terminal had issues keeping up with Claude Code. It would frequently be super slow rendering the text output or sometimes just stop altogether. When looking at options I looked at speed and simplicity. Ghostty fit the bill but I did evaluate iterm as well. Excellent terminal but too many features for what I was looking for. I live in the terminal but am ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804324577, "item_id": 50270286, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50270286", "by": "toxik", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I quit using iTerm 2 because of the AI features. Ew.", "excerpt": "There is no reason. I switched from iTerm 2 and while Ghostty is a lot faster and lighter, it has occasional rendering issues and does not detect URLs as well. It also doesn't have tmux control mode which I really liked. I quit using iTerm 2 because of the AI features. Ew.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804232337, "item_id": 50264521, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264521", "by": "s4i", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "With iTerm you had to export the profile and keybindings, and then import them on a new system which was clumsy", "excerpt": "While I'm not a hard core terminal emulator expert or tweaker, it was a bit of a learning curve to get into Ghostty after iTerm2. I hope this latest release makes it easier to edit the splits, haven't tested yet. But the biggest thing that made me stay on Ghostty was that there's a freaking config file. With iTerm you had to export the profile and keybindings, and then import them on a new system which was clumsy, an", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "AI agent workflows", "summary": "Commenters use its tabs, panes and scripting hooks to run and coordinate several coding-agent sessions.", "quotes": [{"id": 745856897, "item_id": 46616056, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46616056", "by": "shashimudunuri", "date": "2026-01-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Run 4+ parallel Claude Code sessions in iTerm tabs", "excerpt": "Claude Code Orchestrator v2.2 Released Just shipped a fix for the biggest usability issue: the orchestrator no longer steals window focus. What this means: \u2022 Run 4+ parallel Claude Code sessions in iTerm tabs \u2022 Work in your browser, Slack, or editor while they build \u2022 Get notified when everything merges The technical fix was simple but impactful\u2014replaced AppleScript's `activate` command with iTerm's native `write tex", "context": "", "use_case": "running parallel sessions", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Code Orchestrator v2.1 \u2013 Ralph Wiggums"}, {"id": 780045970, "item_id": 48752873, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48752873", "by": "bredren", "date": "2026-07-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use iterm2, so I\u2019ve also added iterm2 specific python that allows the orchestrator to \u201ckick\u201d a worker", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve written a skill for codex and Claude code that designates an orchestrator on the primary worktree and \u201cworkers\u201d on N supporting worktrees. The supporting worktrees are labeled wb1, wb2\u2026wbn. You run either Claude or Codex in tabs for each work tree. Then you generally work with the orchestrator on the primary worktree. It delegates tasks to the different workers and answers their smaller questions, surfacing resu", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal for agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "ZCode: Claude Code from the Makers of GLM"}, {"id": 776971216, "item_id": 48560701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48560701", "by": "nwienert", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use iTerm, so to me it's not the TUI itself, it's iTerm.", "excerpt": "I actually was a Cursor advocate / CC hater (go back in my comment history), and now I use only TUI coding harnesses. To start a big part is just the efficacy of them, which comes down to the model and the harness logic itself. CC is good, it's sub-agents, loops, background jobs / agents, skills/hooks/etc have typically been pretty far ahead though others are constantly catching up. But you're sort of missing somethi", "context": "former Cursor advocate", "use_case": "running coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B"}]}, {"label": "tmux integration", "summary": "Its tmux integration shows tmux windows as native windows or tabs, and some find it hard to match elsewhere.", "quotes": [{"id": 781277360, "item_id": 48829835, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829835", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "ITerm2 has a really great tmux integration where you get native windows or tabs for tmux windows", "excerpt": "ITerm2 has a really great tmux integration where you get native windows or tabs for tmux windows and the panes are really easy to interact with. Of course it\u2019s macOS only but I use it on my MBP and ssh to attach to my tmux sessions from a secondary Mac (getting the same experience remotely) or my phone (without all the niceties, just normal tmux, but still usable)", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "terminal with tmux integration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr: One terminal to rule them all"}, {"id": 781278097, "item_id": 48829881, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829881", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "with the wonderful iTerm2 integration", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been using tmux (with the wonderful iTerm2 integration) for almost a year now to manage agents as well as organize my workspaces. I initially wrote this off but looking closer I think I\u2019m going to give a shot. My mobile experience is acceptable (Blink shell + tmux) but not ideal and the monitoring of agents is nice. Currently I rely on a hook+Pushover to alert me when my attention is needed which works but has n", "context": "", "use_case": "tmux integration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr: One terminal to rule them all"}, {"id": 776520625, "item_id": 48532539, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48532539", "by": "csheaff", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I'm trying to replicate how good tmux is inside iTerm, but it's tough.", "excerpt": "Tmux control-mode client for Emacs https://github.com/csheaff/tmux-control I found myself ditching Emacs for iTerm when running TUIs inside tmux on remote hosts. I'm trying to replicate how good tmux is inside iTerm, but it's tough. wip.", "context": "", "use_case": "running TUIs in tmux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)"}]}, {"label": "Reliable and polished", "summary": "Long-time users call it fast enough, reliable and well polished after years of feature work.", "quotes": [{"id": 804227872, "item_id": 50264242, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264242", "by": "dimator", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iterm2 is fast, reliable, and second nature. i don't have to edit settings every day.", "excerpt": "i tried ghostty, rio, wezterm, they all stuck for about a month or so... then the subtle usability issues become too much, and i wonder why i switched from iterm2 to begin with. there's something to be said for years of polish, and feature work that is well-baked. iterm2 is fast, reliable, and second nature. i don't have to edit settings every day.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804255697, "item_id": 50265981, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50265981", "by": "ktosobcy", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iTerm2 speed (for me) is plenty", "excerpt": "Why should I use Ghostty over iTerm2? I don't care about fancy fonts, iTerm2 speed (for me) is plenty (just tested against 1.4 -- don't see noticeable difference on MBP M1) and I do like to tweak some options/settings (and was just mildly annoyed when hitting `cmd+,` opened my default text editor...", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 793450818, "item_id": 49590676, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49590676", "by": "hn_throw2025", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Easily the best fit terminal for my purposes.", "excerpt": "I went through similar feelings switching to the Mac ecosystem (from Linux) in 2012... But I quickly settled on some tools I wouldn't be without now. Finder is terrible, but I switched for Forklift early on. I think it's amazing, so much better than the Gnome and KDE file managers I used before. It covers so many bases, from being a twin-pane orthodox manager, directory comparer and synchroniser, bulk regex renamer, ", "context": "switched from Linux to Mac in 2012", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one"}]}, {"label": "Sidebar tabs", "summary": "Its sidebar tabs help organize many project and subtask tabs.", "quotes": [{"id": 755358625, "item_id": 47209914, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47209914", "by": "sponno", "date": "2026-03-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love iTerms sidebar tabs", "excerpt": "Loving how well Ghostty works and looks. When running several Projects I need quite a few tabs as all these AI agents take sometime to complete. Overhead tabs get real messy very quickly. Multiple windows become a nightmare quickly. Side bar tabs have been my solution. I love iTerms sidebar tabs - I add emojis to mine for my key projects and any subtask just lives under the master tab like a folder. Would love to see", "context": "runs several projects with AI agents", "use_case": "sidebar tabs for projects", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty \u2013 Terminal Emulator"}]}, {"label": "macOS conventions", "summary": "It supports command-number window switching, which one commenter needs and Ghostty lacks.", "quotes": [{"id": 738241616, "item_id": 46140101, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46140101", "by": "zimpenfish", "date": "2025-12-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Without command-number, I'm still stuck using iTerm2 as my daily driver.", "excerpt": "I'm hoping they'll get around to supporting command-number for switching between windows[0]. command-` is fine but clunky as hell when you have more than three or four windows. Without command-number, I'm still stuck using iTerm2 as my daily driver. (It'd be nice if it supported other standard macOS UI conventions[1] too) [0] https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/discussions/8131 [1] https://github.com/ghostty-org/g", "context": "", "use_case": "daily terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty is now non-profit"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Slower than Ghostty", "summary": "Several switchers find Ghostty faster or more modern, and one says iTerm2 feels outdated.", "quotes": [{"id": 804230305, "item_id": 50264394, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264394", "by": "merb", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used iterm2 for years as well", "excerpt": "btw I used iterm2 for years as well and sometimes tried others. I now use ghostty it\u2019s faster definitely. Yes it has some quirks which is hard to overcome as a iterm2 user. But I could live with it. I think ghostty is basically also the only alternative to iterm2", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 785610961, "item_id": 49100685, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49100685", "by": "holden_nelson", "date": "2026-07-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I stuck with iTerm2 for a really long time", "excerpt": "I've wondered this myself. I stuck with iTerm2 for a really long time but recently switched to Ghostty. Ghostty definitely seems to renders faster (I say \"seems to\" because I didn't benchmark or anything). I don't actually use a multiplexer. I'm not sure I understand the use case when most terminal emulators supports tabs + windows (like iTerm2 does). Or you could just launch multiple windows and use your OS's window", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mitchellh starts a new company: Superlogical"}, {"id": 794606784, "item_id": 49662924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49662924", "by": "LikeAnElephant", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iTerm will always have a special place in my heart; I used it for years and years.", "excerpt": "iTerm will always have a special place in my heart; I used it for years and years. I can't quite articulate why, it just feels outdated compared to apps Ghostty / other modern terminals. But I still type \"iTer..\" out of muscle memory when intending to launch Ghostty.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "iTerm2 3.7.0"}]}, {"label": "Too many features", "summary": "One commenter found it excellent but more feature-heavy than they wanted.", "quotes": [{"id": 804237010, "item_id": 50264813, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264813", "by": "alemanek", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Excellent terminal but too many features for what I was looking for.", "excerpt": "It being super responsive is the reason I switched to it. MacOS terminal had issues keeping up with Claude Code. It would frequently be super slow rendering the text output or sometimes just stop altogether. When looking at options I looked at speed and simplicity. Ghostty fit the bill but I did evaluate iterm as well. Excellent terminal but too many features for what I was looking for. I live in the terminal but am ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}]}, {"label": "AI features", "summary": "One user quit iTerm2 because of its AI features.", "quotes": [{"id": 804324577, "item_id": 50270286, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50270286", "by": "toxik", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I quit using iTerm 2 because of the AI features. Ew.", "excerpt": "There is no reason. I switched from iTerm 2 and while Ghostty is a lot faster and lighter, it has occasional rendering issues and does not detect URLs as well. It also doesn't have tmux control mode which I really liked. I quit using iTerm 2 because of the AI features. Ew.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}]}, {"label": "No config file", "summary": "Moving settings between machines requires exporting and importing profiles instead of using a dotfile.", "quotes": [{"id": 804232337, "item_id": 50264521, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264521", "by": "s4i", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "With iTerm you had to export the profile and keybindings, and then import them on a new system which was clumsy", "excerpt": "While I'm not a hard core terminal emulator expert or tweaker, it was a bit of a learning curve to get into Ghostty after iTerm2. I hope this latest release makes it easier to edit the splits, haven't tested yet. But the biggest thing that made me stay on Ghostty was that there's a freaking config file. With iTerm you had to export the profile and keybindings, and then import them on a new system which was clumsy, an", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}]}, {"label": "macOS only", "summary": "It only runs on macOS.", "quotes": [{"id": 781277360, "item_id": 48829835, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829835", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "ITerm2 has a really great tmux integration where you get native windows or tabs for tmux windows", "excerpt": "ITerm2 has a really great tmux integration where you get native windows or tabs for tmux windows and the panes are really easy to interact with. Of course it\u2019s macOS only but I use it on my MBP and ssh to attach to my tmux sessions from a secondary Mac (getting the same experience remotely) or my phone (without all the niceties, just normal tmux, but still usable)", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "terminal with tmux integration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr: One terminal to rule them all"}]}], "who": [{"by": "hkchad", "context": "long time JetBrains user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49979344", "date": "2026-10-06"}, {"by": "jshier", "context": "macOS user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49939855", "date": "2026-10-02"}, {"by": "vidarh", "context": "uses OS X for one client, Linux otherwise", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49884875", "date": "2026-09-28"}, {"by": "hn_throw2025", "context": "switched from Linux to Mac in 2012", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49590676", "date": "2026-09-06"}, {"by": "joshstrange", "context": "macOS user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829835", "date": "2026-07-08"}, {"by": "nwienert", "context": "former Cursor advocate", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48560701", "date": "2026-06-16"}, {"by": "sponno", "context": "runs several projects with AI agents", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47209914", "date": "2026-03-01"}], "tags": ["for macOS users", "for AI coding agents", "for tmux users", "for remote SSH sessions"], "use_cases": ["terminal emulator", "terminal", "running claude in terminal", "ai terminal", "terminal on macos", "tmux integration"], "compared": [{"slug": "ghostty", "name": "Ghostty", "co": 21, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 12}, {"slug": "wezterm", "name": "WezTerm", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 3}, {"slug": "terminal-app", "name": "Terminal.app", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "claude-code", "name": "Claude Code", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "tmux", "name": "tmux", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "codex", "name": "Codex", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "cmux", "name": "cmux", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50261998", "title": "Ghostty 1.4", "mentions": 7}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48756578", "title": "Herdr: One terminal to rule them all", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46138238", "title": "Ghostty is now non-profit", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50298436", "title": "Herdr has released native app", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49977072", "title": "JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49937631", "title": "Updates to Full Disk Access in macOS", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 3, "compare": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 2}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 3, "warn": 2, "compare": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804965892, "item_id": 50310368, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50310368", "by": "threecheese", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I can use the tui in ghosttty or wezterm or iterm", "excerpt": "Right now the new herdr has more ... just more. Rex has the polish, attention to detail, and attention to performance. They both follow the same \"gui with a cli to manage the engine which owns the PTYs, has some interaction protocol, wraps coding agent interfaces, and you can connect to remote machines\" model. Unfortunately they are both GUI only atm and so I'm still using herdr-tui over ssh until it breaks or we get", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr has released native app"}, {"id": 804324577, "item_id": 50270286, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50270286", "by": "toxik", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I quit using iTerm 2 because of the AI features. Ew.", "excerpt": "There is no reason. I switched from iTerm 2 and while Ghostty is a lot faster and lighter, it has occasional rendering issues and does not detect URLs as well. It also doesn't have tmux control mode which I really liked. I quit using iTerm 2 because of the AI features. Ew.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804269573, "item_id": 50266848, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266848", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used iTerm for years and kinda liked it, but not completely.", "excerpt": "If you\u2019re fine using iTerm just use iTerm. In my case I used iTerm for years and kinda liked it, but not completely. I\u2019d been looking for an alternative for years but couldn\u2019t find one I like (Alacritty doesn\u2019t support pane splitting, Wezterm has full code config which I hate, Kitty doesn\u2019t look good on Mac, Terminal.app is dog slow\u2026). Ghostty just fits my needs pretty much exactly.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804255697, "item_id": 50265981, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50265981", "by": "ktosobcy", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iTerm2 speed (for me) is plenty", "excerpt": "Why should I use Ghostty over iTerm2? I don't care about fancy fonts, iTerm2 speed (for me) is plenty (just tested against 1.4 -- don't see noticeable difference on MBP M1) and I do like to tweak some options/settings (and was just mildly annoyed when hitting `cmd+,` opened my default text editor...", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804237010, "item_id": 50264813, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264813", "by": "alemanek", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Excellent terminal but too many features for what I was looking for.", "excerpt": "It being super responsive is the reason I switched to it. MacOS terminal had issues keeping up with Claude Code. It would frequently be super slow rendering the text output or sometimes just stop altogether. When looking at options I looked at speed and simplicity. Ghostty fit the bill but I did evaluate iterm as well. Excellent terminal but too many features for what I was looking for. I live in the terminal but am ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804232337, "item_id": 50264521, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264521", "by": "s4i", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "With iTerm you had to export the profile and keybindings, and then import them on a new system which was clumsy", "excerpt": "While I'm not a hard core terminal emulator expert or tweaker, it was a bit of a learning curve to get into Ghostty after iTerm2. I hope this latest release makes it easier to edit the splits, haven't tested yet. But the biggest thing that made me stay on Ghostty was that there's a freaking config file. With iTerm you had to export the profile and keybindings, and then import them on a new system which was clumsy, an", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804230305, "item_id": 50264394, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264394", "by": "merb", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used iterm2 for years as well", "excerpt": "btw I used iterm2 for years as well and sometimes tried others. I now use ghostty it\u2019s faster definitely. Yes it has some quirks which is hard to overcome as a iterm2 user. But I could live with it. I think ghostty is basically also the only alternative to iterm2", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804227872, "item_id": 50264242, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264242", "by": "dimator", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iterm2 is fast, reliable, and second nature. i don't have to edit settings every day.", "excerpt": "i tried ghostty, rio, wezterm, they all stuck for about a month or so... then the subtle usability issues become too much, and i wonder why i switched from iterm2 to begin with. there's something to be said for years of polish, and feature work that is well-baked. iterm2 is fast, reliable, and second nature. i don't have to edit settings every day.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 799669504, "item_id": 49979344, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49979344", "by": "hkchad", "date": "2026-10-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A couple months ago I switched back to iTerm2, full screen", "excerpt": "Long time JB user here, and I mean long time. The past year I have been using claude in the JB terminal but nothing, and I mean nothing new has come of it in that year. Stuck in a tiny terminal window, opening files every so often. A couple months ago I switched back to iTerm2, full screen and use sublime to open the odd file every so often. So this makes 100% sense. They need to do a better job integrating with agen", "context": "long time JetBrains user", "use_case": "running Claude in terminal", "switched_from": "JetBrains terminal", "story": "JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025"}, {"id": 799037681, "item_id": 49939855, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49939855", "by": "jshier", "date": "2026-10-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iTerm gets no permissions, I move specific things to Terminal to do it.", "excerpt": "This is why I use Terminal as my primary terminal, and iTerm as my AI terminal. iTerm gets no permissions, I move specific things to Terminal to do it. Plus I can then style them to optimize for the different usages. And iTerm has better harness hooks anyway. I would still like to see not only more granular permissions, but single use permissions. Once I grant iTerm access to Documents for whatever reason, it always ", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "AI terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Updates to Full Disk Access in macOS"}, {"id": 798158000, "item_id": 49884875, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49884875", "by": "vidarh", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "live mostly in iTerm2 and browsers", "excerpt": "Running full screen when the apps you're using does sensible things in full screen mode works reasonably well on OS X - I use OS X for one of my clients, and live mostly in iTerm2 and browsers. It still feels different, but, yes, it's close to what I'm after. On my Linux box, I'm chasing moving that functionality into my wm, instead of needing my terminal etc. to support it - since it means I can mix and match apps a", "context": "uses OS X for one client, Linux otherwise", "use_case": "terminal on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Amiga Screens: A Primer"}, {"id": 794606784, "item_id": 49662924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49662924", "by": "LikeAnElephant", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iTerm will always have a special place in my heart; I used it for years and years.", "excerpt": "iTerm will always have a special place in my heart; I used it for years and years. I can't quite articulate why, it just feels outdated compared to apps Ghostty / other modern terminals. But I still type \"iTer..\" out of muscle memory when intending to launch Ghostty.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "iTerm2 3.7.0"}, {"id": 794202776, "item_id": 49637673, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49637673", "by": "softwarewright", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "most of my work is at Mac iTerm2 CLI", "excerpt": "Claude Code, Codex, opencode (Z.ai GLM-5.x), sometimes Gemini -- most of my work is at Mac iTerm2 CLI or Arch Linux terminal. I sometimes use emacs as the coding agent, but rarely JetBrains IDE or vscode (more for reading/debugging code). I supplement this with my own vibe-coded tools that help agents plan, perform sagas/steps, stay on track, tools that check the code produced, tools that check the produced documenta", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's your AI coding set up?"}, {"id": 793450818, "item_id": 49590676, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49590676", "by": "hn_throw2025", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Easily the best fit terminal for my purposes.", "excerpt": "I went through similar feelings switching to the Mac ecosystem (from Linux) in 2012... But I quickly settled on some tools I wouldn't be without now. Finder is terrible, but I switched for Forklift early on. I think it's amazing, so much better than the Gnome and KDE file managers I used before. It covers so many bases, from being a twin-pane orthodox manager, directory comparer and synchroniser, bulk regex renamer, ", "context": "switched from Linux to Mac in 2012", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one"}, {"id": 785610961, "item_id": 49100685, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49100685", "by": "holden_nelson", "date": "2026-07-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I stuck with iTerm2 for a really long time", "excerpt": "I've wondered this myself. I stuck with iTerm2 for a really long time but recently switched to Ghostty. Ghostty definitely seems to renders faster (I say \"seems to\" because I didn't benchmark or anything). I don't actually use a multiplexer. I'm not sure I understand the use case when most terminal emulators supports tabs + windows (like iTerm2 does). Or you could just launch multiple windows and use your OS's window", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mitchellh starts a new company: Superlogical"}, {"id": 781278097, "item_id": 48829881, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829881", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "with the wonderful iTerm2 integration", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been using tmux (with the wonderful iTerm2 integration) for almost a year now to manage agents as well as organize my workspaces. I initially wrote this off but looking closer I think I\u2019m going to give a shot. My mobile experience is acceptable (Blink shell + tmux) but not ideal and the monitoring of agents is nice. Currently I rely on a hook+Pushover to alert me when my attention is needed which works but has n", "context": "", "use_case": "tmux integration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr: One terminal to rule them all"}, {"id": 781277360, "item_id": 48829835, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829835", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "ITerm2 has a really great tmux integration where you get native windows or tabs for tmux windows", "excerpt": "ITerm2 has a really great tmux integration where you get native windows or tabs for tmux windows and the panes are really easy to interact with. Of course it\u2019s macOS only but I use it on my MBP and ssh to attach to my tmux sessions from a secondary Mac (getting the same experience remotely) or my phone (without all the niceties, just normal tmux, but still usable)", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "terminal with tmux integration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr: One terminal to rule them all"}, {"id": 780045970, "item_id": 48752873, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48752873", "by": "bredren", "date": "2026-07-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use iterm2, so I\u2019ve also added iterm2 specific python that allows the orchestrator to \u201ckick\u201d a worker", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve written a skill for codex and Claude code that designates an orchestrator on the primary worktree and \u201cworkers\u201d on N supporting worktrees. The supporting worktrees are labeled wb1, wb2\u2026wbn. You run either Claude or Codex in tabs for each work tree. Then you generally work with the orchestrator on the primary worktree. It delegates tasks to the different workers and answers their smaller questions, surfacing resu", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal for agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "ZCode: Claude Code from the Makers of GLM"}, {"id": 778312466, "item_id": 48644529, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48644529", "by": "mortar", "date": "2026-06-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iTerm2,", "excerpt": "Hammerspoon, Little snitch, iTerm2, Chezmoi, Orion", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: New clean macOS install. Must-have apps? Best browser?"}, {"id": 776971216, "item_id": 48560701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48560701", "by": "nwienert", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use iTerm, so to me it's not the TUI itself, it's iTerm.", "excerpt": "I actually was a Cursor advocate / CC hater (go back in my comment history), and now I use only TUI coding harnesses. To start a big part is just the efficacy of them, which comes down to the model and the harness logic itself. CC is good, it's sub-agents, loops, background jobs / agents, skills/hooks/etc have typically been pretty far ahead though others are constantly catching up. But you're sort of missing somethi", "context": "former Cursor advocate", "use_case": "running coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B"}, {"id": 776520625, "item_id": 48532539, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48532539", "by": "csheaff", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I'm trying to replicate how good tmux is inside iTerm, but it's tough.", "excerpt": "Tmux control-mode client for Emacs https://github.com/csheaff/tmux-control I found myself ditching Emacs for iTerm when running TUIs inside tmux on remote hosts. I'm trying to replicate how good tmux is inside iTerm, but it's tough. wip.", "context": "", "use_case": "running TUIs in tmux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 774668112, "item_id": 48416757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48416757", "by": "chasd00", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use iterm2 instead of ghostty.", "excerpt": "this is basically what i use, it works just fine. I use iterm2 instead of ghostty.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 767130369, "item_id": 47945648, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47945648", "by": "deafpolygon", "date": "2026-04-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I switched to iTerm for true color", "excerpt": "This, among many other reasons, is why I still use Terminal.app. I switched to iTerm for true color, but when Tahoe added it to Terminal.app- I switched back.", "context": "", "use_case": "true color terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your Terminal Is Burning Battery Like It's Mining Bitcoin"}, {"id": 763120162, "item_id": 47695010, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47695010", "by": "alfonsodev", "date": "2026-04-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I went back to just use iTerm, split panes, and manually coordinate things.", "excerpt": "I could make agents use delve (a go lang debugger) interactively, and it worked quite well specially when models weren't as good as they are now, they could choose where to put the breakpoint and inspect variables, I found that was the only way to unlock some situations when they insisted in that \"it must be working\", and it wasn't, I found that giving them the empirical tools to check for themselves was the only way", "context": "", "use_case": "managing agents in panes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: TUI-use: Let AI agents control interactive terminal programs"}, {"id": 755358625, "item_id": 47209914, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47209914", "by": "sponno", "date": "2026-03-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love iTerms sidebar tabs", "excerpt": "Loving how well Ghostty works and looks. When running several Projects I need quite a few tabs as all these AI agents take sometime to complete. Overhead tabs get real messy very quickly. Multiple windows become a nightmare quickly. Side bar tabs have been my solution. I love iTerms sidebar tabs - I add emojis to mine for my key projects and any subtask just lives under the master tab like a folder. Would love to see", "context": "runs several projects with AI agents", "use_case": "sidebar tabs for projects", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty \u2013 Terminal Emulator"}, {"id": 745856897, "item_id": 46616056, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46616056", "by": "shashimudunuri", "date": "2026-01-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Run 4+ parallel Claude Code sessions in iTerm tabs", "excerpt": "Claude Code Orchestrator v2.2 Released Just shipped a fix for the biggest usability issue: the orchestrator no longer steals window focus. What this means: \u2022 Run 4+ parallel Claude Code sessions in iTerm tabs \u2022 Work in your browser, Slack, or editor while they build \u2022 Get notified when everything merges The technical fix was simple but impactful\u2014replaced AppleScript's `activate` command with iTerm's native `write tex", "context": "", "use_case": "running parallel sessions", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Code Orchestrator v2.1 \u2013 Ralph Wiggums"}, {"id": 738287457, "item_id": 46142966, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46142966", "by": "alwillis", "date": "2025-12-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I\u2019d love to see iTerm switch to using libghostty in the near future.", "excerpt": "> All of the fuss seems to be entirely driven by Mitchell's clout, and maybe some interest in Zig. Nope, that's not it. It's mostly because he noticed the majority of terminal applications were okay but not great. So he decides to address this by creating a cross-platform terminal app that's faster and more compatible than pretty much every existing terminal app. And has a native macOS UI written in Swift without com", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty is now non-profit"}, {"id": 738241616, "item_id": 46140101, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46140101", "by": "zimpenfish", "date": "2025-12-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Without command-number, I'm still stuck using iTerm2 as my daily driver.", "excerpt": "I'm hoping they'll get around to supporting command-number for switching between windows[0]. command-` is fine but clunky as hell when you have more than three or four windows. Without command-number, I'm still stuck using iTerm2 as my daily driver. (It'd be nice if it supported other standard macOS UI conventions[1] too) [0] https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/discussions/8131 [1] https://github.com/ghostty-org/g", "context": "", "use_case": "daily terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty is now non-profit"}, {"id": 732952674, "item_id": 45809542, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45809542", "by": "dmaa", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used iterm2 for ages", "excerpt": "I used iterm2 for ages, but then somehow defaulted to terminal.app. It is fast and that is basically all i need from a terminal emulator, everything else is taken care of by tmux.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions"}]}