Ghostel
Terminal emulator package for Emacs built on libghostty.
Emacs users praise Ghostel as a faster, more responsive replacement for vterm1234, including for TUI apps and CLI coding agents like Claude Code.56789 The most common complaint is display glitches such as scrambled or uncleared text1011, and it lacks eshell-style text editing in the terminal buffer.12
Why people recommend it
Better than vterm · 3
Several commenters who switched from vterm call it a large improvement.
“ghostel is a tremendous improvement over vterm.”
“I recently switched from vterm to ghostel, and it is generally much, much better”
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“I've been wanting something just like this and I'm trying it now and it's amazing.”
Speed · 3
Commenters report it is more responsive and handles full-screen TUI refreshes and scrolling programs.
“I also switched from vterm and ghostel is much more responsive for me. Thanks for maintaining it! I use it everyday.”
“I recently switched from vterm to ghostel, and it is generally much, much better”
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“Awesome project. Been using with doom for a while.”
Daily use · 3
Commenters say they use it every day as a core part of their Emacs work.
“Magit and ghostel are good examples of packages that I use on a daily basis”
“I also switched from vterm and ghostel is much more responsive for me. Thanks for maintaining it! I use it everyday.”
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“I switched to `ghostel` in emacs this weekend and it's give or take life changing.”
AI agent workflows · 3
Commenters say it works well for running CLI coding agents like Claude Code inside Emacs.
“I switched from vterm to ghostel recently and it's solved some refresh issues”
“through ghostel, which is unbelievably great!”
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“This is working great, it plus the Claude code integration has really adjusted how much I use Emacs.”
Overall quality · 2
Emacs users describe it as the nicest terminal available for Emacs.
“ghostel.el is the nicest terminal for emacs going”
“I switched to `ghostel` in emacs this weekend and it's give or take life changing.”
Hyperlink navigation · 1
Commands for jumping between and opening displayed links are appreciated.
“I use that feature all the time.”
Caveats and dissent
Display glitches · 2
Users report scrambled text when switching buffers and junk left after clearing the terminal.
“I also switched from vterm and ghostel is much more responsive for me. Thanks for maintaining it! I use it everyday.”
“I recently switched from vterm to ghostel, and it is generally much, much better”
Occasional freezes · 1
One user says it has frozen completely and required killing the buffer.
“I recently switched from vterm to ghostel, and it is generally much, much better”
Emacs integration · 1
Unlike eshell, normal Emacs text editing commands and evil-mode do not work in its buffer.
“Unfortunately with Ghostel none of this works. It's not integrated in the same way.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“we automatically switch to copy-mode when it makes sense.”
“I'll have to update the documentation with some examples”
“This is just optional.”
“for me personally, it has not only replaced vterm/eat but also any other external terminal like kitty/Ghostty.”
Threads where it came up
- Ghostel.el: Terminal emulator powered by libghostty 11 mentions
- Ghostty 1.4 2 mentions
- Emacs Turns 50 1 mention
- Emacs 31: An unofficial guide to Markdown-ts-mode 1 mention
- Emacs 31.1 will release on 8/24 1 mention
- Pledging Another $400k to the Zig Software Foundation 1 mention
Also written as ghostel, ghostel.el, Ghostel.el. Data: ghostel.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 13
“Magit and ghostel are good examples of packages that I use on a daily basis”
“ghostel.el is the nicest terminal for emacs going”
“I switched from vterm to ghostel recently and it's solved some refresh issues”
“through ghostel, which is unbelievably great!”
“ghostel is a tremendous improvement over vterm.”
“I've been wanting something just like this and I'm trying it now and it's amazing.”
“I use that feature all the time.”
“Awesome project. Been using with doom for a while.”
“Unfortunately with Ghostel none of this works. It's not integrated in the same way.”
“I also switched from vterm and ghostel is much more responsive for me. Thanks for maintaining it! I use it everyday.”
“This is working great, it plus the Claude code integration has really adjusted how much I use Emacs.”
“I recently switched from vterm to ghostel, and it is generally much, much better”
“I switched to `ghostel` in emacs this weekend and it's give or take life changing.”