Ghostel.el: Terminal emulator powered by libghostty
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Ghostel is an Emacs terminal emulator using libghostty-vt, offering modern protocols and automatic native module downloads.
Ghostel is an Emacs terminal emulator powered by libghostty-vt, the same VT engine as Ghostty. A native Zig module handles terminal state, rendering, and PTY I/O, while Elisp manages keymaps, buffers, and remote integration. Features include Kitty keyboard/graphics protocols, OSC 8 hyperlinks, synchronized output, and inline images. The native module downloads automatically on first use (no toolchain required). It supports multiple input modes (semi-char, char, emacs, copy, line), shell integration, TRAMP remote terminals, and extensions for evil-mode, compilation mode, and eshell. M-x ghostel opens a terminal.
What commenters are saying
Users who switched from vterm find Ghostel noticeably faster and more reliable, especially with fancy TUI apps. Some report rough edges: occasional terminal clearing issues or freezing, though maintainers note recent fixes. The maintainer mentions Ghostel replaced external terminals like Kitty/Ghostty for them. A user asks about eshell-like text manipulation; the maintainer points to line-mode but acknowledges limitations with TUI apps and scrollback editing. Another user notes long-running Elisp can block Emacs UI, though terminal commands themselves don't.