Ghostty Terminfo Installation

Overview

xterm-ghostty

$TERM

When to Use

• Remote SSH sessions show "unknown terminal type xterm-ghostty"
• Missing colors, broken backspace/arrow keys, or garbled output over SSH
• Setting up a new remote host for use with Ghostty
• Writing SSH scripts that should handle Ghostty terminfo automatically

Quick Reference

ssh HOST 'infocmp xterm-ghostty >/dev/null 2>&1'

infocmp -x xterm-ghostty | ssh HOST tic -x -

ssh HOST 'infocmp xterm-ghostty >/dev/null 2>&1' || infocmp -x xterm-ghostty | ssh HOST tic -x -

ssh HOST 'infocmp xterm-ghostty >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo OK'

Implementation

Local Install

tic

infocmp -x xterm-ghostty | tic -x -

One-Time Install

infocmp -x xterm-ghostty | ssh user@host tic -x -

Conditional Install in SSH Scripts

if [ "$TERM" = "xterm-ghostty" ]; then
  ssh "$HOST" 'infocmp xterm-ghostty >/dev/null 2>&1' || \
    infocmp -x xterm-ghostty | ssh "$HOST" tic -x -
fi

Common Mistakes

• Running from non-Ghostty terminal -

  infocmp xterm-ghostty

  fails if the local machine doesn't have the terminfo. Run from Ghostty or a machine with Ghostty installed.
• Forgetting

  -x

  flag - Both

  infocmp -x

  and

  tic -x

  need the extended flag to preserve Ghostty's extended capabilities.
• Workaround instead of fix - Setting

  TERM=xterm-256color

  before SSH works but loses Ghostty-specific features. Install the terminfo instead.