Kitty 0.50, the latest version of the GPU-accelerated, cross-platform terminal emulator, is now available.
One main addition is support for dockable windows that attach to the edges of other terminal windows or tabs. The new functionality is accessible through the launch --type=window-dock and launch --type=tab-dock commands.
Another improvement is automatic session restoration via the new restore_session_after_logout option. When enabled, Kitty saves the state of running instances, including scrollback history, during logout, restart, or shutdown, and restores them when the terminal starts again.
On Linux, this requires the Inhibit desktop portal, while macOS stores the saved state using encryption backed by the system keychain.
Tab management has expanded, allowing tabs to function more like named workspaces. The new launch --focus-existing option switches to an existing window or tab instead of creating a new one. Users can also arrange tabs alphabetically by title and move windows into named tabs, creating those tabs automatically when needed.
For Wayland users, Kitty 0.50 introduces touchscreen support, including tap-to-click, momentum scrolling, and text selection through touch gestures. Additionally, client-side window decorations on compositors such as GNOME now follow the desktop’s titlebar fonts, text scaling, button arrangements, and titlebar click settings.
The release also expands the custom shader functionality introduced in the previous 0.49 series. Three new cursor-trail shaders—cursor-trail-railgun, cursor-trail-torpedo, and cursor-trail-pixiedust—add animated particle effects when the cursor moves. Shaders can now respond to keyboard shortcuts, while additional animation controls support fading, reversing, and looping effects.
On the graphics side, two new indexed-color image formats allow images to use the terminal’s color palette, meaning their colors can change automatically when switching themes. Kitty also gains support for the Program Status Protocol, enabling applications to report whether they are running, finished, failed, or waiting for user input. This information can be displayed directly in the tab bar.
Other improvements include more consistent borders and spacing between terminal windows, extra resizing controls for split layouts, and the ability to assign mouse-wheel actions through mouse_map. Session files can now preserve operating-system window geometry, while automatic theme switching better retains colors set by running applications.
Linux and BSD users also benefit from improved MIME type detection using the shared-mime-info cache, including recognition of files without extensions. Furthermore, rendering optimizations reduce flickering caused by applications that frequently update small portions of the terminal screen.
Finally, Kitty 0.50 includes numerous bug and security fixes. Notably, it addresses a remote-control authentication bypass that could allow a specially crafted request to circumvent password authentication. Several memory-safety issues are also fixed, including a heap buffer overflow, an out-of-bounds write, and a use-after-free during configuration reloads.
Additional fixes cover Wayland crashes, terminal rendering, SSH connections, file transfers, drag-and-drop operations, and desktop notifications. On Linux, notifications now identify Kitty’s desktop file, allowing environments such as KDE Plasma to group them correctly.
For more information, refer to the changelog.
