Oxide – a native terminal for macOS and Linux, built on GPUI

Oxide, a native terminal emulator for macOS and Linux written entirely in Rust, has been released, built on GPUI (Zed's UI framework) and the alacritty_terminal crate for PTY and VT parsing. Oxide is GPU-rendered and bundles a vim-navigable file-tree drawer, tmux-style workspaces, a powerline prompt, and a vim copy mode, all configured through a single TOML file that reloads on save, with no account, AI, or telemetry. It installs on macOS 12 or later via Homebrew cask or a notarized DMG, and on Linux x86_64 (Wayland or X11) via an Arch PKGBUILD or a release tarball with install.sh, requiring a Vulkan driver and libnotify.

A native terminal emulator for macOS and Linux, written entirely in Rust. Rust is iron oxide. It's a whole thing. Website https://oxideterminal.com · Docs https://oxideterminal.com/docs/ · Changelog https://oxideterminal.com/changelog/ · Compare https://oxideterminal.com/compare/ · Discord https://discord.gg/APV9FYGgeh Oxide is a GPU-rendered terminal built on GPUI https://www.gpui.rs Zed's UI framework and alacritty terminal https://crates.io/crates/alacritty terminal Alacritty's PTY + VT parser , with a file-tree drawer you drive like vim and a status bar that knows where your shell is. The things you'd normally bolt on — a file tree, tmux-style workspaces, a powerline prompt, a vim copy mode — are built in, and all of it is configured in one TOML file that reloads when you save. No account, no AI, no telemetry: the only thing Oxide asks the network is whether GitHub has a newer release. macOS brew install --cask oxide-terminal/tap/oxide-terminal Or grab the DMG from the latest release https://github.com/oxide-terminal/oxide/releases/latest and drag Oxide to Applications. Builds are Developer ID signed and notarized, so there's no right-click-to-open dance, and Oxide keeps itself up to date afterwards — it checks on launch and every six hours, or on demand via Oxide → Check for Updates… Linux Wayland or X11, x86 64 Arch and derivatives: a pacman package from the PKGBUILD in this repo an AUR package will follow once AUR registration reopens git clone https://github.com/oxide-terminal/oxide.git cd oxide/packaging/aur/oxide-terminal-bin && makepkg -si any distro: the release tarball tar xzf oxide-<version -linux-x86 64.tar.gz cd oxide-<version -linux-x86 64 && ./install.sh into ~/.local, no root The tarball is on the same release page https://github.com/oxide-terminal/oxide/releases/latest . install.sh puts oxide on your PATH and adds the launcher entry and icon; --prefix /usr/local with sudo installs system-wide, --uninstall removes it. Installed copies announce a newer release in the top-right corner; git pull and makepkg -si again, or a fresh tarball, does the update. - macOS 12 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel; or Linux with a Vulkan driver any GPU from the last decade — Mesa's vulkan-radeon / vulkan-intel , or nvidia-utils and notify-send libnotify for desktop notifications. - No font to install — JetBrainsMono Nerd Font Mono is bundled. Set font.family to use your own. - zsh or bash for the built-in prompt and shell integration. Other shells run fine and keep their own prompt. Oxide never writes to your dotfiles. Full instructions are in the install docs https://oxideterminal.com/docs/install/ . | <sub Splits — a file opened from the tree in $EDITOR , a dev server beside it.</sub | <sub Command palette cmd-shift-p — every action, fuzzy-searchable, with its binding.</sub | | <sub Theme picker cmd-alt-t — repaints the whole window as you move through it.</sub | <sub Rename a tab with ctrl-w , or a double-click; an empty name restores the automatic title.</sub | The short tour. Every feature has a page in the docs https://oxideterminal.com/docs/ . - Real terminal — full VT emulation via Alacritty's parser: truecolor, wide glyphs and combining marks, bracketed paste, mouse reporting SGR , alternate-screen scrolling, OSC 8 hyperlinks, OSC 52 clipboard. vim, htop, and tmux just work. - File tree drawer — follows the focused pane, so switching splits re-roots it to that shell's directory. Modeless vim navigation j / k / gg / G , nvim-tree style h / l , type-to-filter with / , and file operations: a add, r rename, m move, d delete to Trash . Dims gitignored files, watches the filesystem, and follows the shell's cd automatically. - The tree/terminal seam — y inserts the selected path at the prompt, quoted and relative; cmd-click a path:line:col in output to open it in $EDITOR at that line nvim, VS Code, emacs, Sublime, Helix dialects built in ; rows are coloured by git status; cmd-p fuzzy-finds any file under the root; cmd-shift-r reveals the shell's directory; right-click a row to re-root, copy, or reveal in Finder / your file manager — or, on a .md file, preview it rendered in a new tab tables, highlighted code with click-to-copy ; drag rows or drop files onto a pane. - Scrollback search — cmd-f , live, ⏎ / ⇧⏎ to walk matches; regex, case-sensitive, and whole-word toggles as clickable chips cmd-alt-r / c / w , and a malformed regex says so instead of matching nothing. - Copy mode — ctrl-w or cmd-shift-v turns the scrollback into a vim buffer: hjkl , w b e , 0 ^ $ , gg G , ctrl-d/u , counts like 5j , / and ? search with n / N , v / V / ctrl-v visual selection, y to yank and leave. Nothing typed reaches the shell until you esc . - Prompt jumping — cmd-↑ / cmd-↓ hop between previous prompts in scrollback. - SSH awareness — Oxide watches the foreground process: an ssh shows ssh: host in the status bar, and ssh.hosts patterns give a host an accent colour on the pane border so a production box is visibly red. The process name also titles the tab vim , cargo , ssh prod-web . - Command awareness — the shell integration's OSC 133 markers are read straight off the PTY, so Oxide knows what's running, how long it took, and whether it failed: elapsed time in the status bar, activity dots on tabs, a red flash on a background pane that failed, a failure gutter you can click to jump to the command, and desktop notifications for long or failed commands in panes you aren't watching click to focus the pane . - Command history — cmd-r searches every command run in any pane, with its directory and exit status; ⏎ inserts it at the prompt, ⌘⏎ runs it. cmd-shift-c copies the last command's output. - Status bar — workspace, current tab number or name, status bar.tab , cwd plus git branch, dirty state, and ahead/behind, rendered natively. - Configurable prompt optional — compile a powerline prompt from TOML segments cwd , git , exit status , time , duration , … , injected without touching your dotfiles ZDOTDIR shim for zsh, --init-file for bash , with OSC 133 semantic prompt markers. Or set prompt.enabled = false and keep your starship/p10k prompt as-is. - Themes — catppuccin-mocha , catppuccin-latte , gruvbox-dark , tokyonight , dracula , nord , solarized-dark , and oxide rust-toned, naturally , plus the Omarchy https://omarchy.org/manual/themes/ set: kanagawa , everforest , osaka-jade , matte-black , hackerman , rose-pine-dawn , and a dozen more — 25 presets in all. Any color individually overridable, including selection fg . follow system = true switches between a dark and a light preset with the system appearance macOS, or the desktop's dark/light preference on Linux . Config reloads live. - Split panes — split in any direction and nest freely; navigation moves by what's on screen, and exit or ctrl-w q closes a pane and reclaims its space. Drag a divider or use ctrl-w < - + = to resize. tmux reflexes: ctrl-w z zooms a pane to the full tab, ctrl-w b broadcasts typing to every pane in the tab with a red border and a loud status-bar pill , ctrl-w o closes the others, ctrl-w x swaps with the neighbour. window.inactive pane opacity dims the panes you aren't in. - Command palette — cmd-shift-p lists every action with its binding, fuzzy-searchable. - Menus on Linux — a ☰ button in the top-left corner holds the same Oxide / File / Edit / View / Window / Help menus macOS puts in the menu bar, shortcuts included app::menu opens it from the keyboard . - Configurable keys — a keymap table in config.toml rebinds anything; typos get a toast with a suggestion, and a bare key that would steal from your shell is refused. - Toasts, not dialogs — config errors, update problems, and other notices land as toasts in the bottom-right corner; click or × to dismiss. The first launch after an update shows one that opens the changelog in a new tab. - Tabs — a Zed-style in-app tab bar, so tabs work everywhere including under tiling window managers . cmd-t opens one in the current directory or ~/ window.new tab directory ; cmd-1..9 jump straight to a tab. Double-click or ctrl-w , to rename one names survive with pinned workspaces , drag tabs to reorder, cmd-shift-t reopens the last closed one. Each tab carries its number tabs.show numbers , and the whole bar can be hidden — View → Toggle Tab Bar, or tabs.enabled = false — with the status bar still showing which tab you're on. - Workspaces — named sets of tabs and splits, tmux-session style, managed from the drawer below the file tree a add, r rename, d delete, p pin ; cmd-alt-1..9 jump straight to one. Temporary by default; pinned ones survive restarts, restoring layout, tabs, splits, and each pane's directory with fresh shells. - Startup commands — the tmuxinator move: give a pane a command ctrl-w r , prefilled with the last thing that ran there and a pinned workspace re-runs it on restore, once that pane's shell is actually at a prompt. on exit per pane: back to the shell, close the pane, or restart with backoff and a breaker after five quick exits . e in the workspaces panel edits every pane's command at once; --no-startup-commands or shift at launch restores the layout without running any. - The details — window size/position persistence, cmd-click to open URLs, copy-on-select option, font size at runtime cmd +/-/0 , configurable bell, a cursor section block / bar / underline, blink rate, unfocused look — and vim's per-mode DECSCUSR shapes are honoured , a font fallback list for CJK and emoji, a "2,340 lines above" pill while scrolled up, cmd-k to clear scrollback, and optional dimming of the whole window when another app is frontmost. The everyday ones. The full keymap https://oxideterminal.com/docs/keybindings/ lists every action id, and a keymap table in your config rebinds any of them. The ctrl-w chords are the same everywhere. Where macOS uses cmd , Linux uses ctrl-shift the usual terminal convention — plain ctrl-c stays the shell's and alt-1..9 for tabs, because Super belongs to the window manager. | macOS | Linux | Action | |---|---|---| | ctrl-w h / ctrl-w l / ctrl-w w | same | focus tree / terminal / toggle | | cmd-b | ctrl-shift-b | toggle the drawer | | ctrl-w t / cmd-shift-e | ctrl-w t / ctrl-shift-e | focus the file tree from anywhere | | cmd-f | ctrl-shift-f | search scrollback ⏎ older, ⇧⏎ newer, esc close; cmd-alt-r / c / w — ctrl-alt-r / c / w on Linux — toggle regex / case / whole word | | ctrl-w / cmd-shift-v | ctrl-w | copy mode — vim keys in the scrollback, y yanks, esc leaves | | cmd-k | ctrl-shift-k | clear scrollback | | cmd-↑ / cmd-↓ | ctrl-shift-↑ / ↓ | jump to previous / next prompt | | cmd-r | ctrl-shift-r | command history ⏎ insert, ⌘⏎ / ctrl-⏎ run | | cmd-p | ctrl-shift-o | fuzzy file finder ⏎ open, ⌘⏎ / ctrl-⏎ insert path, ⌥⏎ reveal | | cmd-shift-r | ctrl-shift-alt-r | reveal the shell's directory in the tree | | cmd-click | ctrl-click | open a URL, or a path:line in $EDITOR | | cmd-shift-c | ctrl-shift-alt-c | copy the last command's output | | cmd-t / cmd-n | ctrl-shift-t / ctrl-shift-n | new tab / new window | | ctrl-w , / cmd-shift-t | ctrl-w , / ctrl-shift-alt-t | rename tab double-click works too / reopen the last closed tab | | ctrl-w r | same | set the pane's startup command run when its pinned workspace is restored | | cmd-1..9 | alt-1..9 | jump to tab | | cmd-alt-1..9 | ctrl-alt-1..9 | jump to workspace | | ⌃tab ⇧⌘ / ⌃⇧tab ⇧⌘ | ctrl-tab ctrl-pgdn / ctrl-shift-tab ctrl-pgup | next / previous tab | | ctrl-w p | same | focus the workspaces panel tab toggles tree ↔ workspaces | | ctrl-w v / ctrl-w s | same | split right / down ⇧V / ⇧S for left / up | | cmd-d / cmd-shift-d | — | split right / down | | ctrl-w h j k l | same | move between panes h from the leftmost focuses the tree | | cmd-opt-←↓↑→ | — | move between panes | | ctrl-w q / cmd-w | ctrl-w q / ctrl-shift-w | close pane closes the window when it's the last one | | ctrl-w < - + | same | resize the pane by a few cells ctrl-w = equalises | | ctrl-w z / ctrl-w b | same | zoom the pane to the full tab / broadcast input to every pane in the tab | | ctrl-w o / ctrl-w x | same | close the other panes / swap the pane with its neighbour | | cmd-shift-p / cmd-alt-t | ctrl-shift-p / ctrl-w shift-t | command palette / theme picker | | cmd-c / cmd-v | ctrl-shift-c / ctrl-shift-v | copy / paste bracketed ; Linux also pastes the primary selection on middle-click | | cmd + / - / 0 | ctrl + / - / 0 | font size | | cmd-q | ctrl-shift-q | quit | In the tree — bare keys are free; there's no text input to collide with | Keys | Action | |---|---| | j k gg G ctrl-d ctrl-u | move | | l / h | expand & descend / collapse & ascend nvim-tree semantics | | enter / o | open dir, or file in $EDITOR | | y / Y | insert the path at the prompt relative / absolute | | cmd-c ctrl-shift-c | copy the path | | cmd-shift-o ctrl-shift-o | reveal in Finder / the file manager | | c / - | re-root at selection / at parent cd's the shell too | | / | filter esc clears | | a / r / m / d | add dir/ with trailing slash / rename / move / delete to Trash | | I / R | toggle hidden / refresh | | esc | dismiss input → clear filter → back to terminal | In copy mode — ctrl-w ; keys never reach the shell | Keys | Action | |---|---| | h j k l , arrows | move the cursor counts work: 5j | | w b e / W B E | word motions punctuation-aware / whitespace | | 0 ^ $ / gg G / H M L | line / buffer / screen positions | | ctrl-d ctrl-u / ctrl-f ctrl-b | half page / full page | | / ? then n N | search forward / backward, repeat — same bar and toggles as cmd-f | | v V ctrl-v | character / line / block selection | | y / yy / ⏎ | yank the selection or the line and leave | | esc / q | clear the selection, then leave | In the workspaces panel | Keys | Action | |---|---| | j / k | move selection | | enter / o | switch to workspace | | a / r / d | add / rename / delete y confirms — also on right-click | | p | pin — persist this workspace across restarts | | e | edit every pane's startup command — also on right-click | | esc | dismiss input → back to terminal | ~/.config/oxide/config.toml — a fully commented default is generated on first run. Font, colors, keys, and notifications apply live; shell and prompt apply to new sessions. Every option, with defaults → https://oxideterminal.com/docs/configuration/ font family = "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font Mono" size = 14.0 colors preset = "oxide" or override any color individually follow system = true ...or switch between preset dark / preset light with the system preset light = "catppuccin-latte" cursor style = "bar" block | bar | underline window new tab directory = "pwd" pwd | home inactive pane opacity = 0.8 dim the panes you aren't in ssh.hosts match = " .prod.example.com" red border while ssh'd into prod accent = " f38ba8" tree follow cwd = true tree re-roots when the shell cd's open on startup = true false starts with the drawer hidden cmd-b shows it status bar enabled = true position = "bottom" tab = "number" number | name — the current-tab chip tabs enabled = true false hides the tab bar show numbers = true small position number on each tab prompt enabled = false keep your own prompt starship, p10k, ... keymap "cmd-j" = "pane::split down" keystroke = "action id"; "" unbinds You'll need Rust https://rustup.rs 2024 edition . On macOS, also full Xcode with the Metal toolchain — GPUI compiles Metal shaders at build time: sudo xcode-select --switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer xcodebuild -downloadComponent MetalToolchain if the build asks for it On Linux, the GPUI build dependencies Arch shown; Debian/Ubuntu equivalents are in .github/workflows/ci.yml : sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel fontconfig freetype2 libxkbcommon libxkbcommon-x11 \ libxcb wayland vulkan-icd-loader libnotify git clone https://github.com/oxide-terminal/oxide.git cd oxide cargo run development macOS ./scripts/bundle.sh release build - target/Oxide.app ad-hoc signed cp -R target/Oxide.app /Applications/ sudo cp scripts/oxide-cli /usr/local/bin/oxide && sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/oxide optional oxide dir shim Linux ./scripts/linux-package.sh release build - target/oxide-<version -linux-<arch .tar.gz tar xzf target/oxide- -linux- .tar.gz -C /tmp && /tmp/oxide- -linux- /install.sh The oxide command takes a directory, -e <command args... to run a program in the first pane instead of the shell, --app-id <id for the window's Wayland app-id / X11 class, and --no-startup-commands . The first two are what xdg-terminal-exec passes, and the .desktop entry declares them, so on Linux Oxide can be the default terminal: on Omarchy, put oxide.desktop first in ~/.config/xdg-terminals.list . The first build compiles GPUI — expect several minutes. A cargo run binary is a debug build: fine for poking at a change, but a full-screen program like nvim will feel sluggish in it an unoptimised GPUI redraw doesn't fit in a 60 Hz frame; the release build uses a quarter of the CPU . It also never checks for updates, and on macOS it isn't an app bundle, so its notifications can't be clicked. Use scripts/bundle.sh / scripts/linux-package.sh for the real thing. Cutting a release is covered in RELEASING.md https://github.com/oxide-terminal/oxide/blob/main/RELEASING.md . One binary crate. The PTY reader/parser runs on its own thread alacritty terminal 's event loop and mutates a shared Term behind a mutex; the GPUI main thread briefly locks it during paint to copy the visible grid out, then shapes and paints batched text runs directly — no per-cell elements. Directory scans, git queries, and file watching run on the background pool. The tree follows cd by polling the PTY's foreground process group cwd tcgetpgrp + proc pidinfo on macOS, /proc/<pid /cwd on Linux , so it works with zero shell cooperation. Platform differences are confined to a handful of cfg sites: the process lookups, notifications UNUserNotificationCenter / notify-send , the updater, the keymap tables, and the window chrome. - No IME / dead-key composition yet two-stroke accents, CJK input . - Narrowing a pane past the width of a multi-line bash prompt can scroll the prompt's first line into scrollback until the next prompt is drawn enter brings it back . - Pinned workspaces restore layout and directories with fresh shells; running programs can't survive a full quit tmux only manages it because its server never exits . Startup commands are the workaround: declare what a pane runs and it's re-run on restore. on exit needs shell integration with zsh or bash; other shells get the command typed in and nothing more. - Left/right Option can't be distinguished; option as meta treats left / right as both . - Linux: bell = "sound" falls back to the visual flash; there's no in-place self-update the pill opens the release page ; window.titlebar is ignored — the compositor owns decorations, and under a compositor without server-side decorations GNOME the window has none. Questions, ideas, or just want to see what's coming? Join the Oxide Terminal Discord https://discord.gg/APV9FYGgeh . Bugs and feature requests go in issues https://github.com/oxide-terminal/oxide/issues/new — Help → Report an Issue in the menu bar the ☰ menu on Linux , or Report an Issue in the command palette, goes to the same place. Wondering how Oxide stacks up against iTerm2, Ghostty, kitty, WezTerm, Alacritty, or Warp? There's an honest comparison https://oxideterminal.com/compare/ . If Oxide earns a place in your dock, you can sponsor it on GitHub https://github.com/sponsors/oxide-terminal or buy me a coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bobbycoleman . MIT — see LICENSE https://github.com/oxide-terminal/oxide/blob/main/LICENSE . Oxide builds on GPUI https://www.gpui.rs and alacritty terminal https://crates.io/crates/alacritty terminal , both Apache-2.0.